Royals crush Redlegs in Foxtel CupWednesday, May 28, 2014 - 12:20 AM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth has cruised into the Foxtel Cup semi finals with a thumping 50-point victory over an under-strength Norwood at Patersons Stadium on Tuesday night.

The Royals fielded a strong team and looked fresh having not played a WAFL match the past two weekends and took it out on the Redlegs winning 9.11 (65) to 2.3 (15) after kicking the first seven goals of the game.

East Perth now advances to the semi finals of the Foxtel Cup to play the VFL's Williamstown on Tuesday July 1.

The other semi-final will take place on Tuesday June 24 with West Perth taking on Tasmania's Western Storm. The winners of those two semis will meet in the grand final with $100,000 at stake and the prospect of that featuring West Perth and East Perth is still very much alive.

East Perth did make a couple of late changes to its selected 22 with Garry Moss and Dean Cadwallader originally being named to play their first games respectively of the 2014 season, but neither took their place in the side.

Instead, West Coast-listed pair Dylan Main and Malcolm Karpany came into the side giving East Perth 10 Eagles players in the line-up against an inexperienced Norwood team.

The Redlegs have won the last two SANFL premierships, but stand-in captain Simon Phillips is the only player who played in the Foxtel Cup clash who is a dual premiership winner with Angus Clarke having played in the 2012 flag and Liam Davis in 2013.

While it was a commanding 50-point win for East Perth, it wasn’t a night without drama including a final quarter melee featuring plenty of players from both teams that spilled into the race and dugout.

The game then ended on a sour note with a sickening collision in East Perth's forward-line between West Coast pair Scott Lycett and Brant Colledge.

Lycett's knee collided with Colledge's head and the latter was stretchered off the ground with the hope being that he just suffered a nasty concussion.

That incident spelt the end of the contest with East Perth in front by 50 points.

Freddie Clutterbuck was the leading ball-winner on the ground racking up 20 possessions for East Perth as the Royals ended up with 77 more disposals for the game, 36 more marks, 32 inside-50 entries to 23 and 20 scoring shots to five.

Steven Payne also had 19 touches for East Perth, Colledge 18, captain Brendan Lee 16, Simon Tunbridge 16, Karpany 13 and Ashley Smith 12.

To go with his 16 possessions, Tunbridge was also the game's only multiple goal scorer with two majors.

Josh Smith also got through the game and showed some good signs with the reigning Bernie Naylor Medallist as the WAFL's leading goalkicker playing his first game after being out since Round 4 with an ankle injury.

The combination of Paul Johnson and Lycett also dominated with Johnson finishing with 22 hit outs and Lycett 17 to go with eight possessions and six marks.

Troy DeMatteis was Norwood's leading possession-winner with 15 while Steve Baldasso collecting 13 disposals, Tom Forster 12 and Kane Murphy 12.

It took just over five minutes for East Perth to kick the first goal of the game and that came courtesy of Lycett who snapped cleverly.

Lee, who was East Perth's only player backing up from being part of the WAFL's State game win over the NEAFL on Saturday, then added the second and the Royals led by 15 points at quarter0time.

The Royals also kicked the only four goals of the second term courtesy of Will Magginness, Tunbridge, Main and Smith with Norwood managing just two behinds for the entire first half.

East Perth was in control at half-time with a 40-point advantage before Colledge kicked truly to open the second half and stretch the advantage to 46 points.

Norwood belatedly got its first goal of the game at the four-minute mark through Phillips, but Smith then added his second and by the time Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls snapped truly early in the final term the Royals were up by a game-high 56 points.

Mac Bower soccered through the final goal of the game and their second to cut their loss to 50 points at the finish.

EAST PERTH            2.4    6.6    8.8    9.11    (65)
NORWOOD            0.1    0.2    1.3    2.3    (15)

EAST PERTH – Goals: Tunbridge 2; J Smith, Lycett, Lee, Magginness, Tunbridge, Main, Colledge, Oakley-Nicholls.
Best: Colledge, Clutterbuck, Lee, Tunbridge, Lycett, Payne.
NORWOOD – Goals: Phillips, Bower.
Best: DeMatteis, Murphy, Forster, McKay, Clarke.