Lee turns focus to derby after big seven daysSaturday, May 31, 2014 - 2:11 PM - by Chris Pike

BRENDAN Lee has had a big last seven days captaining the WAFL to a State game win and then leading East Perth to a Foxtel Cup victory, but his sole focus now is on trying to help the Royals snap a three-game losing run against West Perth.

East Perth travels to Arena Joondalup this Monday for the traditional WA Day Derby against West Perth with the Royals having plenty of motivation against the Falcons on top of the fact that they are their most hated rivals.

West Perth has beaten East Perth the last three times including by 100 points in Round 4 this year and by 49 points in last year's grand final with the Royals' only win in the last five meetings being a tremendous come from behind effort last WA Day at Medibank Stadium.

"You look back at the last five games and we've only won one, and we were very lucky to win that game when they had a few missed shots on goal and we just got over the line," Lee said.

"They have had the wood over us lately with the grand final and then the game earlier this year which was really disappointing, but our focus is massively on Monday. We are really excited about it and we are hoping for a better roll out than we gave earlier in the year.

"Personally playing on WA Day is definitely something I look forward to and that you get yourself up for every year because it does mean a lot to our squad, and footy club. We have a lot of respect for what West Perth have done and we know that when we come up against those guys who have beaten us the last few times that we are going to have to be at our very best to beat them."

While East Perth will certainly play West Perth again in Round 18 this year at Medibank Stadium, there is the distinct possibility of them also meeting in a Foxtel Cup grand final which Lee would gladly welcome.

"We obviously still have to get over our next game, but it's interesting that's how it would turn out and that it would be here," he said.

"It would be very interesting having a Foxtel Cup grand final against them in a shortened fixture, but we both have to get there first."

As for his big last seven days, Lee missed East Perth's first six games of the season with a similar finger injury to what has now sidelined his co-captain Craig Wulff.

However, he came back in and was just about best afield in wins over East Fremantle and Claremont and as a result was not only selected to represent the WAFL against the NEAFL last Saturday in Sydney, but was named captain of the side. It's something he was tremendously proud of.

"It is right up there and probably No. 1 as my career highlights go. I'm very proud to have captained the state. I didn’t really give myself much chance of playing at all having only played two games, but I was very excited and blessed to be given a spot that's for sure," he said.

"We obviously started with a big win over Victoria last year which hadn’t been done for a long time and we wanted to build on that this year. All us players had buy in on that and really wanted to push WA back up there to be ranked as the No. 1 state side in the country. In the three years I've played state."

Then backing up a few days later for the Foxtel Cup match at Patersons Stadium against reigning SANFL premiers Norwood was no problem for Lee and the Royals ran out convincing 50-point winners.

That sets up a semi-final clash for East Perth against the VFL's Williamstown at Patersons Stadium on Tuesday July 1 with the winner of that to face either West Perth or the Western Storm in the grand final.

Lee and everyone at East Perth are taking the Foxtel Cup very seriously.

"Foxtel was actually fine. I spent a little bit of time forward and on the bench, and my body felt fine. It is only the last couple of days when I've been a little bit sorer than normal but that should be fine my Monday," Lee said.

"We really want to give ourselves the best chance to win it that we can. It's a really good competition and I hope it continues. It's good to give some of our young kids a go as well and put them on the national stage to have some recruiters hopefully look at them.

"We are having a crack at winning it and we might not get to go away, which is a bit of a shame because we were looking forward to going to Darwin or Melbourne or somewhere, but we really love the comp and hope it continues."