Heartbreak from last year driving Royals on in 2014Friday, September 5, 2014 - 10:41 AM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth was the clear minor premiers at the end of the WAFL season but coach Brian Dawson knows as well as anyone that nothing is guaranteed in the finals and the hurt of losing last year's grand final is certainly driving a large chunk of the Royals on.

East Perth finished the season two games clear on top of the ladder to take out the minor premiership for the first time since its last premiership year of 2002, and now the Royals take on Subiaco in the second semi-final in a battle of the co-tenants at Medibank Stadium.

The winner will go straight through to the grand final and for East Perth providing a chance to make up for the heartbreak of losing last year to West Perth in the premiership decider.

Dawson has no question that the pain of losing last year has been a driving force for East Perth right throughout 2014, and will continue to be.

"The group is very driven to go one better and it's great that we have the opportunity to do that, but it's just an opportunity at the moment. We have to make the most of it from here," Dawson said.

"It's great that the finals are here. We've known for the last three or four weeks where we were going to sit so in part it's been about getting through the remaining games without too many mishaps along the way.

"Obviously it gives you a chance to plan ahead to some degree, but equally you can't take your focus off week to week too much either. It's good the finals are now here."

While East Perth only lost four times during the home and away season including against the fifth-placed Claremont and sixth-placed West Perth, the Royals did lose their only two clashes with Subiaco meaning that Dawson has some work to do coming up against the Lions on Sunday.

"We've got to play better to beat them there's no doubt about that," he said.

"They've got hold of us both times, we are well aware of that, and there are some things we need to do better but finals footy is a war of attrition and basic stuff really.

"You have to do the basic stuff well so we will be concentrating hard on what we need to do well and hopefully we can get that job done."

East Perth finished on top of the ladder and has been premiership favourites right throughout the season, but Dawson doesn’t see much between his Royals, the second-placed Subiaco, third-placed East Fremantle and fourth-placed Swan Districts.

"Everyone will probably rate us favourites but I'm not sure we necessarily should be," he said.

"We've been even across the year and Subi has been around the place, and Swans were there for a while and I certainly know full well that anything can happen in finals. Every side has got a chance in the finals, it's very much about what happens on the day."

Much of the focus regarding East Perth has been on its West Coast-listed players and Dawson hasn’t finalised his final 22 just yet, but Jacob Brennan, Blayne Wilson, Patrick McGinnity, Fraser McInnes, Josh Hill, Dom Sheed, Callum Sinclair, Ashley Smith, Sam Butler, Adam Carter and Brant Colledge are all in the mix to play.

"We're not sure yet, but there will be somewhere between nine and 12 available to us," he said.

"They will come and train with us as of Wednesday onwards now. We look forward to that because it's not something that we've had throughout the year. It will be good to have them around the rest of the group and training together is certainly an advantage."