Wulff focused on trying to win flag before deciding futureThursday, September 11, 2014 - 1:14 AM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth co-captain Craig Wulff needs to decide if he can tear himself away from the Royals to spend more time at home when weighing up if he plays on in 2015, but right now he wants to play in the first premiership of his remarkable 245-game WAFL career.

Wulff played for 11 years in the WAFL and in 225 matches before making it into his first grand final last year in the loss to West Perth and now he is preparing for his second in as many years after East Perth qualified for the 2014 decider with a 32-point win over Subiaco in the second semi-final.

East Perth will now have preliminary final weekend off while Subiaco and East Fremantle do battle on Sunday for a place in the grand final on Sunday September 21 at Patersons Stadium.

Wulff was always confident that East Perth could get back to a grand final in 2014 to attempt to go one better than in 2013, but right now the Royals aren’t worried about who they will face and instead on making sure they do all the right things.

"It's a little bit of a relief at the moment. We always thought we were capable of getting there, it was just a matter of putting in the work between the two seasons and putting the work in throughout the year. But it's a good feeling being back there," Wulff said.

"We just worry about ourselves this week. We will review the game to see where we broke down and went well, and try to fix up those areas up. And then we will just make sure we get ourselves fresh and injury free, and basically just focus on ourselves."

By next Sunday night, Wulff might very well be a premiership captain to go along with his almost 250-game career, playing for WA twice and captaining his State, winning a fairest and best award and being a life member of the East Perth Football Club.

However, the 31-year-old has plenty to weigh up when it comes playing on in 2015 but one concern he doesn’t need to have is form because he has had an outstanding season in a new role.

With a wife and three children, though, Wulff has plenty of reasons to want to spend more time at home so it's a decision he will make after the grand final and it might not be determined by the result necessarily.

"I'm not actually sure if the grand final will make a big difference on my future. I'm honestly not real sure at the moment and I have to weigh it up with my family, but all things considered if I am still fit and able I would definitely like to play on for sure," he said.

"My family is fantastic. My wife is very supportive and looks after the kids while I am at training, but for me personally it is hard to drive out the door and going down the road leaving them all at home when I know they want me with them.

"One of the factors I will weigh up is whether or not I am missing too much of the kids at home and maybe the coach could find an alternative for me to give some leeway training wise. It definitely is hard leaving the kids at home."

While Wulff has plenty of reasons to decide not to commit to at least one more WAFL season, given he has been playing senior football with East Perth since 2002, he has no idea how he would cope not playing still and isn’t sure he's ready to find that out just yet.

"I'm actually worried about myself if I'm not playing footy. I've been at this club for a long time and I don’t know what it would be like not coming here three nights a week, and playing on the weekends. I'm a little bit scared about what life would be like without footy," Wulff said.

"While you are fit and able, I think you play as long as you can and I would hate to look in a year's time wondering what could have been knowing I could have played on. That one extra year could be the difference between winning one or two premierships. I don’t want to have any regrets when I do stop playing."

As for that new role Wulff has been playing in 2014, he has been spending the majority of his time as a half-forward while pinch-hitting in the midfield and it has worked a treat.

He has kicked a career-high 18 goals for the season while still averaging over 25 possessions a game, and has enjoyed it immensely after beginning his career as a small defender, then becoming a permanent wingman and finally an in-and-under, clearance machine on-baller in recent seasons.

"It has been good," Wulff said.

"Obviously as I get older my legs don't go quite as quick but it's just a matter of playing forward and doing my role for the team there while giving opportunities to others in the middle.

"I still am feeling fresh as well. I might not be as quick, but I still feel fresh and like I'm playing my role for the team."

As for Sunday's second semi-final win over Subiaco at Medibank Stadium, it was a solid performance by the Royals to be in control virtually all afternoon to win through to the grand final but Wulff certainly didn’t find it an easy contest in the battle of the co-tenants.

"They did have their chances and missed quite a few shots on goal that could have made things a little bit different. Scoreboard pressure is obviously the key and we probably took our chances early and they missed theirs, and sometimes that can be all it takes to get the win in the finish," he said.

"No matter what personnel you have, the intensity always goes up in a final and I thought all our players played their role, and did their job and coped with that intensity going up which was expected."

Wulff waited 11 years to get to play in his first grand final and it wasn’t the experience he was after last year against West Perth, but he has no doubt that not only himself, but the rest of his teammates will have learned a lot from what they went through in 2013.

"I suppose we've got more experience this year and I'd say it is a bit of a better team, and possibly one more suited to being able to go the distance this year," Wulff said.

"We definitely learned a lot from it and the most important one is to take your opportunities. They don't come around too often as I certainly know in my case. So the biggest thing we take out is to make sure you take your opportunities. We are all about righting our wrongs from last year.

"It has been in back of my mind all of this year. At the start of the year, I always thought we were going to be capable of making the finals and it was a matter of how deep we could go. I'm glad the home and away season is finished and that we are into the finals. It was a long year in a lot of ways so now we just focus completely on that one last game of the year."