Perth get reward for effort but now focus on Anzac DayFriday, April 24, 2015 - 3:20 PM - by Chris Pike

PERTH finally got its first win on the board in almost 12 months last Saturday and now Demons coach Earl Spalding has his team primed to try and make it two in-a-row with a group of youngsters finding their feet and new arrivals fitting in nicely at their new home.

Spalding never hid from the fact that taking over as coach of Perth at the end of a 2014 season that saw the Demons finish with the wooden spoon and on a 14-game losing streak was never going to be easy, and his job was to virtually build the club from scratch at league level.

When he also took charge of a team that lost a host of its best and most experienced players including Paul Bevan, Cale Morton, Jared Risol, Nick Kane, Haydn Busher and Gerald Ugle, his job got that little bit harder.

With big names not knocking down the door to come to Lathlain Park, Spalding was going to have to try to add players to the Demons who could contribute immediately and provide leadership while he developed an emerging group if they were to competitive.

In the first three weeks there two big losses away from Lathlain against Swan Districts and West Perth, but Perth finished strongly against South Fremantle in Round 2 and then was unlucky not to beat Peel Thunder in Round 4.

That led into last Saturday's clash with the also winless Claremont at the Showground and it was the Demons who put in the more impressive display to end up winning by nine points and record four points for the first time since Round 7 last year and to snap the horror 18-game losing run.

For Spalding, he was just proud and relieved that his team stuck at their task to win the game and get some reward for all the work they've been putting in.

"The main thing was we backed up a pretty good performance the week before against Peel when we considered ourselves a little bit unlucky not to get the win," Spalding said.

"In the past, Perth had a bit of a history of being an up and down with a good performance followed by a poor one, and that's the way this year has gone so far with our away form pretty ordinary.

"So to back up a pretty good performance with another one and to get the win was very pleasing and it's good just to see a fairly new bunch of guys signing the song after the game and get some reward for effort."

Perth might not have been able to lure big name recruits to the club, but the players that have come on board all made a significant contribution in the win over Claremont and have been solid players all season so far.

Liam McKenna and Toby Gianatti have both joined from Peel Thunder this season and McKenna starred with 34 possessions in the midfield against Claremont while Gianatti was solid again across half-back with 14 disposals and a goal.

Swan Districts premiership player Brett Wolfenden has worked hard all five weeks now to start the season and had 21 touches and three goals in last Saturday's win while Brent Latch has done well crossing from Swan Districts and Aidan Tropiano continues to lead the way in the midfield since crossing from East Fremantle midway through 2014.

Those players might not have blown anyone away as recruits coming into the season, but Spalding couldn’t be happier with the way they are contributing and leading from the front.

"They have all taken a bit of time to find their feet but now that they have they are playing some good footy and hopefully we can get some consistent footy out of them, and I'm pretty sure they will," Spalding told WAFL World on 91.3 SportFM.

"They are all really good guys and there's a really good feel about the place, and even before the weekend the group has been coming together. We are realistic to know we know where we are at but we think we are half a chance this week.

"East Perth has been hit by the injury curse that West Coast have got so if we work hard, we will give ourselves a chance in that game too and it's all about improvement. Our best footy is still ahead of us and it will be pretty exciting when we get there."

Perth's effort was rarely the problem during the tough start to the season, it was more about the quality of their ball movement and turnovers that was proving costly, but Spalding has enjoyed seeing that improve in recent weeks leading into the win over Claremont.

"Our inside ball has been pretty good with our contested stuff in most games and even against Swans early on, but it's just that we were poor in most other areas," he said.

"The ball movement is starting to come together and certainly looking at the game again from Saturday our ball movement was very good at times and we started to get some reward for that.

"We haven’t got the big clunker up forward who can grab it and go back and kick it, so we need to keep working hard for each other in the forward-line and having Stacky back in and in reasonable touch was handy as well."

While Perth's midfield with the likes of Tropiano, McKenna, captain Dene White and Wolfenden are earning praise and the forward-line of Brennan Stack, Cody Leggett, Kane Ransted and Michael Florio is improving, the back-line is doing a solid job despite being unheralded.