Clutterbuck confident Royals can hit back after breakThursday, May 28, 2015 - 1:28 AM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth wingman Freddie Clutterbuck is looking forward to returning in the WA Day derby on Monday against West Perth and is confident that the State game break came at the right time for the Royals to regroup and get their 2015 WAFL season back on track.

The Royals have made the last two grand finals and were looking on track to be a contender again this season following wins in Rounds 2 and 3 over Swan Districts and Subiaco.

Despite a 103-point win over Perth in Round 6, things haven’t gone to plan since and heading into the State game break East Perth had lost three straight matches, including having kicked two goals only in the last five quarters starting against West Perth and then against Claremont.

Clutterbuck injured a quadriceps muscle in the second half of the loss to West Perth and didn’t play against Claremont where the Royals kicked just 2.9, their lowest ever score against the Tigers.

However, the 24-year-old feels the break came at a good time for the group and now there could be some key players returning this Monday against West Perth and that will include himself who will play his 100th WAFL match at Medibank Stadium against the arch-rivals.

"It's probably come at a perfect time for us, having the two week break. Obviously we have been pretty stale the past few games so it will give us a good chance to freshen up mentally and physically as well. It will be good to access what we are doing wrong and get better," Clutterbuck said.

"I will be right 100 per cent to go for the Foundation Day game. It's always a good day, always a big crowd and against West Perth there's a lot of feeling in the games usually. I can’t wait for that. I don’t usually miss many games so it was a bit hard to watch last week so it will be fantastic to get out there on the Foundation Day Monday."

Along with Clutterbuck, Mitch Fraser, Mark Hutchings, Xavier Ellis, Scott Lycett, Dylan Main, Patrick McGinnity, Matt Rosa and Jamie Bennell might all be among the players to come in and play for East Perth from the one that lost to Claremont prior to the State game.

Clutterbuck is now confident that the Royals will put on a vastly improved showing on Monday and that they can get their season back on track.

"We'll obviously try to regroup and tend to our injuries and wounds and it's a good opportunity to assess where we are at," he said.

"Obviously going into the bye 3-5 is not ideal and not where we want to be but this gives us a good opportunity to look back at what we have done good and poorly and be right to face West Perth on Foundation Day.

"Obviously it's not what we wanted to happen last time we played them, so we will have a great opportunity to make amends for that. Hopefully we'll get a few blokes back and making up for that is something we are certainly looking forward to."

Things were looking vastly better for East Perth late in the third quarter of their last game against West Perth only three weeks, and two games, ago.

Coming off a 13-point loss to South Fremantle following the 103-point victory over Perth, East Perth looked set for a big win over the Falcons at HBF Arena leading by 42 points heading into time-on of the third term.

However, the Royals didn’t kick another goal the rest of the game while West Perth piled on 12 to end up going from 42 points down to winning by 38.

That's not something that has been easy for the East Perth players to forget and following the game, coach Brian Dawson made sure they studied what went wrong in those last 45 minutes to try to ensure that it wouldn’t happen again.

Things got worse the next week against Claremont but that was largely with East Perth missing so many key players.

Now Clutterbuck and the Royals are looking for a measure of revenge this WA Day against West Perth and not only could it help make up for that last meeting, but also put them right back in the hunt for a top five position.

"After that game the review was long and thorough so we know we where we went wrong and we know what we have to do to make it right. We are under no illusions that it's obviously not going to be an easy game or anything like that so we have to come to play and be harder for a full four quarters. If we do that, then West Perth will have their hands full," Clutterbuck said.

"It is a great opportunity on the Monday and it's the big stage of a derby, and it's probably the biggest crowd we get of the year. We don't like West Perth and they don't like us, and they have had the wood on us the last couple of times we have played them so we are under no illusions on how hard the game will be.

"We all realise that it doesn’t just mean a lot to us 22 players but the whole footy club and it's going to be a great occasion for us. We have two weeks to set ourselves up now so we are really going to aim everything we have got towards that Monday. It is hard to come back from being 3-6 so we aren’t going to underestimate the importance of the game."