Royals in season-best form in hunt for third successive grand finalThursday, September 10, 2015 - 9:38 PM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth coach Brian Dawson is fully aware that Peel Thunder will be a vastly different side in Sunday's first semi-final at Bendigo Bank Stadium, but with the form the Royals are in he remains confident of staying in the hunt for a third successive WAFL grand final.

Dawson has been in charge at East Perth with the Royals making grand finals the last two years, but following a loss to Subiaco back in Round 16, it appeared they might not make finals at all this season.

However, since then East Perth won five of its last six games of the season to finish in fourth position, and then the Royals beat Claremont by 32 points in last Sunday's elimination final at Medibank Stadium to book a spot against Peel this Sunday in Mandurah.

Having now won six of the last seven matches and with a terrific blend of experienced players desperate for a premiership, hungry West Coast-listed players and some emerging youngsters, Dawson has at his disposal an in-form group with the ideal mix to be successful.

East Perth is in a must-win situation each week, though, and now needs to beat a Peel team in Mandurah on Sunday that could have as many as 15 Fremantle-listed players return along with captain Brendon Jones and former Carlton defender Josh Bootsma.

"They will absolutely be a different side. They will probably have 12 or more inclusion this week from what they had last week so on paper they will be a very strong outfit there's no doubt about that," Dawson told 91.3 SportFM.

"It's a simple equation, it's live or die each week for us and we certainly look forward to the challenge against a much different Peel outfit this week. All we can do is give it our absolute best shot and see how we go."

Looking back to last Sunday's elimination final and East Perth was in control against Claremont most of the afternoon, and ended up kicking the only four goals of the last quarter to win by 32 points.

The Royals had too much depth all over the field with Kyle Anderson, Nathan Blee, Tom Barrass, Mitch Fraser and Garry Moss terrific down back, Paul Johnson, Brendan Lee, Kane Lucas, Scott Selwood, Steven Payne and Mitch Howlett prolific through the middle, and then Rowen Powell and Tom Lamb combining for five goals.

Dawson was happy with the performance to continue East Perth's strong form of late.

"Everyone played their part and did their piece. We had some excellent players on the day but I think across the 22 they all contributed and did their part toward the team effort," he said.

"You're always happy with a win in a final, no doubt about that. It probably wasn’t a pretty display but in the end I thought our last quarter was pretty strong. We managed to keep Claremont scoreless in that last quarter and get the job done, that's all you can ask for in a final."

The one major difference at East Perth this season from the last two years is the absence of a proven goal kicker in attack following the retirement of Josh Smith.

Scott Lycett and Fraser McInnes could be the answer from West Coast if they become fit at any point during the finals, but right now the Royals are just trying to make do.

Dawson would like to see them take their chances in front of goal better, but the biggest positive from the win over Claremont was the first half of Powell who kicked three goals and finished the game with 16 possessions and eight marks.

"We had plenty of football and just didn’t capitalise, and didn’t get reward for effort on several of our forward entries. That's an area that we can certainly look to pick up in and if we do that will help us put more scoreboard pressure on the opposition earlier in the game," he said.

"He (Powell) is a rangy type and he bobbed up in the right spot at the right time a few times, and won the footy and his finish was very good for us.

"He was the one who was making the most of his opportunities in the first half. His three goals were very valuable in not a terribly high-scoring game. He played very well, took some really good marks and provided some good pressure at ground level as well."

While East Perth has blooded some fresh faces again in 2015 with Powell, Corey Adamson, Dylan Main, Lamb, Paddy Brophy, Clayton Giblett, Malcolm Karpany and Howlett making the finals debut last Sunday, it's the senior group that Dawson continues to admire.

With co-captains Craig Wulff and Brendan Lee along with experienced campaigners Paul Johnson, Garry Moss, Kyle Anderson, Steven Payne, Nathan Blee and Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls leading the way, Dawson hopes that the Royals can still go one step better in 2015 than the last two years. 

"We've had six or seven debutants this year so there has been a flow through in the ranks there and we've had some of our very good colts players from past years come up and play league footy for the first time, but we are also fortunate that we have a good bunch of senior players," Dawson said.

"We've got Johnson, Wulff, Lee, Moss etc. who have played very well across the season for us and they are probably the glue that keeps everything together."