Howlett hopes to help Royals veterans get another chanceSaturday, September 19, 2015 - 10:14 PM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth is now in its best form of the 2015 WAFL season entering Sunday's preliminary final against West Perth at HBF Arena with Mitch Howlett making the most of his first chance to play finals football after being overlooked the last two years.

East Perth has now won seven of its last eight games to regroup after a lacklustre first half of the 2015 season to have firstly qualified for the finals for a fourth straight year, and having beaten Claremont and Peel Thunder in cut-throat finals to be a chance of a third straight grand final.

While Craig Wulff, Brendan Lee, Steven Payne, Kyle Anderson, Paul Johnson, Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls and Mitch Fraser have played in both losing grand finals to West Perth and Subiaco the last two years, it's a new experience for 22-year-old Howlett.

Having played some strong football late in both the last two seasons, Howlett was overlooked for East Perth's finals campaigns but now late in the 2015 season a spot opened up in the midfield, and he has grabbed it with both hands alongside co-captain Lee and West Coast's Kane Lucas.

Howlett is preparing for the biggest game of his career in Sunday's preliminary final with a place against Subiaco in the grand final at stake, and whether it's against the arch-rival West Perth or not, there's a tinge of excitement and nerves as the match approaches.

"That's what we play footy for and over the past couple of months we've been playing some good footy. That really means nothing, though, if we don’t get the choccies and make it through to the grand final," Howlett said.

"There's always nerves, but there's excitement as well. Everything we've been training all year for comes down to this week because it's like a grand final knowing if we lose we go home. We'll come out with all guns blazing and hopefully get over the line.

"There's always something extra there with the derby, but we are more focused on the prelim and getting the job done and we'll let our footy do the talk in terms of the rivalry. It's always an interesting game against West Perth but I'm sure we'll be up for it."

Despite not having played a final until the last two weeks, Howlett has been right in the mix the last two years having played in Round 22 last year and in Round 24 back in 2013, so he was close by to the pain East Perth suffered losing to West Perth in 2013 and Subiaco in 2014.

That pain and hunger for the Royal to win their first flag since 2002 is a burning desire amongst the whole group but particularly those that have been through the last two grand final defeats like Wulff, Lee and Johnson.

"It's been a tough few years and it almost feels out of reach in a way because we've lost two in-a-row, but the whole group is hungrier than ever and we are chasing that ultimate success from the leaders down to the boys in the training squad. We are all hungry and together working for that one goal," he said.

"We knew coming into the start of the year what we were chasing, and that core group of players has really driven that.

"They have been determined from day dot and we were struggling a bit there through the year and had some work to do, but our senior boys rallied together saying enough was enough, and we turned it around. That's all on their backs and they deserve the rewards for putting in the hard work."

Howlett is certainly enjoying the chance to be spending some time in the middle on a regular basis for the first time in his league career and especially to be doing so alongside Lee and Lucas with Johnson feeding them as the ruckman.

However, nobody is serving as more inspiration at East Perth than co-captain Wulff who is still searching for the first premiership of his career that will see him break the club's games record of 269 held by Derek Chadwick if the Royals advance to the grand final.

"It's always a pleasure to play next to Binga (Lee) and Sugar (Lucas), they are always teaching and I'm always learning off them. They are great leaders and that midfield is definitely a place where I want to keep playing for a couple of years if I can," he said.

"We all get around him (Johnson) and love him for the use that he gives us. He's amazing and does it pretty much by himself most weeks as well and we are all really rapt with him. He's a really good leader around the club as well and we couldn’t ask for a better ruckman.

"He (Wulff) is my main motivation to be honest. I've always looked up to Wulffy. Knowing that he goes to work for 12 or 13 hours every day and then outruns everyone at training, it just makes you admire him. You want to play your footy like him and you want to be like Wulffy. Hopefully we can win it for him this year because he deserves a flag more than anyone."

In his league opportunities the previous two seasons, Howlett was more used in roles at half-forward or half-back, but a spot in the midfield has opened up this year for him in the second half of the year and he's enjoyed the time he had there to show what he's capable of.

"I've been more of a half-forward which has been hard at times to try and get to play inside with the quality we've had going through the midfield, but I've found myself there a bit more this year and I'll try to give the boys a chop out as much as I can as well and kick a goal up forward when I can too," Howlett said.

"I've been up and down a bit with my body this year trying to get it right, and I was a bit in and out of the team, but in the second half of the year I've been able to string a few games together and am playing some good footy as is the whole team. We are all gelling really well as one unit and coming together as a whole unit at the right time."