EAST PERTH PRELIMINARY FINAL MARQUEE

In a bid to keep the Royals supporters together for this weekend's blockbuster WAFL Preliminary final the club have organised a Marquee for the loyal Royal members & supporters!

The marquee will be on the outer wing, near the scoreboard and will be a great viewing place to view the match from.

To secure a place in the Marquee please call Victoria at the club on 9443 2259, cost is $20 which includes your entrance into the ground plus a sausage sizzle, full bar facilities will be avaliable in the Marquee.

RSVP as soon as possible, by securing your ticket early you guarantee your entrance into the ground as all indications are pointing towards a lock out this weekend at Steel Blue Oval. LIMIT OF 300 PEOPLE. 1st in 1st Served

By Chris Pike

 

EAST Perth co-captain Michael Swan is pumped after the Royals' pulled off a massive finish to the season to make the finals but he knows that now they are there, there's no point not making a big impact.

 

The Royals looked virtually no chance of making the finals for just the third time since the hat-trick of premierships between 2000-02, but turned it around after a disastrous 2-7 start to put a host of dramas behind them to win the last six games to finish in fourth spot.

That will see East Perth travel to East Fremantle Oval to take on the Sharks in Sunday's first semi-final and it came after the Royals became just the second team all year to beat Claremont last Saturday at Medibank Stadium.

 

Making the finals after being in such a precarious position, especially to down the minor premiers to do so, ranks right up there for Swan in terms of career highlights, but he wants his team to keep the form going now.

 

"There's no doubt it's one of the best feelings I've had in my time at the footy club, especially now to make the finals after where we were halfway through the season. Getting there was just the first thing, though, now the second thing is trying to do something and win," Swan said.

 

"We just have to focus in on our plans for this week and try to implement them the best we can against East Fremantle to try and get the win. It's just the commitment from the players to get around and support each other to just enjoy each other's success.

 

"We give each other plenty of encouragement whether they've just done something good or to help them through some hard times, we just have a really good energy through the group at the moment."

 

The win over Claremont was terrific, but Swan knows it could have been by more than the eventual 16 points if his team kicked more than 12 goals from 35 scoring shots.

 

"It was a fantastic effort. It was our season on the line and we had a lot to play for, and it was a really good result for us. Kicking straight would have made things even easier in the long run, though, and that's something we will definitely be working on at training this week," he said.

 

"It was actually a problem that plagued us earlier in the season and we managed to turn it around, but it came back again on Saturday. Hopefully we can get it sorted again this weekend so that we don’t squander any opportunities in front of goal."

 

East Perth was still a force in 2003 when it bowed out to West Perth in a preliminary final, but the 2007 first semi-final loss to South Fremantle was cruelled by injury and now Swan hopes to make a real impact in September with the Royals' fans right behind the team.

 

"The crowd there last Saturday was really vocal and gave us fantastic support, and I'm sure that all the East Perth loyal Royal fans will be out there on Sunday to support us again," he said.

 

"It's really exciting to be playing finals again and we are going into this campaign with good form. It's the first time since 2003 that we've gone in with some good form and confidence, so hopefully we can give it a real crack."

 

While Swan's older brother David knew all about how good a coach Tony Micale was having played under him for the 2000, 01 and 02 premierships, Michael has only got the chance to experience him the last two years and has no doubt he's a driving force behind the Royals' resurgence.

 

"It has definitely come from a lot of hard work and commitment from the playing group and also from Tony. He has been a really strong driving force for us all year and the guys have responded really well," Swan said.

 

"We've all just tried to stay focused on our football and that's probably been the thing that has helped us turn things around. He is an excellent coach and the preparation and planning he puts in for us to come up with a winning game plan is fantastic. It then comes down to whether or not we can implement it, and when we do we get the results like we have had over the six weeks."

 

While experienced players Swan, Craig Wulff, Craig Glancy, Adam Pickering, Luke Webster and Zach Beeck are leading from the front for East Perth, the emergence of Aaron Sweet, Brendan Lee, Jye Keath, Brett Dobson and Don Stirling has made just as big an impact.

 

"There's a really good balance at the moment of senior players and younger guys. The young guys have been really good with how they are going about their football and the senior guys have played some good, consistent football as well," Swan said.

 

"Sweety would be close to winning our fairest and best this year, Brendan Lee's form over the last two months has probably made him our best player in that time and Jye Keath is just so disciplined and his ability to win one-on-one contests is really good.

 

"Those three guys have been crucial, but Brett Dobson has been playing really good football and Don Stirling has done a fantastic job too over the last month."

 

East Fremantle Oval is never an easy venue for opposition teams to win at, especially when the wind is blowing, and Swan knows his team will have to play the ground smartly but also be cautious of a Sharks side that will be much different than the one the Royals beat by 53 points back in Round 17.

 

Rhys Palmer, Jamie Cripps, Luke Foster, Rob Young, Selby Lee-Steere, Jack Perham, Ryley Dunn and Scott Horsburgh will likely come in from that day where Jamie McNamara, Koby Stevens and Steven Dodd also got hurt early, so Swan won't be reading much into it.

 

"The last few times we've played down there it has been blowing an absolute gale and the quality of the games hasn’t been too good, they've been scrappy affairs. Hopefully we get some good weather for the weekend, though, and it can be a good game this time around," Swan said.

 

"It will be a vastly different team than that game. East Fremantle has a really strong midfield so that's going to be a big challenge for us to try and beat them in that area of the ground and I think if we can get on top in the middle hopefully it goes a long way towards us winning the game."

By Chris Pike

 

EAST Perth coach Tony Micale has no doubt that 2010 has been the toughest year he's had to deal with, but having a strong leadership group has helped to ensure the Royals are still right in the finals hunt with two weeks to go.

 

Micale has coached East Fremantle to a premiership, East Perth to three, South Fremantle to a grand final and was a premiership assistant at West Coast, and there has been hard times he's come through especially the Ben Cousins drama at the Eagles, but he is no doubt 2010 is his toughest.

 

It all started with such bright prospects as well. East Perth finished last year the form team of the competition and only just missed out on finals. Then coming into 2010 recruited David Wirrpanda, Jason Roe and the returning Zach Beeck.

 

Despite everything that has gone wrong East Perth has now won four straight games and will play finals with wins over Subiaco and Claremont the next two weeks, and Micale feels his co-captains Michael Swan, Luke Webster and Craig Glancy, along with Craig Wulff, deserve a lot of that credit.

 

The first sign that things weren’t going to be smooth was when ruckman Beeck was injured in the pre-season. He didn’t return until Foundation Day and has only played five matches due to suspension and injury since.

 

There has also been injuries to Andrew Merrington, Tim Noakes, Trent Martin, Roe and a season-ending suspension to Pat Travers, but those are minor issues compared to what else the club has had to deal with.

 

The recruitment of Wirrpanda was doomed to fail with his lack of commitment, Roe hasn’t been able to return from his knee injury to have an impact, the arrival and departure of Andrew Lovett mid-season has been much publicised and then there was the disastrous trip to Dampier and loss of Dean Cadwallader after testing positive to drugs.

 

All added up and it leads to a year Micale would have rather forgotten off field, but on it his team has still played with great heart.

 

"There's no doubt it's the toughest year I've been involved with even though I went through the Cousins situation at West Coast because it has just been one thing after another," Micale said.

 

"There's been Wirra's situation with his availability and now dancing, then Roey got injured and isn’t sure if he wants to continue on, then Andy Lovett came and went. Of course there was the Cadwallader situation, the Dampier debacle and Travers up there, then Zach Beeck as well and there's been plenty going on to distract you and it did take an enormous amount of my time."

 

Micale thought he had been through it all before this year, but it has certainly thrown up some unique challenges that he now hopes the worst of are all behind the club.

 

"You never stop learning in footy and as long as I've been involved in the game you think you might be adept at handling most situations, but with some of the player issues that we've had this year it has been extremely time consuming," he said.

 

"The focus, unfortunately, for me has been taken away from the role of on-field a lot of the time. That's been one of the reasons for the turnaround because in recent weeks we've tidied up most of the on-field issues and I've been able to focus on the footy and that's helped the players improve.

 

"You listen to your advisers, but you pretty much become the key decision-maker and dealing with Wirra, Roe and Lovett who are high-profile players meant that those issues weren’t easy. The Cadwallader situation was all very new to me.

 

"To go through that was difficult especially because we couldn’t tell anybody at all until there was the positivity with the samples. He had to stay away from the club and we couldn’t tell the players why he wasn’t here, so that was bloody tough."

 

It's unlikely the Royals would still be in a position to contest for finals if it wasn’t for their strong leaders and Micale paid tribute to them for the way they lead from the front on and off the field.

 

He also feels that the wins in milestone games for Wulff, Webster, Adam Pickering and Glancy this year prove how much respect the whole playing group has for them.

 

"The senior players is a really quality group. I've been lucky in both times that I've come to East Perth that the senior group of players has had some real special ones amongst them. Craig Wulff is absolutely outstanding with the way he goes about his business on and off the field," Micale said.

 

"He's just a ripper and he'd die for the club, and you can see that with the way he plays. Craig Glancy is great too, Luke Webster speaks for himself and is just such a quality bloke and Michael Swan is a great and intense leader who demands high standards.

 

"I've been fortunate in that regard to have a really good leadership group and you see it a lot in the AFL that teams get smashed in milestone games, but our guys have really focused on lifting for Wulffy for his 150th, Webby and 'Plucka's' 100th and the one for Pickers as well. That's a good sign in showing that the playing group respects those players."

 

Micale has no problem saying that his current captains Webster, Glancy and Swan, plus life member Wulff have all the qualities that his premiership leaders Jeremy Barnard, Ryan Turnbull, Rod Wheatley, Devan Perry and David Swan had.

 

"The natural answer that a lot of people would say is that they haven’t won three premierships, but there's no doubting the quality of those guys who are our three captains and Wulffy quite easily could be captain as well. They have the qualities that those players had in that successful era had."

 

Now with two games to go against Subiaco and Claremont, both at Leederville's Medibank Stadium, Micale will not be looking to change his side around.

 

While Roe, Wirrpanda and Lovett won't be back, it will be tough for Tim Noakes, Merrington and others pushing for spots in the reserves to fight their way in given the way the team is playing.

 

"Roe is contemplating where he's at with his footy and won't play a part for the rest of the year, obviously Wirra won't either and everyone knows what's going on with Lovett," Micale said.

 

"There isn’t any way that I would make changes to the group that has got us to where we are now with the inclusion of people who haven’t done the work or been around the club."

By Chris Pike

 

EAST Perth forward Adam Prior is getting better all the time in his first season in the WAFL and he's now hoping the 2010 campaign ends in finals action if the Royals can overcome Subiaco and Claremont after this week's bye.

 

Prior arrived at East Perth in January from the Wodonga Raiders in country Victoria and now that he has found his feet at the highest level he's ever played at he is now the Royals' best key forward option with Andrew Merrington and Tim Noakes injured, and Ben McKinley with West Coast.

 

Prior is now the Royals' leading goal kicker this season with 35 goals and that included four in last Saturday's terrific 14-point win over West Perth that took East Perth into fourth spot on the ladder.

 

The 23-year-old was impressed by the team's fourth-straight win and is hopeful of finals action if the form continues after the bye this weekend against Subiaco and Claremont.

 

"They had all the momentum in the third quarter and had the run so it was pretty crucial to get the first goal of the last quarter. I had a pretty quiet day for three quarters and piped up in the last quarter to kick three and I was just in the right spot at the right time," Prior said.

 

"We are going along real well the last month to turn it around but it just sucks having a bye next week which hurts. We're in the four at the minute, but we know that realistically we have to win the next two and with the way we're playing there's no reason why we can't.

 

"Knowing the WAFL now to play finals would be great. Even this week was sort of like a finals atmosphere with the crowd and I'd love to play finals because once you get in there you just never know what can happen. We'd back ourselves in against any side in the finals so hopefully we get there."

 

Three of Prior's four goals last Saturday came in a five-minute burst in the last quarter where he marked strongly and kicked straight to secure the win for East Perth. He did feel some extra pressure as the main key forward and with Mat Seal quiet, but was happy to come through in the end.

 

"I felt a little bit of pressure there this week because me and Macca worked well together last week and without him, Merro or Noakesy at the moment I knew I'd be getting one of the best defender so I'd just have to work extra hard to try and have an impact," Prior said.

 

"I was able to do that just in the last quarter in the end. There's been a fair few times this year when I've been down and only had an impact for half a quarter or a quarter, but it's helped the side out. As long as I stick to my opponent and keep chipping in it all helps the team.

 

"It was always going to be tough and I did a bit of research about their defenders and knew that they were pretty tough. They probably had me for most of the day, it's just that got away for five minutes in the last quarter and had an impact."

 

Prior is new to the WAFL and has been surprised by the depth of the rivalry with West Perth. He has also come at the right time to play in milestone games for Brent Cowell (150 games), Adam Pickering (100), Craig Wulff (150), Luke Webster (100) and Craig Glancy (100).

 

 

"I've never seen a rivalry like it actually with the supporters and that. It's pretty full on and to get a win over them is awesome," he said.

 

"They are great and I love it. There's been four or five milestones this year and we've tried not to focus too much on them, but you watch the tapes before you run out and it gets you going. To win for those blokes is awesome."

 

East Perth is now preparing for another massive clash with co-tenant Subiaco in Round 22 and then with ladder-leading Claremont, and Prior is hoping the team's momentum continues.

 

"That's a massive game as well. We've played them twice this year and they've both been good games, and we're one apiece at the minute so going into the game it will be anyone's to win. We just have to put our best foot forward and hopefully come away with the win," he said.

 

"It's mainly about not dropping off. We've got the bye this week, but with training we'll still train like we are going to play like a normal week and we've got a bonding session next weekend to have a few quiet drinks. That might be good for us and then we'll have the last two games to look forward."

 

It has been a learning curve since arriving in Perth for Prior and he's now picking up the strong tradition at East Perth. He's enjoying the challenge of playing at a State league level and there's no doubt his strong marking is his strongest feature.

 

"I'm only just starting to learn because I didn’t know much about the club when I first came over. I'm starting to get involved now and am getting to know the supporters and old-time supporters especially, and I know they are very passionate and there's a lot of history here," Prior said.

 

"I'm enjoying my time. I just wanted something different. I'm from country Victoria and have travelled around playing footy and I thought now that I'm 23 I would come over here to have a crack for a couple of years to see how I go while I can still play good footy.

 

"Because I'm not overly big to play in a key position I need my marking to be good and my hands have got me through to allow me to play centre half-forward or full-forward. I pride myself on my marking and it's probably my strongest asset."

 

When Prior decided to move west he didn’t expect the game style or quality level would be so much higher to what he was used to, but he feels he is now picking it up and will get even better in 2011.

 

"I didn’t realise how hard it would be. To my standards I've struggled a bit this year and even though playing a lot of league games will hold me in good stead, I know I can play better," he said.

 

"I'm just starting to hit my straps now and the coach has always said when I signed a two-year contract that the second season would be my time to shine. I'm keen as already for next year.

 

"I got here for probably only three weeks of pre-season and was a bit underdone so if I get a full pre-season under my belt it might be different next year."

By Chris Pike

 

THERE is no tougher or more courageous midfielder in the WAFL than Craig Glancy and while rotten luck with injuries have meant reaching 100 games has taken a decade he is thrilled to book his name onto the No. 2 locker with East Perth.

 

Glancy moved up to play with East Perth's colts and played in a premiership before making his league debut in 2001, playing in the premiership of the next year and after a year off in 2003 he has been a mainstay of the Royals' midfield despite some terrible luck with injury.

 

That has included a broken jaw this season, a lacerated kidney last year, facial injuries from a glassing while at a Leederville night spot also last year and other injuries along the way, but when on the field there is no better ball winner, or tougher or more courageous midfielder.

 

The 27-year-old co-captain might have had a long journey to reach the 100 games, but he's delighted to get there this Saturday when he leads East Perth out to play Perth at EFTel Oval with a win needed to keep the Royals' finals chances alive.

 

Glancy hopes the team can put in another special performance like it did for Luke Webster's 100th game last week, Craig Wulff's 150th against Subiaco and Adam Pickering's 100th on Foundation Day.

 

"Ever since I started playing with East Perth one thing I've always wanted to achieve is to play 100 games and get my name on the locker," Glancy said.

 

"It's going to be a great experience after seeing some of my best mates Wulffy, Webby and Pickers do it this year it's one thing I really want to do. Hopefully the boys can rally around like they have the last three times and have a good win, but most importantly so that we keep our finals hopes alive."

 

While his wife Erin certainly has a say in being the most important part of Glancy's life, the East Perth Football Club is the reason he moved up to Perth from Bridgetown, is why he's stayed and where all his friends are.

 

The club is massively special to him and to now add his name onto the No. 2 locker by being a 100-game player to go with playing in a premiership and being captain is something he could have only dreamed of a decade ago.

 

"It means everything. East Perth is my life pretty much. I've been here for 10 years now and I couldn’t imagine not being here, it means everything to me," Glancy said.

 

"Just playing with a great bunch of blokes is what the best part is for me. I've played here 10 years and all my mates are here at the footy club. It's everything to me and that's what you come away from football with - the friendships. Those are what you hold dear to your heart."

 

The No. 2 locker is also special to Glancy as he joins the most recent addition to it, in triple premiership player Rod Wheatley, and that's a great achieve in itself for him.

 

"I played a bit of footy with Rod Wheatley and he's a Bridgetown boy just like myself so I'll be very proud to be up there with him and the rest of those calibre of players," Glancy said.

 

"Especially Rod because he was a bit of a hero of mine growing up. He passed the number onto me. I did wear No. 11, but had a year off and came back as he retired and I was lucky enough to be given the No. 2."

 

Glancy is now the true leader in the midfield for the Royals and he's glad to be doing that with his good mate and the best tap ruckman in the league Zach Beeck back in the side.

 

"It's good to try and take control in there and especially the last few weeks with Dev Perry getting involved we are working a lot better together in the midfield. It also helps when you've got Zach Beeck putting the ball down your throat most of the time," Glancy said.

 

"Zach is hands down the best tap ruckman I've played with. When I first moved up to Perth I lived with Brad Ward's (former football manager) parents with Zach, so we have played a lot of footy together, including a colts premiership, and he was one of my groomsmen at my wedding and is a great bloke. Every time I run out with him I'm pretty happy that he's going to be the ruckman."

 

With Jeremy Humm and Brent Cowell already having retired this year, Webster announcing that he will at season's end and some other senior players leaning that way, Glancy is actually looking forward to helping lead the way for a young side in 2011.

 

"There's not a lot of us left and there's probably going to be a few more move on before next year and it's going to be a nice, young squad. It's very exciting with us moving forward, though, and it's good," he said.

 

"It makes me even more hungry to play on next year when there's a nice, young squad and the young guys are very impressionable so you can get them going the way you want to.

 

"It's one of my proudest moments when Tony (Micale) asked me to be one of the joint captains of the club and it's a great experience to be able to run out there every day and lead the boys."

 

Glancy is hoping his luck with injuries will also change because there's no doubt he would have FD Book Medals, State jumpers and maybe even a Sandover Medal to his credit if he had strung full seasons together, but he's not holding his breath given the way it's all gone so far.

 

"It's nice to get back out there. I haven’t had too much luck over the last few years so I'm pretty happy to be out there any game I get to play," he said.

 

"I hope so, but I've been saying that for a while. I broke the jaw this year, but hopefully it's all behind me so I can have a nice run because I started 20-odd games in front of Wulffy but he's passed me by 50-odd, but I can't help that luck that hasn’t gone my way."