Backing up from an outstanding victory against Peel on Saturday afternoon in difficult conditions, East Perth players finished off their weekend by conducting a Sunday morning clinic with Margaret River juniors. The clinic was well received by aprroximately 50 juniors. The players then provided and signed some posters and other giveaways before jumping on the bus and heading back to Perth. The time in Margaret River was enjoyable and successful on and off the field with staff, players and coaches being involved in school clinics, coach education and the clinic finale on the Sunday.

 

By Chris Pike

 

FIVE straight losses led to some brutal soul searching at East Perth and coach Tony Micale was delighted to see that end in a win over Peel.

 

The Royals had made a promising start to the season, Micale's first back in charge since 2002, and after beating Subiaco in Round 6 looked capable of having a strong year, but losses to South Fremantle, Swan Districts, West Perth, Claremont and Perth saw things head downhill.

 

The Round 12 thumping from Perth during which East Perth only managed one goal over the second and third quarters proved the last straw, and the week heading into the clash with Peel at Margaret River saw the whole team stop and take stock of what was happening.

 

After some tough team meetings during the week where nothing was left unsaid from players and coaches, the Royals headed down for a home country fixture in the heart of their south-west zone.

 

Micale believes that was just the tonic to turning around a long two months since beating Subiaco on April 27.

 

In wet, windy and cold conditions at Margaret River's Gloucester Park, 2756 largely East Perth fans turned out in the hope their Royals would find some form in the first ever WAFL fixture at the ground and they weren’t disappointed.

 

Kicking into the breeze in the opening quarter, East Perth did well to be within three points at quarter-time and in a scrappy second, kicked the only goal to lead at half-time.

 

It was again an even third quarter and East Perth led by just five points by the end of it, but the Royals dominated in the last quarter with six goals to one to run out convincing 36-point winners.

 

Micale was delighted with how the group responded to put in a spirited performance and avoid a loss that would have sent the Royals to the bottom of the ladder with Claremont also beating East Fremantle.

 

"It showed some good character. Some of the stuff we did was pretty confronting and some guys were hit between the eyes with what they needed to address and it was terrific to see them respond in the way they did," Micale said.

 

"The fact of going away came at the right time, I think we needed that and we did a lot of soul searching during the week. There were a lot of home truths that came out where guys were very honest with where we were at, and what we needed to do as a team and as individuals.

 

"This has been a good morale booster to come away and win. The trip was very professionally organised and they've done everything right, and handled it well. It was good to see the way they went about their work out there."

 

The game was tough and tight all day, and had its fair share of hostilities between the two teams, but with the likes of Craig Glancy, Craig Wulff, Luke Webster, Michael Swan and Ben Noakes leading the way with their toughness, the Royals outlasted the Thunder.

 

"The game was based around hard ball gets and it fluctuated, but the side that was hardest at that particular time was the side that got on top," he said.

 

"We never won the game until the last 10 minutes and both sides had their moments, but our guys were really good when it counted."

 

It was also a vastly more experienced East Perth team than the one that lost to Perth, and it paid off.

 

Trevor Oliver returned from a week out to be solid across half-back, Matthew Seal played his best game in over two years to kick five goals, Brendan Hancock returned for his sixth game of the year to be terrific across half-back, David Dawes was solid at full-back, and Andrew Mills did some nice things in his second game of the season.

 

All are experienced players and have been challenged by the coaching group this season, and Micale was happy with their response.

 

"Sealy has been up and down and Hancock is another that's been in and out of the side, and we wanted them to address some issues," he said.

 

"The good thing is that I think the penny has finally dropped with them and we played more experienced players this week because of where we were at. We wanted to try to right the ship and they did that for us."

 

Hancock has now played 92 games and has shown the versatility to play down back, in the ruck and up forward, but has struggled through injury and with form this season.

 

However, he played his best game of the season on Saturday and Micale will be leaving him in defence. He wasn’t just happy with the effort of Hancock either, but the whole back-line.

 

"It's his best position and the problem has been that he has wanted to play other roles. We have now virtually told him that he's playing there because it's his best position and he accepted that," he said.

 

"He showed what he could do with it and was terrific. The last time we played Peel, (Kain) Robins hurt us badly at centre half-forward and I know he didn’t play on him all day, but he did a good job.

 

"Dawes was very strong as well and our whole back-line was terrific. Webby was great off half back and when it really counted in the closing stages of the game he set up a couple of goals that broke the game open."

 

While Zac Beeck getting hurt for Peel certainly helped, Michael Robinson and Zac Clarke dominated in the ruck for East Perth as well. They combined for 17 possessions and 49 hit outs, and Micale is happier with Robinson now that his fitness has improved.

 

"His biggest problem is that he isn’t a hard trainer and we drive him pretty hard, but he's not going to get himself really fit," he said.

 

"His best way of doing that is by playing games, and him and Zac are combining really well together."

 

Co-captain Swan was also tremendous with his attack at the ball, ability to win a contest and to kick three goals. It was the best of his four games this season on return from groin surgery and after a disappointing 100th game against Perth, he was chaired off the ground following the win.

 

East Perth now takes on an injury-ravaged East Fremantle at East Fremantle Oval this Saturday with the chance to win two in a row for the first time since Rounds 5-6.

Guest speakers & Announcers

 

Player Acts, Entertainment & Games

 

28^th of June from 12:30 onwards

 

@ the East Perth Football Club

 

$45 for Ladies & $60 for Gents

 

(Includes beer, wine and a 3 course meal)

At half time the scores are: Claremont 10.6.66 lead East Perth 7.7.49. Leading ball getters for East Perth are Cowell (20), Glancy (19), Pickering (16), Wulff (15), Noakes (15)

By Chris Pike

 

EAST Perth co-captain Michael Swan will return on Foundation Day to face West Perth as coach Tony Micale hopes for more things to fall the Royals' way in the second half of 2009.

 

Swan will return to lead the side out alongside Luke Webster and Craig Glancy against the Falcons in the Perth derby on Monday, with big men Michael Robinson and David Dawes a chance to return.

 

Fremantle ruckman Zac Clarke has been ruled out, meaning Robinson (if he plays) and Daniel Jones will have to carry a big load against West Coast's Mark Seaby.

 

While Micale can't get his head around how the team he has taken over is completely devoid of AFL talent, had to endure a two-and-a-half week break from the last game and now face West Perth at Arena Joondalup for the second straight time this year, he is as happy as can be with how his team undertook the break.

 

Throughout the first half of the season, East Perth performed well to win three games and be competitive in the majority of others despite having a tough run.

 

As well as that, key players Swan, Craig Glancy, Pat Travers, Brendan Hancock, Andrew Merrington, David Dawes, Michael Robinson, Danny Byrne, Luke Sampey, Andrew Mills, Tom Howlett and Trent Martin all missed significant parts of the opening eight games.

 

The Royals entered the two-week break over the bye and State game following tough losses to South Fremantle and Swan Districts after beating Subiaco in a thriller and Frank Agostino's final game, but Micale is happy enough with how the break was handled.

 

"To start with we just used it to freshen up the blokes because of the tough lead in we had coming into the break after games against Subiaco, South Fremantle and Swan Districts. They really needed that, but we had a couple of tough training sessions there in the middle period and then a scratchie at training to use as preparation for this week," Micale said.

 

"I've been pleased with what we have done and feel we have got enough work into the boys, while also freshening them up. Our approach to this game is as good as I could have hoped in the circumstances."

 

Micale is still struggling to comprehend how the Royals have been fixtured to already play a Friday night game, on Easter Monday and the Anzac Day Monday, plus a Sunday game this season and he believes that, as much as the injuries, played a part in the big losses prior to the time off.

 

"Our fixturing has been diabolical this season and has done us no favours whatsoever. We played three games in 17 days before the bye, and then had to put up with a double bye which became even longer with our next game not being until the Monday. We have had plenty going against us, but have done all we can to overcome the hurdles and remain competitive," he said.

 

"Our fixturing has just been all over the place though. We've had three games on Monday now, a Friday night one and one on Sunday, so we haven’t got to get any consistency into what we are doing. We have had to come off a short break three times and that was particularly telling in the second half of the games against South Fremantle and Swan Districts, where we were out on our feet in the second half."

 

Unlike some coaches and teams, Micale is not interested in playing games and has declared Swan a certain starter after he found good form in the reserves in three straight games before the break. His pace, leadership, skill and intensity will be a welcome addition to the Royals' team.

 

"Swanny will play. I'm not interested in playing any of those games, if a guy is going to play I will put it out there. I'm rapt to have him back in the team because he is a great competitor, is a terrific leader and he's one of the reasons I see real improvement in the group for the rest of the year," he said.

 

"He has got through two or three reserves games now, our management of him has been good and while it might take a few games for him to fire, it's great to have him back. OP can take a long time to get over as we know, but we've managed him well so that we know he's now right to go."

 

While Swan is a certain starter, Micale and his coaching staff will wait until the weekend to decide if Robinson comes in to partner Jones in the ruck with the Dockers ruling out exciting youngster Clarke.

 

Micale also sees defender Trent Martin as a pivotal player, but he might need a game back in the reserves first. Andrew Merrington is still some weeks away with a fractured foot.

 

"Trent is a pivotal player to us. I didn’t know a lot about him before I got to the club, but I now rate him extremely highly. It's been a tragedy for us that we haven’t had him basically at all this year, but he's in the chop up for this week. We'll just have to decide if we want him to get a run in the reserves first or not," he said.

 

"Robbo is very much in the same boat and because we don’t have too many talls available, we need to make sure he is fully right to go. Zac Clarke won't play and he has been ruled out by Freo, but we've been told it should only be for a week."

 

While East Perth continues to come up against teams who seemingly always get players back, at least West Perth loses Kepler Bradley this week while having Seaby return.

 

The Royals only lost by seven points in the opening round to West Perth and almost pulled off a tremendous win, and while the Royals still have work to do to get back to full strength, Micale is confident his team is improving sufficiently.

 

"We learned a lot from that game and there's a tremendous upside to us still. Providing we have some more luck than we've had so far, we should be able to have a better back half of the year and that's what we are setting our sights on doing. It's a traditional derby on Foundation Day and we are looking forward to it," he said.

 

"We were certainly undermanned and underdone the first time we played them, and West Perth has a talented squad who were up and firing, so we did quite well to have a chance of winning that game. They have got Seaby who has dropped back so will be strong again, but I feel our guys are better prepared now.

 

"To start the season we had a lot of players working back from pre-season operations and I still feel the longer the season progresses, that we have a lot of improvement in us. We still aren’t exactly where we want to be with some blokes still coming back and getting conditioning, but we are a lot closer than we were. While we aren’t at full strength yet, we are getting there."

 

For the first time in his decorated coaching career that has seen him coach East Fremantle to a premiership and East Perth to three, Micale has had a very different challenge to try to develop a young a group at the Royals, but it's something that he is now thriving on.

 

"I'm enjoying the challenge of this season and there are a host of decisions we have to make that we are working through. Our focus is firmly on developing youth at the club and that is one of the hard things to weigh up when you are in match committee," he said.

 

"At times the guys that are more mature and experienced might still be better players, but you have to weigh that up with giving the kids a go and getting experience into them. It's a challenge I have never had before in any team I have coached, so it is taking some adjusting to get used to, but it's something that is exciting me and I know it will take time to pay off. We will be patient, though, and every indication so far is that we are on the right track."