Veteran Wulff weighs up his future
Co-captain Craig Wulff does not know if he will play on next year in the wake of East Perth's 16-point loss to Subiaco in yesterday's grand final at Patersons Stadium.
Veteran midfielder Wulff has achieved almost everything in a remarkable 245-game career except a league premiership.
Yesterday appealed as the 31-year-old's best chance, the Royals raging favourites to win their first grand final since 2002.
Subiaco rained on Wulff's parade, the Lions opening up the match in the third quarter to claim victory.
"I'm not sure about next year," Wulff said. "I don't know whether I could go through it again. I just can't believe it but we got beaten by a better side on the day."
East Perth coach Brian Dawson said it had been particularly difficult to accept yesterday's loss after coming up short in last year's decider against West Perth.
East Perth players after the final siren. Pic: Sharon Smith/WA News
"It's hard when you are the second best, especially for the second year in a row," Dawson said. "I'm completely flat, as everyone else is.
"We probably scraped and scrapped our way in last year and got on a bit of a roll to get there but weren't good enough on the day.
"This year we did it differently.
"We got to top spot and won the second semi, not that that guarantees anything.
"Probably our chance was better this year than last year. Unfortunately we weren't good enough to take advantage of it."
Dawson said Subiaco's dominance in the third quarter had paved the way for the upset.
"They got us in the third quarter, there's no doubt about that," he said. "That's where they broke it open.
"It was always going to be a hard comeback in the last quarter from where we were because it wasn't the day for a six, seven-goal quarter.
"They were better on the day, so congratulations to them."
Dawson said the steady rain had not favoured either side.
"We had a fair idea it was going to be the sort of day it was," he said.
"That was the forecast from a few days out."
