Wulff fires Royals to victory

Three weeks ago, East Perth coughed up a seven-goal lead to lose a nearly unloseable match to their archrival West Perth.

Powered by the celebrations for Freddie Clutterbuck 100th match and the remarkable courage of Craig Wulff and Pat McGinnity, the Royals ensured there would not be a repeat of that debacle at their meeting today.

Treating the 4000-strong WA Day crowd at Medibank Stadium to an exhibition of fast-break dry-weather football, East Perth resisted every West Perth challenge to win by 46 points, 18.9 (117) to 10.11 (71).

Their effort was inspired by old-stager Wulff, whose two goals complemented his trademark courage, while McGinnity also refused to flinch and gathered 26 disposals despite being crunched several times.

Two incidents in the second half inspired East Perth who played the better football all day but were still vulnerable when the lead was whittled to 16 points neat the last break.

McGinnity did not deviate a centimetre off his line despite an impending collision with the sizeable Luke Meadows.

Then Wulff lifted the crowd and his team-mates by running into an oncoming pack to take a mark.

Scott Lycett overcame a quad injury that forced him to operate as a virtual stationery target close to goals to kick four majors for the home team.

East Perth started to exert their influence from midway through the second term.

The lead had changed four times before then but a torrent of rapid ball movement, with a burst of end-to-end passages resulting in majors, helped the home team to a 23-point lead at the main break.

Several West Perth goals had come from opposition errors with the most damaging an errant Xavier Ellis kick which allowed Matthew Johnson to land a 50m bomb.

All three Falcons goals in the second term were the result of East Perth turning the ball over but nothing could stop the Royals when they streamed towards goals.

They kicked 7.3 in the term, their second best for the season, with Clutterbuck celebrating his 100th match with two strong finishes.