FALCONS LOSE TO ROYALS IN MUDDY, WET SLOG

TERRIBLE conditions met West Perth at Leederville's Medibank Stadium on Saturday and the Falcons could manage just the two goals only four days after the Foxtel Cup grand final to lose to the league-leading East Perth by 21 points.

West Perth was coming back from having lost the Foxtel Cup grand final to Williamstown in Geelong on Tuesday night, and was without Nick Rodda, Kody Manning, Matt Fowler, Steve Potente, Jack Thrum and Andrew Strijk to take on the league-leading Royals.

The ground at Leederville was in terrible shape with the rain from during the week and on Saturday morning with the majority of the oval covered in heavy mud and the rest with huge puddles of water that made attractive football, or ball handing in general virtually impossible all day long.

West Perth did get an early goal in the first quarter through Rohan Kerr but it took until the last quarter for the Falcons' second and last major of the afternoon through Ray Bartholomew as East Perth ended up winning 5.9 (39) to 2.6 (18).

Shane Nelson and Aaron Black both worked tirelessly in the midfield for West Perth in the atrocious conditions finishing with 22 possessions apiece.

As well as kicking a goal, Kerr played well with 20 disposals, five tackles and three inside-50 entries with Jordan Jones also finishing with 18 possessions, Brayden Antonio 17, Laine Rasmussen 16 and Marcus Adams 15.

Luke Tedesco, Matt Guadagnin and Jay van Berlo all fought hard laying seven tackles each with Rasmussen also laying six, and Adams, Ray Bartholomew and Drew Rohde five each.

Two players also made their official WAFL debuts for West Perth despite having made several Foxtel Cup appearances already. Max Alexander finished with seven points while Mitch van Berlo had 10 disposals and three tackles on debut.

The scores were level at a goal apiece early on in the game when Kerr took a mark and kicked a goal from the set shot for the Falcons.

It remained a goal apiece until just before three quarter-time when East Perth managed a second goal to then lead by nine points at quarter-time.

West Perth then didn’t manage a goal with just two behinds for the second quarter as the conditions continued to wreak havoc on what could have otherwise been a terrific contest in a rematch of last year's grand final.

East Perth kicked the only goal of the second quarter to go into half-time with a 3.4 (22) to 1.2 (8) lead.

It was another goalless quarter in the third term for the Falcons with them managing just the one behind while the Royals kicked their fourth goal of the match to open up a 23-point advantage at three quarter-time.

West Perth finally gets its second goal of the day thanks to Bartholomew early in the final quarter and suddenly with the margin just 17 points, and the conditions overhead improving even though the state of the ground didn’t, there was a slight hope for the Falcons.

However, West Perth couldn’t quite get on a roll with East Perth kicking the only other goal for the rest of the match to end up winning by 21 points.

The conditions were in fact even worse during the reserves match and West Perth dominated that contested holding East Perth to one goal for the entire game to end up winning 9.5 (59) to 1.8 (14).

Shaun Marusic, Corey Chalmers and Kaidyn Fullgrabe all kicked two goals each for West Perth's reserves with Tamati Young, Broderick Walton and Jesse Kirwen all adding a single goal apiece.

Tim Sutherland also dominated in the ruck with 10 possessions, 54 hit outs, five inside-50 entries and four marks.

James Embley racked up 26 possessions for West Perth's reserves, Ben O'Regan 25 (seven tackles), Luke Meadows 23 (seven tackles), Walton 19, Blake Wilhelm 18, Sam Money 17, Aidan Lynch 17 (14 tackles) and Marusic 17.

Meanwhile, West Perth's colts stormed back from being 25 points behind at three quarter-time to kick four goals to nothing in the final quarter to secure a draw with East Perth.

Mitch Antonio kicked two goals for the Falcons with Dean Munns racking up 27 possessions to go with laying 10 tackles.
William Michell also collected 25 disposals, Clinton Hinchcliffe 21, Ashley Smith 18 and Daniel Robertson 18.

WEST PERTH        1.0    1.2    1.3    2.6    (18)
EAST PERTH        2.3    3.4    4.8    5.9    (39)

WEST PERTH – Goals: Kerr, Bartholomew.
Best: Kerr, Black, Jones, Rasmussen, Nelson.
EAST PERTH – Goals: Johnson, Cripps, McInnes, Sinclair, Smith.
Best: Payne, Wulff, Sinclair, Lee, Johnson, Wilson.