WEST Perth showed no ill-effects from playing an 11th straight match or from being down to two men on the interchange for the second half to win through to next Sunday's WAFL grand final following a gutsy 29-point preliminary final win over East Perth at HBF Arena.
West Perth came into the contest on the back of a 55-point second semi-final loss to Subiaco having not had a bye since Round 15 and then lost Laine Rasmussen (ankle) and Matt Johnson (hamstring) for the afternoon by early in the third quarter.
East Perth was in outstanding form coming into the preliminary final having won seven of its last eight games, including cut-throat finals against Claremont and Peel Thunder, and the Royal started strongly with the breeze kicking four goals to one in the first quarter.
However, from that point on West Perth worked its way on top with five goals to one in the second quarter, three to East Perth's four into the breeze in the third term and then a dominant five goals to one in the last to win 14.13 (97) to 10.8 (68).