Round 9 – East Fremantle v East Perth Match ReportMonday, May 15, 2017 - 1:12 AM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth continued to build some momentum following a horror start to 2017 hammering the winless East Fremantle by 87 points at East Fremantle Oval on Saturday.

Having started the season with five straight losses under new coach Luke Webster, the Royals continued their improvement on Saturday dominating the struggling Sharks to record their third straight win.

East Perth kicked four goals to one in the first quarter, six to one in the second and then another seven to one in the last on the way to the 20.22 (142) to 7.13 (55) victory.

Despite the two teams having the same number of possessions during the game, East Fremantle's over-possessing game without making attacking movements a lot of the time just wasn’t paying dividends.

From 363 disposals, East Perth went inside-50 on 60 occasions for 42 scoring shots and having kicked 20.22, the 87-point winning margin could have been even more significant. Opposed to that from East Fremantle's 363 possessions, the Sharks only went inside-50 40 times for 20 scoring shots.

The win improves East Perth to a 3-5 record on the season while East Fremantle remains winless after seven straight defeats.

Despite losing captain Patrick McGinnity to a hamstring early in the piece, East Perth had 21 strong contributors in the victory and plenty of different avenues to goal.

Daniel Venables ended up booting four goals for the Royals with Matthew Allen also booting three and ruckman Scott Jones did well when forward to boot two to go with 14 possessions, seven marks and 14 hit outs.

Fellow ruckman Jonathon Giles was solid with 37 hit outs to go with nine touches. He and Jones proving far superior to East Fremantle's Cameron Symonds and Matthew Watson.

Malcolm Karpany also worked hard for 19 possessions and two goals for East Perth while Shayne Hille continued his career-best form across half-forward with 23 disposals and a goal.

Will Maginness all but secured his spot to represent the WAFL state side against the VFL in Melbourne in a fortnight's time with another terrific showing for East Perth with 32 possessions, seven inside-50 entries, six marks and a goal.

Mark Hutchings put his hand up for an AFL recall with West Coast with a hard-working 31 possessions and 10 tackles as well.

Luke Partington also gathered 28 disposals for East Perth, Stan Wright 22, Julian Ameduri 21, Nathan Blee 20, Tom Lamb 18 and Eric Mackenzie 18 to go with nine marks and a goal. He also spent some time in the ruck for 13 hit outs.

East Fremantle had plenty of big ball winners led by George Hampson who amassed 40 possessions, six marks and five tackles.

Cameron Eardley also had 31 disposals and 10 tackles for the Sharks while Jonathon Marsh gathered 31 touches, Dion Anthony 25, Jayden Schofield 23 and Sean Henson 21 as he returned to the league side to play his 100th game for East Fremantle.

By the 11-minute mark of the opening quarter, East Perth already had two goals on the board from Venables and McGinnity before East Fremantle responded through Schofield.

But shortly before quarter-time, the Royals added two more majors through Venables and Allen to be up by 16 points at the first change.

It took under a minute for the Royals to add their fifth of the day to start the second term when Allen kicked truly.

East Fremantle did manage to boot the next two to bring the margin back to nine points and the home team was still right in the contest after the majors to Anthony and Alex Howson.

But East Perth had the answers with goals to Tom Hodgson, Lamb, Giles, Karpany and Allen before the main break where they were up by 44 points.

East Fremantle came out looking to show some fight to start the second and it worked briefly with goals to Lester-Smith and Andrew Stokes in the opening three minutes.

It wouldn’t last, though, with East Perth kicking three of the last four goals of the third quarter to head into the last change leading by 51 points.

Two quick goals to Jones to start the last term and the Royals were heading towards a thumping win, and in the end they booted seven goals to one for the quarter to come away with the 87-point victory.

East Perth will look to make it four straight wins up against South Fremantle this Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

East Fremantle has a huge task trying to get its first win on the board for 2017 taking on the league-leading Subiaco at Leederville Oval also on Saturday.

EAST PERTH            4.1    10.8    13.18    20.22    (142)
EAST FREMANTLE        1.3    3.6    6.9    7.13    (55)

EAST PERTH – Goals: Venables 4; Allen 3; Karpany, Jones 2; Hille, McGinnity, Wright, Maginness, Ameduri, Hodgson, Giles, Lamb, Mackenzie.
Best: Maginness, Hutchings, Hille, Venables, Partington, Mackenzie, Jones. 
EAST FREMANTLE – Goals: Schofield, Lester-Smith, D Anthony, Watson, Stokes, Howson, Bennett.
Best: Hampson, Eardley, Marsh, D Anthony, Henson.