Full buy-in of East Perth culture crucial for RoyalsThursday, March 15, 2018 - 12:53 PM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth missed finals for the first time in six years in 2017 but a couple of players back from the AFL along with emerging colts and players from within the Royals' zone is giving coach Luke Webster plenty of confidence of bouncing back in 2018.

Following five straight years of playing finals, which included Grand Final appearances in 2013 and 2014, East Perth was in the mix again in 2017 until losing the last two games of the season to Perth and Subiaco to end up finishing sixth with a 9-11 record.

As an East Perth premiership player and former captain himself, Webster is passionate about ensuring the Royals are back to being a force in the WAFL in 2018 while also acknowledging they need to keep doing the right thing in terms of helping develop the West Coast AFL-listed players.

To help their cause in being competitive on the field this season is the signing of Sharrod Wellingham following his 171 AFL-game career with Collingwood and West Coast. Jackson Ramsay also returns from Collingwood while Tom Gorter is back full-time after a season on the Eagles rookie-list.

Just as exciting for Webster is a young group of players coming through for the Royals too as they look to improve. But every bit as important for him is for everyone that pulls on the blue-and-black jumper to have a strong understanding and respect for the East Perth Football Club.

"Obviously we want to improve from our efforts of last year and the boys have all come back in really good shape, and done some good stuff over this pre-season period," Webster told 91.3 SportFM.

"Even the East Perth list has changed a fair bit and we've had guys like Craig Wulff, Paul Johnson, Brendan Lee, Steven Payne and Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls shift away over the last couple of years to different things or retired. 

"We've got a lot of young kids coming through from the colts and from our zone area who have never really played at the club so they don't understand what East Perth is all about. 

"So we have run some projects around that to make sure they understand what our coat of arms means, what the history of the club is, how many premierships we've won and how many players have actually played for the club. 

"Then we work on what we want to stand for this year and that's been strongly led by our leadership group in Kyle Anderson and Pat McGinnity. They have been really good at getting the best out of the group and then finding out from them what they want to stand for, and link it in with the young West Coast guys and getting buy in from them."

Being able to add in an AFL premiership player the calibre of Wellingham full-time to the group is a significant coup for East Perth on the back of welcoming Patrick McGinnity 12 months earlier.

Webster is looking forward to seeing what he can deliver in 2018 along with Ramsay following his 17 AFL games in five years with Collingwood.

"We were really fortunate to sign Sharrod Wellingham. He's going to add great experience from his AFL career but he's also a strong leader with the way he plays on the field and trains. The quality of player he is will certainly help us," he said. 

"We've also got Jackson Ramsay back. He was a colts kid in our system before getting drafted to Collingwood. He had a couple of injuries and was moved on at the end of last year and has come back to the club. 

"His leadership plus his experience from being on an AFL list is really showing through. His training standards have been outstanding and we're looking forward to seeing him play some really good footy for us."

Webster was also pleased that defender Gorter decided to return to East Perth after his season on West Coast's rookie-list.

He burst onto the scene in 2016 with an outstanding season in the East Perth back-line. While his form wasn’t quite at the same level last year, Webster has no doubt he will have a strong 2018 and he could even earn another look at AFL level as a result.

"I had a lot of discussions with Tom after being let go from West Coast and he wanted to have a look at all options and see what was going to work best for him. He obviously backed in what we were doing at East Perth and the environment we've got, and wanted to recommit," Webster said.

"He sees some good things going forward from our club and knows that potentially he could get another opportunity if he performs and by being with us he'll work with good quality coaches and play alongside quality players on an AFL list. It's great that he recommitted and he is really leading the way."

On top of the additions full-time of Wellingham, Ramsay and Gorter, Webster is also looking forward to seeing the next batch of colts players who developed under Adam Pickering step up to play league football along with those that received chances last year to continue their improvement.

"We then also have a lot of young kids who have played colts the last couple of years making the grand final two years ago and getting bundled out in the prelim last year," he said.

"We've got young kids like Christian Ameduri, Matt Young, Aaron Redhead and Jaxon Cahill who have come through our colts system and are stepping into the league. We are looking forward to seeing them get some league exposure this year. 

"Then there are guys who stepped up already last year like Stan Wright, Ben Miller and Nelson Waite who will get even more exposure this year and step through further for us."

It's not just those players either though. Webster is also open to giving opportunities to other players from within East Perth's zone and this year that has included welcoming Jamie Rudrum (Hamersley Carine), Reginald Jones (Kelmscott) and Braydn Furmark (Kingsway).

"The club's done a lot of really good work in terms of making sure the best guys from our zonal areas are getting down to the club and then it's down to me to make sure I'm giving opportunities to those guys," Webster said.

"There are no set rules in terms of how many numbers play each week, it's the players who are in the best form that we will look to pick and roll out the best 22 with whatever mix that may be. 

"It is a bit of a different environment to some other WAFL clubs but the fact that those guys from an East Perth point of view to play with guys with AFL experience from West Coast and some coaching perspective from guys involved in the AFL hopefully is a positive.

"The opportunity might not always be there but the level of coaches and resources that both clubs can offer the group helps us greatly."