Round 12 Preview – East Perth v Claremont Saturday, June 23, 2018 - 7:46 AM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth and Claremont both enter Saturday's Round 12 WAFL encounter at Leederville Oval desperate for a win.

While the Royals still cling to fifth position on the ladder, they can't afford to keep losing and remain in the top five while another loss for the Tigers, and they are getting close to kissing goodbye to remaining any hope of reaching the finals in 2018.

East Perth comes into Saturday's encounter at Leederville Oval sitting in fifth position with a 4-5 record to be a game and percentage behind the fourth placed Swan Districts, and only percentage ahead of both Perth and Peel Thunder.

While the Royals do remain in fifth position, they haven’t won a game since defeating East Fremantle by 33 points prior to the State game. 

That was the fourth win in-a-row for East Perth but since they have lost to South Fremantle, Swan Districts, West Perth and Subiaco to be on a four-game losing run heading into the clash with Claremont even though the loss to the Lions had its positives. 

The 18-point loss to Subiaco last week was the closest any team has got to the Lions so far in 2018.

Claremont, meanwhile, needs a win on Saturday just to remain in the finals race with the Tigers suffering a heartbreaking one-point loss to West Perth last Saturday having also suffering a similar fate to Perth back in Round 7.

In between the Tigers did beat South Fremantle and Swan Districts to show what they are capable of along with a narrow loss to Peel, but ultimately nothing is rewarded for potential or competitiveness.

The reality is that Claremont enters Round 12 in eighth position on the WAFL ladder with a 3-7 record. Falling to 3-8 and being two games outside the top five could indeed prove fatal for the Tigers.

However, a win over the Royals and the Tigers will likely only be percentage out of fifth position or if the win is by a big enough margin, and if Perth loses to West Perth, they could even end the round in that fifth spot.

Since Claremont's dominant run between 2010-2013 of four straight minor premierships, three Grand Final appearances and two premierships, East Perth has had the better of the Tigers.

The Royals did beat Claremont in the 2013 preliminary final and have won seven of the last 11 meetings including four of the past six.

The last time the two teams met was in Round 17 last year at Claremont Oval with East Perth prevailing in a four-point thriller.

Fresh off celebrating the 200-game milestone of captain Ian Richardson last Saturday and having 2011 premiership player and Simpson Medallist, and life member, Beau Maister retire the week prior, Claremont has another milestone on Saturday too.

Haydn Busher reaches 100 WAFL games when Claremont runs out on to Leederville Oval with the versatile big man in career-best form with the Tigers whether playing as a key defender or as a big-bodied wingman.

He began his career with Perth playing 46 matches before crossing to Claremont ahead of the 2015 season where he's since added a further 53 WAFL appearances.

Coming off East Perth's competitive yet ultimate losing performance against Subiaco last Saturday, the Royals look set to be strengthened with the returns of West Coast-listed players Oscar Allen, Tarir Bayok and Daniel Venables.

Dom Sheed and Jarrod Brander will likely be back for East Perth too to strengthen the midfield and forward-line respectively.

Tom Gorter should also be back for East Perth with Dwayne Bolton, Jaxon Cahill, Callum Hart and Shayne Hille also back into the squad.

East Perth does lose Will Schofield who played for West Coast against Essendon at Optus Stadium on Thursday night while Mitch Dobson and Eric Mackenzie go out of the line-up.

Claremont's hopes of beating East Perth to bring life into its finals hopes won't be helped with the loss of emerging ruckman Oliver Eastland who has been averaging 16.1 possessions and 27.7 hit outs so far in 2018.

Jeremy Goddard and Eddie Simpson will both likely come in for the Tigers to share the ruck duties and also provide a marking option in attack.

Morgan Davies, Addison Dew and Isaac Wallace have also been added to the squad for Claremont with Tom Ledger also again finding himself out of the line-up.

EAST PERTH (4-5, 5th) v CLAREMONT (3-7, 8th) – LEEDERVILLE OVAL, SATURDAY 1.40PM
Selected teams, live stats 
Broadcast – Channel 7, HFM, Footy Radio