Royals in career-best form leading the chargeThursday, July 3, 2014 - 5:30 PM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth sits on top of the WAFL ladder and while from the outside much of the focus is heaped on the West Coast-listed players, the growth of players like Freddie Clutterbuck, Steven Payne, Kyle Anderson and Nathan Blee has been instrumental in the Royals' outstanding form.

Even though West Coast's Callum Sinclair, Scott Lycett, Blayne Wilson, Simon Tunbridge, Dom Sheed and Brant Colledge, in particular, have played some strong football in 2014, it is East Perth's WAFL-listed players who are standing up to make the difference.

Co-captains Craig Wulff and Brendan Lee have been outstanding when fit, and big men Josh Smith and Paul Johnson provide a strong presence but it is the next group of players who have moved themselves into the upper echelon of stars in the competition.

Payne and Clutterbuck are both in the middle of the best seasons of their careers running through the middle and on the wing, Anderson has cemented himself as perhaps the best defender in the WAFL and Blee is now a strong, all-round player from defence upon return from Port Adelaide.

That is all a big reason why East Perth is on top of the WAFL ladder with a 10-2 record while currently on a seven-match winning run following a win over Claremont and the bye last weekend leading into this Saturday's clash with Peel Thunder at Medibank Stadium.

Clutterbuck is one of those East Perth players in the form of his career now and is enjoying part of a side that is playing so well also.

"The coaches are also coaching well and looking after the boys, and we have a lot of depth as well with the East Perth players and Eagles players all doing their jobs. Just at the moment it's all going OK, but we still know that there's plenty of improvement for us.

"Against Claremont we didn’t play all too well in the second half and our consistency has let us down a bit, but apart from that it's going OK."

Clutterbuck made his debut with East Perth back in 2010 and played four league games that year while captaining the reserves in a narrow grand final loss to Claremont.

He then had a superb 2011 season playing in all 20 matches plus three in the Foxtel Cup emerging as a hard-running wingman before then going to another level again with an outstanding 2012 as a key member of the Royals team that lost a first semi-final to East Fremantle.

A hernia operation following that season saw him have a limited pre-season in 2013 and while he was still a solid contributor in a team that made the grand final against West Perth, his form hadn’t quite been at the level of 2013.

However, a full pre-season heading into 2014 has now resulted in the 24-year-old displaying the form of his career so far averaging over 22 possessions a game but almost 28 over the past month leading into the bye.

"I worked pretty hard over the off-season and I got almost a full pre-season in, which was good for a change," he said.

"Last pre-season I had a hernia op so that put me out of action for three or four months, and I used to hear blokes talk about being unable to do a pre-season and I thought it was just excuses, but having gone through it myself now I know how important a full pre-season in is.

"I was able to do that this year and I've also being given the freedom to play on the wing and a bit of half-forward, and half-back so that flexibility to go where the team needs me has been fantastic. I'm really enjoying my footy as well which is a key point to it too.

I think it has all just come together for me so far this year. The body gave me a little bit of trouble early on in the year, but we have sort of got on top of a couple of things and I've just been given the freedom to get back up on the wing and play some footy."

Wingman Payne played 12 senior matches in 2011 for the Royals and 15 in 2012, but it wasn’t until last year when he cemented his spot in the side and was outstanding on the wing averaging over 18 disposals a game.

That had him as a good WAFL player, but he has now become an outstanding one so far in 2014 averaging over 24 possessions while also having kicked 10 goals. Even his teammate Clutterbuck finds himself marvelling at his running capacity.

"He is outstanding. He is an elite runner and he can run for days, and the way he runs in games is unbelievable. He just accumulates the ball and he's very important for our structure," he said.

"He is in the forward-line, in the back-line getting it and he's kicking goals, and he has stepped up to being one of the elite midfielders of the comp at the moment. He has become very important for us and hopefully that continues for the second half of the year."

Anderson, meanwhile, has been limited to just 55 league appearances with East Perth since making his debut in 2009 due to injury, but his form in defence deserves to see him considered the best lockdown defender in the competition.

"Kyle is outstanding. He's obviously had some issues with his body over the years, but when he is at full-back it's great knowing you have him there. His one-on-one contests are outstanding and I can't remember seeing him getting beaten," Clutterbuck said.

"Having him down there is just a big solid rock in our back-line and he commands the troops as well because he is a great leaders. He is a great defender, is great for our side and we are obviously a much better team with him in it.