WAFL 2022 Preview – East PerthSaturday, April 2, 2022 - 12:00 AM - by Chris Pike

IT has now been a long wait since East Perth has played finals and a longer wait since they won a final, and even longer since they tasted premiership glory, but the Royals of 2022 will be looking to start taking steps forward to fixing all of that.

It has been a slow build back to standing alone and being competitive in their own right having broken free of their partnership with the West Coast Eagles, but based on what we saw from East Perth in 2021, they are on the right path.

Triple-premiership winning co-captain from the start of the century Jeremy Barnard has been backed in to still be the man to lead the Royals forward as coach and he will be looking to ensure they continue to take steps forward in 2022.

It has been a tough build back to a point where they can be finals contenders again and East Perth hasn’t played in a final since 2018, hasn’t won a final since 2018 and hasn’t won a premiership since 2002.

To say they can fix all of that in 2022 might be a stretch, but the positive signs should be there for the Royals faithful they can begin that path to the ultimate glory once again.

That doesn’t mean it's going to be all smooth sailing, though, and the news isn’t all positive on the personnel front coming into the new season.

Losing Aidan Lynch from the midfield, Rohan Kerr from the wing, Nathan Blee from the back-line and Mitch Dobson from the forward-line isn’t ideal, but East Perth can't dwell on that now.

Helping offset of Lynch is the recruitment of Hamish Brayshaw while the Royals will be hoping for Victorian trio Tom Wallis, Max Annandale and Archie Hildebrandt can have an immediate impact.

Gordon Narrier could be a significant recruit too if it comes off while Kyle Hamersley, Tom Medhat and Damon Greaves could all be handy pick ups.

But really East Perth's success will on their retained players. They still have Scott Jones to lead the ruck with Jackson Ramsay, Angus Schumacher, Christian Ameduri and Angus Scott through the middle.

There's also Jacob Msando, Taylor North, Kye Willcocks, Brad Fullgrabe and Nathan Eaton down back, and Eddie Simpson to be the main target in attack with support from the likes of Nick Robertson and Shayne Hille.

The makings are there for further improvement from East Perth in 2022 and now they just need to put it into action.

COACH – Jeremy Barnard (Fourth season, 15-29 record)
CAPTAIN – Jackson Ramsay
FAIREST AND BEST 2021 – Christian Ameduri

LOOKBACK ON 2021

The Royals hadn’t made finals since 2018 and still haven’t, and still haven’t won a final since the first semi-final of 2015 but they do appear to be closer to fixing that after the second half of 2021 and having now re-signed Jeremy Barnard to continue as coach in 2022 and beyond.

The season couldn’t have started worse for East Perth with five consecutive losses including a record 105-point defeat at the hands of Peel Thunder.

They broke through to beat West Coast in Round 7 but then two more losses to Claremont and West Perth meant they sat at 1-7 and finals were virtually out of the possibility already once again.

However, East Perth were starting to find some impressive form and went on a run of winning five of seven matches including an impressive win over the finals bound South Fremantle.

By the end of Round 18, the Royals had given themselves an outside chance of returning to finals action and while it didn’t happen with three losses to close the campaign, they have plenty to build upon moving forward.

FULL EAST PERTH 2021 SEASON REVIEW

INS AND OUTS

Incoming – Gordon Narrier, Kyle Hamersley, Tom Medhat, Damon Greaves, Tom Wallis, Hamish Brayshaw, Max Annandale, Archie Hildebrandt

Outgoing – Aidan Lynch, Mitch Dobson, Ajang Ajang, Rohan Kerr, Nathan Blee, Shaquille McKenzie, Julian Ameduri 

FEATURE FIXTURE

If East Perth wants to break into the finals in 2022 then they have to show they can beat teams who took part in finals action in 2021. The Royals get that chance first up this season when they take on Swan Districts at Leederville Oval on Good Friday. It's a marquee fixture to open the season and the Royals could make quite the statement with a win against a team that not only played finals last year, but who are expected to be contenders again in 2022.

PREDICTION

There should be no reason East Perth can't legitimately contend for finals in 2022. Sure they have lost some key players, but they have a core there to work around and some handy recruits. It might just come down to health. Ultimately a midfield including Jackson Ramsay, Angus Schumacher and Hamish Brayshaw, if the forward-line can fire with Eddie Simpson as the focal point and the defence remains solid like it was for the most part in 2021, then they should be around the mark come the end of the season.