WAFL 2023 Season Preview – East PerthWednesday, March 29, 2023 - 12:05 PM - by Chris Pike

NEW East Perth coach Ross McQueen isn’t afraid to have expectations of playing finals in his first season in charge, but his focus in taking over at the Royals is continuing their improvement, growth and attacking instincts.

McQueen replaced Jeremy Barnard as caretaker coach at the end of the 2022 season before being appointed to a senior coaching role in the WAFL for the first time as he looks to help lead East Perth to a first finals appearance since 2018.

McQueen brings with him strong credentials as not only a long-time assistant coach, but having coached Claremont to three premierships each at colts and reserves level, and is confident that the Royals should have the aim of playing finals in 2023.

It's not going to be easy and McQueen is realistic enough to know that going from six wins last year to making the top five will take a significant leap, but he's confident in the work done both in bringing in new faces and the further development in those remaining.

"I go into every year thinking we're going to play finals. Realistically you understand we're coming from a bit further back, but you can rapid gains you just need a little bit of luck to go your way," McQueen told 91.3 SportFM.

"I think there was eight games last year we played in decided by less than 12 points, and only won one of them. If you can win half of those, all of a sudden you can make a big change. 

"You also are a realistic that other clubs have improved their lists too and not too many are going backwards. Our expectation is to play well, play good football and make finals, and at the end of the year if we don’t do that we can reflect and see where our growth has been."

While McQueen has coached his own teams at colts and reserves level over a long and distinguished coaching career, nothing quite prepares you to be the league coach and the man in charge of the entire senior group.

However, McQueen has settled well into the role at East Perth and is now looking forward to Round 1 with the Royals taking on Swan Districts at Leederville Oval on Good Friday.

"It's different and it's interesting getting back to holding the reins I guess like I did a couple of years ago with colts where it's very different," he said. 

"The senior blokes have been good. We've had a solid pre-season of about 15 or 16 weeks and it's just those little extra things like managing a group of 60, or even earlier in the season it was 80 or 90 blokes down at the club. 

"That's been a bit of a challenge to get things balanced and trying to get every player and coach the opportunity to put their best foot forward. I've enjoyed it and now I'm looking forward to when the season starts. 

"You never really know if what you've done, especially in my case I guess, is the right way but I'm looking forward to the challenge of the season starting."

Personnel wise and the Royals will naturally miss retired captain and fairest and best winner Jackson Ramsay, but McQueen is more than content that the inclusions will help their growth in 2023.

East Perth has been able to sign former Fremantle-listed pair Mitch Crowden and Tom North along with former Carlton-listed defender Harrison McCreadie.

Alex Pearce, Liam Tedesco and Nelson Waite also arrive from other WAFL clubs with McQueen content with the squad he'll have to work with.

"We've picked up Mitch Crowden who used to play at Fremantle so he's been a great addition to us and Tom North was also on Fremantle's list there. We've picked up a young man called Liam Tedesco, Teddy who was at West Perth for a while and he's fitted into the group really well. 

"There's also a couple of other younger boys from other clubs including Alex Pearce from Claremont. Harrison McCreadie we've picked up who was on Carlton's list for a while and he's a key defender type so they are good character people and we hope they can help us move forwards. 

"It gives us some really good depth through the midfield and shores up our back half a bit. Hopefully there's a bit of group from the players in the young group that's there. 

"We've only got one player who's played over 100 games and that's Shayne Hille so we're a young group but hopefully with the right attitude and a bit of confidence, you never know what can happen."

McQueen has worked closely with Barnard at East Perth in recent seasons so he sees no reason to do things a whole lot differently to what was already happening, but he'll just be looking to make some slight changes and continue the growth that was already happening.

"I'm trying to probably build on what Barney was doing. He did a lot of great work around education and developing game plans, and things for the players," he said.

"I've been big on moving the ball and being aggressive, and looking to score. Probably the most simple thing for the players is to know to do the right thing in the moment. We go through a lot of things around what is the right thing to do. 

"Players can reflect on that and whether it's on-field or off-field, and they will know what that is. If they can catch themselves and do that, then I think we're heading on the right path."

As for expectations for the 2023 season, McQueen has no trouble saying that finals are the goal for the Royals but is also realistic enough to know it's going to take a lot to go right for them to improve enough from where they have been.

"We've got to make up a fair bit of ground, I mean we were five games behind Peel who finished in the fifth spot last year," McQueen said.

"We just need to find a way to score and obviously defend when teams get a run on. We need to find the mechanisms and resilience to not allow teams to put five, six, seven or eight goals on us in a quarter. 

"If we can stay in the game long enough and stay with enough belief I think we can make some improvements. Obviously our goal is to make finals as everyone's goal should be, but we need to catch up five or six games on everyone in the competition."