Bouncing Back on the Mind for Both Royals, FalconsThursday, August 1, 2024 - 8:00 PM - by Chris Pike

WITH East Perth looking to hit back from a tough loss and West Perth just trying to finish off a tough 2024 season with some momentum, and the second Perth derby for 2024 sees both teams full of motivation.

The Royals are back home at Sullivan Logistics Stadium to take on the Falcons and on the back of a thrilling WA Day match up between the two old rivals, this contest is fascinating on plenty of fronts as well.

East Perth does still sit in second position on the WAFL ladder to be only percentage behind the league-leading Peel Thunder, but the Royals are coming off their most disappointing performance of the season with a 59-point loss to Claremont.

That has East Perth determined to hit back, but the Falcons had the bye last weekend to take stock of an eight-game losing streak that means they will miss finals for a second straight season since winning the 2022 premiership.

While a disappointing season for West Perth, it's a proud club with Tyler Keitel still in fine form having kicked 50 goals so far this season while five-time fairest and best winner Shane Nelson has been brilliant averaging another 30.2 disposals 240 games into his remarkable WAFL career.

West Perth's last win this season came back in Round 7 against West Coast so the Falcons will look to make a statement in the second derby of 2024 on the back of a nail-biting three-point WA Day loss to the Royals at Pentanet Stadium.

Falcons captain Dean Munns has had to take on all the big jobs in recent weeks defensively and will do so again, but he's looking forward to his team starting to finish the season on a positive note.

"We love playing in the derby, it’s always a tough, hard-fought contest, regardless of ladder position," Munns said.

"We look forward to the challenge this weekend as we aim to get back on the winners list and finish off strongly what has been a disappointing season for the club.

"There’s no better opportunity than doing so in a derby, against one of the top teams in the competition and hopefully in front of a big crowd in Leederville."

East Perth is looking to bounce back from a three-goal performance in a 59-point lost to Claremont to retain second position with captain Hamish Brayshaw confident of what would be a third derby victory from the past four.

"It's definitely some cause for concern and the comp's tight, and we need to figure out how to string four quarters of footy together, and we have to bounce back," Brayshaw told SEN WA.

"There's four rounds to go and then finals, and we need to figure some things out.

"That was the first four-quarter performance we've been whacked in all year so we'll really try to figure out what went wrong, and as the captain I'm happy to put that one away and look ahead to a derby."