Round 6 Preview – East Perth v Perth

TRADITIONAL rivals East Perth and Perth lock horns at Leederville Oval on Saturday with plenty at stake between two clubs with just one win between them so far in 2017.

With East Perth winless after five games to date this season and Perth having won just one of its opening four matches, neither team would want another slip up on Saturday.

For the Royals, slipping to an 0-6 start to the season could very well already all but end their finals chances unless they can deliver a remarkable winning streak.

It has taken 10 wins in each of the past two seasons to finish in fifth position so a loss on Saturday would leave the Royals needing to win at least 10 of their last 14 matches.

To be fair, though, East Perth hasn’t seriously threatened to win yet in 2017 losing to Peel Thunder by 17 points, West Perth by 21, Swan Districts by 10, Claremont by 36 and Subiaco by 91.

Perth, meanwhile, can get its season right back on track with a win on Saturday that would be a second straight victory. Prior to last week’s bye, the Demons broke through for their first win of 2017 beating East Fremantle by 13 points at Lathlain Park.

That was on the back of competitive showings in losses to Swan Districts, Subiaco and to a lesser extent Claremont.

If the Demons can leave Leederville Oval on Saturday night with a 2-3 record despite their horror run of injuries so far in 2017, the beginning to the season would have to be judged as a success.

East Perth will be hoping to continue its recent dominance over Perth, though, to try and claim its first win of 2017.

The Royals have won their last nine games against Perth by an average of 51.4 points a game including three of them by 80 points or more.

The Demons last win over East Perth was Round 7, 2013 at Lathlain Park even though East Perth went on to play in the grand final of that year.

East Perth looks set to have a relatively settled team with the only change at West Coast being the return of Jack Darling for Sam Mitchel.

Mark Hutchings, Malcolm Karpany and Dom Sheed are the three emergencies for the Eagles to play Hawthorn at the MCG on Sunday. But at least two of them will play with East Perth still on Saturday.

Running defender Tom Cole will also return for East Perth for his first game of the season.

Dwayne Bolton, Tom Hodgson, Lewis Wilson, Mitch Lague and Stan Wright are the other players at the Royals in contention to be picked at the selection table.

Perth’s terrible run of injuries to start the season might be starting to improve with the available of reigning fairest and best winner Michael Sinclair and former West Coast utility Brant Colledge.

Marshall Jones, Mitch Henderson and Taran Etto are the other players in the mix to be picked by the Demons to take on the Royals.

Kurtis Chester and Tom Gooch are two players already out of the Demons line-up from the one that beat the Sharks two weeks ago prior to last week’s bye.

EAST PERTH (0-5, 8th) v PERTH (1-3, 7th) – LEEDERVILLE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams, live stats
Broadcast – KIX Digital, HFM (107.3FM)