Eagles* win derby**

Eagles* win derby**

 

East Perth*, the team aligned to West Coast, defeat Peel (the team aligned to Fremantle) in round two of the WAFL**

 

SOMETIMES the WAFL can’t take a trick. Sometimes it can’t turn a trick. With the AFL deciding on an abbreviated start to round one that included a Friday night game and a derby, the WAFL decided on a Friday night game and, as a Saturday offering, the first meeting between the AFL aligned clubs on the same day as the derby. And both games were played at Leederville Oval.

 

Someone counted 900 spectators at the mini-derby and it was tight and scrappy all day. Peel’s inaccuracy meant they didn’t get value for effort in the first and third quarters while East Perth nearly blew it with 2.7 in the last but hung on to win by 12 points. The ruck contest was interesting with Paul Johnson taking on tall Fremantle-listed Craig Moller – Johnson was superb but Moller persisted and did some good things. Craig Wulff, Freddie Clutterbuck and Aaron Sweet provided the run for the Royals, Garry Moss received a lot of close attention but kicked two brilliant goals and Josh Smith improved as the game went on and finished with three goals. Viv Michie impressed for Peel and Marlon Motlop did some classy work.

East Perth 11.14 (80) Peel 9.14 (68).

 

In the Friday night game West Perth kicked the last four goals of the game and beat Subiaco by that margin. Rohan Kerr showed he will be a good addition to the Falcon squad, Mark Hutchings was in great touch and Shane Nelson again had a good game. Callum Sinclair was excellent in the ruck for the Lions and Aidan Parker picked up from where he left off last year.

 

West Perth 11.12 (78) Subiaco 8.6 (54).

 

There are two games on Good Friday Peel vs East Fremantle and Subiaco vs East Perth (a twilight fixture) while Perth play South Fremantle and Swan Districts play Claremont on Saturday.

 

The ladder doesn’t mean anything yet but West Perth are on top with two wins after two outings.

About Les Everett

A Footy Almanac veteran, Les Everett is the author of Gravel Rash: 100 Years of Goldfields Football and Fremantle Dockers: An Illustrated History. He is the footyalmanac.com WAFL correspondent and uses the money he makes from that role to pay for his expensive websites australianrules.com.au and talkingfrankie.com and fund the extravagant Vin Maskell at scoreboardpressure.com

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