Royals to meet Subi in clash of the co-tenants

Brian Dawson says it is important that the club focuses on worrying about its 'own backyard' rather than the form of opposition clubs in the lead-up to the Good Friday match against co-tenants and ladder leader, Subiaco.

East Perth will hold its main training session tonight ahead of the clash.

“Number one is to worry about our own backyard and we need a massive lift from where we started last week".

“We’ve reviewed the game and we’ve spoken at length about it and I’m sure the players are in no doubt about what our shortcomings were last week and we had a lot of them", he said.

“We had a side that ran out onto the ground that were certainly more capable than the result suggests."

West Perth’s 25 marks inside their forward 50 zone rewarded the midfield for their effort, with the Falcons dominating, with just 9.6 possessions per scoring shot, compared to East Perth’s 24.6.

“Pretty simply, West Perth moved the ball very well and full credit to them they absolutely came to play, and for whatever reason our group was somewhat indifferent on the day”, Dawson said.

Dawson, said that Julian Locantro, with 22 possessions, two inside 50s and a goal on Saturday was notable in his just his second league game for the club.

“He is finding his way in the game at the moment, he had one game last year and his second league game last week and he performed credibly in a side that was badly beaten on the day. He found the footy a reasonable amount and he certainly has plenty of talent.

“He needs to pick up in certain areas, he needs to be able to defend stronger than he probably can at the moment, but no doubt he is a talent and he is one of our younger players that we look forward to seeing more of and seeing him develop into a very good league player, which he certainly has the ability to do”, Dawson said.

The Royals face a Subi side that has started the season strongly and have become surprise premiership contenders early in the season.

“Look they’ve created lots of goal scoring opportunities, so we’ve really got to win our battles through the midfield and deny them some of the ball.

“They’ve had a lot of inside 50s, and if you give up 55, 60 inside 50s to the opposition then you’re probably going to be in trouble. We gave up 62 last week and we saw what the result was, so our defence has to be much better than what it was and we’re going to have to work really hard to deny Subi some of the ball and certainly restrict some of their goal scoring opportunities”, he said.

The East Perth Bar will be open prior to the League bounce down from 1:00pm and will remain open for match presentations until 9:00pm.

Colts bouncedown is 10:55am, with Reserves at 1:25pm and League starting at 4:05pm.