Dawson disappointed with final quarter fadeout

EAST Perth coach Brian Dawson has nominated the Royals’ final quarter fadeout as a cause for concern moving forward.

A strong final term from the Sharks (six goals to the Royals one point) reduced a 50-point last change lead to just 10 points at the final siren, winning 11.9 (75) to 9.11 (65).

“Our third quarter was terrific, you couldn’t have asked for more, but then to follow up that way in the last quarter was extremely disappointing”, Dawson said.

“We should have closed out the game far more readily than that, in the end we were really struggling, we were lucky it was a 25-minute quarter”.

“You can ice the game if you can get a couple of early goals and take the wind out of the opposition's sail. But, if they get the first couple of goals and then they get the next couple of goals, then it’s game on and it was really disappointing on our part”, he said.

“We just really need to be far more hungry to really close out a game like that”.

Co-captain Brendan Lee made a notable return finishing with 32 possessions, bolstering the midfield brigade in his first game in more than seven weeks. Steven Payne had 30 disposals, four inside 50s and a goal, Pat McGinnity had 26, Sharrod Wellingham 25, Freddie Clutterbuck 23, Craig Wulff 23 (three inside 50s and a goal), Dom Sheed 21, Nathan Blee 17 and Will Maginness 17 (and a goal) also contributed well.

Fraser McInnes and Josh Hill kicked three goals, while Callum Sinclair booted two majors in addition to his 17 possessions, eight marks and 23 hit outs. He combined well with Paul Johnson (23 hit outs, four inside 50s), taking a 46 to 18 advantage in ground hit outs.

“In modern footy you’ve got to be a far way ahead before you can really relax. Six, seven goals in a quarter is gettable, absolutely”.

“We weren’t far enough ahead we didn’t think we’d have the game firmly in our keeping, it was a good break that we had and we needed to build on that, so that’s the disappointing thing and we asked the players to win the last quarter and we didn’t”, he said.

“The way we played in the third quarter we just went away from that. We asked them to move the ball quickly forward and not play a hit up, chip up sort of game, I think we got away from that. But, then our defensive aspects, fell away completely. We gave them far too much easy ball and overlap and we just weren’t urgent to go pick anyone up, we were folding back on the player rather than locating a player that we should have been on”.

“It was an important game, East Fremantle will be around when the whips are cracking, so it was an important game for us”, he said.

“We certainly take the four points, but gee we’ve got some work to do”.

East Perth will return to Medibank Stadium to take on Claremont this Saturday, May 10.

Reserves

After the Sharks took the lead at the last change, the Royals mounted a comeback and led during the final quarter, only to fall 4 points short, in the 16.11 (107) to 17.9 (111) loss.

Steven Wityk and Marcus Ruggiero kicked three goals each, Dean Cadwallader (2 goals) and Karpany, Main, Thomas, Wilson, Slater, Locantro, Blackley and Shanahan all contributing with one. 

Locantro had 26 possessions, Cadwallader had 26, Slater had 23 and Shanahan had 21.

Garry Moss made a steady return in his first game back from a knee reconstruction.

Colts

The Colts trailed at every break, falling just 3-points short in the, 10.9 (69) to 9.12 (66) loss.

Kaine Buckley kicked 2 goals, while, Young, Gare, Gorter, Spasojevic, Henneker, Armstrong and Ipsen kicked a goal each.

Marty Zambotto had 23 possessions, Zach Dent had 21 and Kobe Chrisp had 19.