East Perth Football Club - WAFL Premiers 2001
After East Perth broke their premiership drought in 2000 in very convincing fashion they were already favourites to win again in 2001 before a ball had been bounced.
However the team suffered something of a premiership hangover when they were convincingly accounted for by South Fremantle in the opening game of the season at Leederville Oval.
A bye in round 2 meant that East Perth didn't get any points on the board until they beat West Perth in round 3, but again they remained rooted to the bottom half of the ladder when Claremont dished out a Royal thrashing a week later.
At this stage the Royals looked anything but Premiership contenders, and with another bye in round 5 the team were miles away from being able to do anything about it.
That bye however was perhaps the tonic required as the Royals bounced back to win their next 3 games.
They then came unstuck against Peel in Collie, but if anyone was looking for excuses one only needs to look at any of the Royals performances in games played in the country - they just never win them!
Any doubts about the team's desire for two premierships in a row were quashed though when they then won 9 games in row. This included overturning a couple of early season results when they handed out thrashings to South Fremantle and Claremont.
Most thrilling however was the 2 point victory over Subiaco in round 13 at Leederville Oval. Whilest traditionally West Perth might be the hated enemy, it would be East Perth vs Subiaco games that became the grudge matches to look forward to during the Royals 2000-2003 premiership years. And this one was no different.
In a battle that was closely fought all day the Royals seemingly looked vanquished when with only 3 minutes to go the Royals favourite love-to-hate enemy, Todd Ridley, marked and goaled for Subiaco to take their lead to 10 points.
Perhaps it was they way he arrogantly stuck his hands in the air in a sign of victory that had Royals fans incensed that sparked East Perth into action because they took the ball straight out of the centre and goaled right away to signal the game was not yet over.
And indeed once again East Perth grabbed the ball from the centre, it came to Troy Butcher who then kicked a miraculous on the run goal to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Round 21 saw the Royals winning streak ended at the hands of the 'real' old enemy West Perth, but the Royals were back on track when they again thrashed South Fremantle the following week to round off the season in form and finish 2nd.
As with all finals East Perth played from 2000-2003, the result was never really in doubt. If the thrashing against Claremont in the semi final wasn't big enough, 20.13(133) vs 9.7(61), they then absolutely blitzed South Fremantle in the big one - 17.18(120) vs 5.8(38).
Indeed a couple of records were broken with this victory -
The winning margin was the second highest margin in the past 71 years and only surpassed by West Perth's 1975 defeat of South Fremantle 23.17 v 7.9.
And South Fremantle's score of 5.8 (38) is the lowest score by a defeated team since the Page Premiership table system was introduced in 1931. The previous lowest score was 5.9 by East Fremantle against West Perth in 1934 and also South Fremantle 5.9 against Claremont in 1989.
A back-to-back premiership was last achieved
in the WAFL by Swan Districts 1982/83/84.
| East Perth 2.7
7.12 11.12 17.18 (120)
Captain: Jeremy Barnard Coach: Tony Micale |
def. South Fremantle
3.1 5.4 5.7 5.8 (38)
Captain: Marty Atkins Coach: Peter Sumich |
Best Players: Ryan Turnbull, Devan Perry, Rod Wheatley, Paul Symmons, Brent Cowell, Jeremy Barnard.
Simpson Medal: Ryan Turnbull (EP)
Crowd: 23,842
Weather: Overcast wintry conditions.
| Backs: | Luke Webster | David Antonowicz | David Swan |
| Half Backs: | Dean Brennan | Aaron Marley | Jeremy Barnard (C) |
| Centres: | Grant Holman | Brent Cowell | Paul Symmons |
| Half Forwards: | Andrew Waller | David Haynes | Travis Knights |
| Forwards: | Paul Ridley | Dean Buszan | Troy Butcher |
| Ruck: | Ryan Turnbull | Devan Perry | Rod Wheatley |
| Interchange: | Matt Balchin | Caine Hayes | Jeremy Humm |
| Kane Munro |
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