Round 12 Match Review: East Perth v Perth

EAST PERTH 5.12 (42) lost to PERTH 11.11 (77)

Neither East Perth nor Perth brought great form into Saturday's clash at Leederville Oval but it was the Demons that got some confidence back and the 35-point win further enhances their hopes of ending their finals drought.

Both the Royals and Demons had lost their past two matches entering Saturday's contest with East Perth trying to stay in the finals hunt and Perth out to further entrench themselves inside the top five.

East Perth came out and started strongly as well kicking three goals to two in the first quarter and having seven scoring shots to three to head into quarter-time leading by nine points.

But Perth responded impressively in the second quarter holding East Perth goalless and to just the five behinds while kicking four goals themselves to go with six behinds.

That saw the Demons turn that nine-point quarter-time deficit to a 16-point lead at the half-time interval.

Perth continued to edge away in the third quarter too kicking the only two goals and restricting East Perth to only the one behind.

The Demons completed the job in the last quarter too with another three goals to two to end up winning 11.11 (77) to 5.12 (42).

The win improves Perth to a 7-4 record on the season to be two games clear now in fourth position making a first finals appearance since 1997 now a distinct reality.

The job for East Perth to reach finals got that bit harder on their first season back as a standalone club with a 3-8 record and three straight losses.

Cody Ninyette, Kristian Cary and Guy Langdon all kicked two goals apiece for Perth in the victory.

Michael Sinclair was outstanding across half-back for Perth sending another message that he's one of the elite players in the competition. He delivered 30 possessions and 13 marks in a match-winning performance.

Corey Yeo racked up 25 possessions for the Demons, Clint Jones 24, Jacob Payne 24, Cody Leggett 22, Matthew Taylor 20 and Chris Bryan 17.