Wulff wants Royals to win final two games and not rely on othersFriday, August 19, 2016 - 4:18 PM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth games record holder and inspirational captain Craig Wulff knows how important Saturday's clash with South Fremantle is at Medibank Stadium and he wants the Royals to secure their place in the WAFL finals on merit by winning their last two games.

East Perth has now lost its last two games against Peel Thunder and Subiaco to slip outside of the top five with two games of the 2016 season remaining which sees the Royals take on the second placed South Fremantle at Medibank Stadium this Saturday and then the fifth placed East Fremantle next Saturday at ATOM Stadium.

The Royals have made the finals in the WAFL the past four years which has seen them end up playing in two grand finals and a preliminary final, and there's no way that Wulff wants to see the season end in 2016 without another appearance in September.

While East Perth could still qualify for the finals with a loss to the Bulldogs on Saturday, that leaves it in the hands of other results with the Royals needing either Peel Thunder to lose their remaining two matches, or East Fremantle to lose to Claremont.

Then it would require the Royals beating East Fremantle next Saturday at ATOM Stadium.

Wulff will be playing his 284th game for East Perth as he leads the team out on to Medibank Stadium on Saturday against the Bulldogs and he hopes it ends on a winning note to avoid what would be quite a restless week ahead.

"It sort of started last week and we felt a lot of pressure to win against Subi, but we didn’t get the job done there so that pressure mounts to this week," he said.

"You'd want to be winning this week to be confident enough of getting through. We don't want to have to wait until next week because I don’t think our percentage is going to be quite good enough so it's pretty important we win these last two games."

While Wulff knows how important a win on Saturday is for East Perth, he is also under no illusion as to how difficult a challenge South Fremantle will provide having already secured second spot.

"Obviously it's a very important game for us and we are coming up against a team that's sits second to the top so it's going to be a fantastic challenge for us," Wulff said on 91.3 SportFM.

"They do have a very potent attack and they've got some good height, and some good smalls as well but it's the pressure they put on our backs when the ball hits the ground is very good also."

East Perth was looking on target for a finals appearance only two weeks ago having beaten Claremont to secure a fifth straight victory. But losses since to the Thunder and Lions have made the job harder, but Wulff doesn't feel like they are too far away from getting back to their best.

"Our skill level probably was a little bit down and we probably didn’t work hard enough for the bloke with the ball. We need to lift our work rate a little bit more to make those targets a little bit easier to hit for the guys with the ball," he said.

"We weren’t disgraced last week on the scoreboard so if you stick with a side on the scoreboard you're halfway there, but there were little things we could have done better during the day that could have kept us a little bit closer. Overall we weren’t at our best but we weren’t disgraced, which is important."

It has been a historic season in 2016 for Wulff as he has become the games record holder at East Perth and after it was interrupted halfway through with a leg injury, he has returned late in the season and continues to work hard in his late career role in the forward-line.

He has had to take on even extra responsibilities with the leadership too with a season-ending injury to fellow co-captain Kyle Anderson, and with experienced wingman Steven Payne also getting hurt and now trying to earn his place back in the reserves, and Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls also out injured.

Wulff continues to soldier on, though, and no matter what happens now for the rest of 2016 he has no doubt that East Perth's immediate future is in good hands with the amount of quality players currently in the strong colts and reserves teams.

"I would like us to be up a little bit higher on the ladder right now to be a little bit less stressed, but overall I can't complain too much with regards to my body. I'm obviously not getting any younger or fitter, but in regards to that I'm sound enough to be able to keep playing," Wulff said.

"We've obviously got a really young reserves football team and it is really good signs for the club going forward to see them going well. The key is holding them all together and trying to keep them together now for three, four and five years which would be outstanding.