East Perth coach Ross McQueen says sitting atop the WAFL ladder is a nice reward for his group and the fans but says it means little if they don’t finish the season in strong fashion.

After three quarters of domination, the top spot was almost ripped out of the Royals’ grasp as Perth kicked six unanswered goals in the final term at Sullivan Logistics Stadium to close within seven points.

But the group’s wise heads prevailed as they used smart chip-and-marks to stave off Perth’s irresistible late momentum, claiming a valuable four points in the 11.15 (81) to 11.8 (74) win that puts them a game clear of Peel Thunder.

“This time last year, we were in a similar position, and it’s nice now to be a game clear, but you just need to bank as many wins as you possibly can,” McQueen told The West Australian.

“Top’s nice for the moment, but we’ve got Claremont next week and another four really tough games after that, but it’s nice for the players to enjoy and our very loyal supporters.”

Football has been a game of extreme momentum swings in 2024, with East Perth on the receiving end of late charges multiple times, so much so that McQueen referenced Friday night’s AFL clash between Essendon and Adelaide at halftime to remind his players of the dangers.

“We talked about Adelaide and Essendon last night. Adelaide kicked eight goals in a quarter, and they’re playing against the third-best team in the AFL, and they couldn’t stop it, so you’ve got to ride it out and trust that the players will make the right decisions,” he revealed.

“We tried to put a couple of things in place; whether they’re the right things, I think, is something we need to reflect on watching the tape again. We’ll watch that last quarter pretty closely.

“I’m also lucky some of our guys have played a lot of footy, and I’m talking about Zach Raykos and Liam Tedesco. It may have been at a different level, but they understand when pressure comes on, you have to find a way to absorb it and make some good decisions.

“The last couple of minutes, we made some better choices. There’s still improvement there and we obviously played good footy for three quarters to put ourselves in that position, so there’s some positives.”

East Perth’s leaders were vital all day as former AFL pair Hamish Brayshaw (27 disposals and four clearances) and Mitch Crowden (29 disposals and five clearances) starred, but it was the late composure and grunt from the likes of Raykos (26 disposals) and Angus Schumacher (28 disposals and 11 clearances) that proved the difference.

McQueen was also full of praise for forward Nicholas Bonomelli, who booted a bag of four in his first League appearance of the campaign.

“Nic’s worked hard and toiled away,” he said.

“He’s 26 or 27 now and has been in the WAFL system for a while. He played some games last year at different times, and he’s worked really hard to get his opportunity today.

“He kicked four and gave us probably the best version of himself, which is what we want, and that will be the challenge moving forward to try and reproduce it.”