The East Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Royals, is an Australian rules football club based in Leederville, Western Australia, current playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). Formed in 1902 as the Union Football Club, the club entered the WAFL in 1906, changing its name to East Perth. It won its first premiership in 1919, part of a streak of five consecutive premierships. Overall, the club has won 17 premierships, most recently in 2002. The club is currently based at Leederville Oval, which it shares with the Subiaco Football Club, having previously played home games at Wellington Square (from 1901 to 1909) and Perth Oval (formerly known as Loton Park) from 1910 to 1999.
From 2014 until 2018, East Perth served as the host club for the West Coast Eagles of the Australian Football League, the arrangement saw West Coast's reserves players playing in the WAFL for East Perth.
History The club was actually founded in 1902 as Union Football Club (not to be confused with the defunct Unions club from Fremantle) and competed in the Perth Third Rate Association Competition (however an earlier 'East Perth' had formed in 1891). The club was successful and was promoted to the First Rate Association. After continuing to succeed at this level they applied to join the WAFL and hence became a member in April 1906. The club became known as East Perth in accordance with the WAFL's policy of having each club represent a district in Perth.
After a relatively slow start – despite being competitive from its first season – East Perth after World War I went on to become one of the most powerful clubs in the West Australian league with the appointment of former Subiaco player Phil Matson as captain-coach. The club won five consecutive WAFL premierships between 1919 and 1923, and after a brief lapse due to Matson's death in a truck crash recovered to contest the finals every year from 1931 to 1940, but won only one premiership – a frustrating record to be repeated in the 1970s.
Although the club garnered an undefeated premiership in the under-age WAFL competition in 1944, East Perth became very much a middle-of-the-road side after open-age WANFL football resumed until the emergence of champion ruckman Graham "Polly" Farmer in 1956. That year, despite being held to the lowest WAFL score between 1946 and 2002WAFL Lowest Scores by Perth in torrential rain and genuine darkness at the WACA,The goal came with only three minutes to go; see The Sunday Times; 13 May 1956 the Royals won fourteen of their nineteen games and beat South Fremantle twice in the finals. Under the coaching of Jack Sheedy, and aided by becoming the first WAFL club to pay players formally,Devaney, John; Full Points Footy's WA Football Companion; p. 84. the club contested the following five grand finals for further premierships in 1958 and 1959 and a huge upset loss to Swan Districts in 1961.
The loss of Farmer, however, saw a decline in fortunes: in 1964 the club won only one of its first eighteen games and finished with its first wooden spoon since 1929, but with the recruitment of Kevin Murray the club returned to the top quickly. It returned to the finals in 1966 and played therein during every one of the next seventeen seasons except 1974. During these years East Perth won 246 and drew one of 388 games for a success rate of 63.5 percent: clearly the highest in a competition that – at least during the first half of this period – was extremely even and characterised by very rapid fluctuations in teams' fortunes.See Devaney; Full Points Footy's WA Football Companion for details. By 1980, the club had made a submission to enter the VFL/AFL, however this was withdrawn, and from 1983 their fortunes declined abruptly: between 1985 and 1995 East Perth won only eighty and draw one of 235 games for a success rate of 34.26%. Indeed, between 1985 and 1989, the Royals actually won just 24 of 105 games for a success rate of 22.8% and did not finish above sixth, with a lowlight being the sacking of coach Greg Brehaut on 13 May 1986Marsh, David; 'Brehaut Sacked as East Perth Coach'; The West Australian, 14 May 1986, p. 128 that was followed by a walk-out of three managers from a reserves team that had won five matches out of seven.Christian, Geoff; 'Crisis at East Perth as Three Resign in Protest'; The West Australian, 15 May 1986, p. 128
In 1996 the Royals returned to prominence and took the minor premiership before losing narrowly to Claremont in its first grand final since 1978. However, the club returned to the lower reaches of the ladder in 1999, winning only five of twenty games. East Perth later acted as the host club for West Coast Eagles players recruited from interstate from 2000 to 2001"AFL interstate recruits allocated to WAFL Clubs". Footygoss. 2007-01-23. http://www.footygoss.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=31773&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0. Retrieved 2007-01-25. until the host club arrangement was abolished. This made them favoured for high honours in 2000 – which was achieved with five Eagles in the grand final side, though the Royals' "old guard" made a much larger contribution than expected to the club's first flag for twenty-two years.See Devaney; Full Points Footy's WA Football Companion; p. 90 It repeated the dose emphatically in 2001, holding South Fremantle to 0.3 (3) after half time, and yet again in 2002, but fell off steadily in the following four seasons to win only six games in 2005. A partial recovery in 2007 saw the Royals finish fourth, but it returned to last in 2008 before again rebounding in 2009 to finish fifth.
Its first home ground was Wellington Square. It then moved to Perth Oval between 1910 and 2002, although it played games at the WACA from 1988 to 1989. East Perth began playing its games at Leederville Oval from 2000, formerly the home of bitter rivals West Perth), but the club only officially moved there in 2003. They have since been joined at the ground by the Subiaco Football Club.
East Perth finished runners up in the 2025 WAFL Grand Final, narrowly losing to South Fremantle. The final whistle was considered by some as somewhat controversial as East Perth were awarded a free kick in the centre of the field but were correctly not awarded a 50m penalty.
Current squad As of Apr 2026:
1 Jacob Msando 2 Sam Van Diemen 3 Cooper Stephens 4 Shayne Hille 5 Kye Willcocks 6 Coby Burgiel 7 Stanley Wright 8 Tom Medhat 9 William Cassidy 10 Jordyn Baker 11 Riley Saunders 12 Thomas Graham 13 Christian Ameduri 14 Ben Middleton 15 James Sturrock 16 Tom North 17 Luke Foley 18 Nick Robertson 19 Brad Fullgrabe 20 Ethan Regan 21 Harrison Macreadie 22 Hamish Brayshaw 23 Sebit Kuek 24 Damon Freitag 25 Brody Delaney 26 Mitchell Schofield 27 Angus Scott 28 Scott Jones 29 Jake Soutar 30 Corey Watts 31 Andre Gullini 32 Jayden Peak 33 Darcy Craven 34 Jacob Spaveski 35 Liam Tedesco 36 Kade Screaigh 37 Zac Raykos 38 Isaac Parker 39 Xavier Milner 40 Harry Micallef 41 Zaiden Ladyman 42 43 Adam De Masi 44 Josh Harris 45 Bailey Maxwell 46 Aniello Pizzolante 47 Tyler Lindberg 48 Bailey McCauley 49 Jack Gallagher 50 Devan Wulff 51 Max Donnelly 52 Taj McCartney 53 Fletcher Brown 54 55 Connor Cole 56 Stuart Guest 57 Jason Kissack 58 Riley Longson 59 Liam McAlister 60 Zac Ransom 61 Cole Trinder 62 Kael Wallace 63 William Akec 64 Oscar Benger 65 Bonheur Cubahiro 66 67 68 Jack Omodei 69 70 David Whitby 71 Jack Whitby 72 Jack Clarey
Rivalries East Perth's traditional and most bitter rivals are West Perth Football Club. Known as the Perth Derby, they have competed in many historic matches including Grand Finals in 1922, 1932, 1960, 1969, 1971, 2002, when East Perth defeated the Falcons by 60 points to complete a hat-trick of premierships, and 2013.
The East Perth vs Perth fixtures were a significant rivalry in the 1960s and 1970s, including the famous 1978 Grand Final. However its significance is somewhat muted compared to the former mentioned fixture, possibly due to Perth's lacklustre performances since the late 1970s.
Another newer rivalry is that with co-tenants Subiaco Football Club. East Perth had not beaten Subiaco since they began sharing the ground in 2004, until the 2007 season when East Perth came from over forty points behind at half time to win the game by three points. Recent games have become even more bitter with the transfer of players Travis Knights, Caine Hayes and Paul Ridley to Subiaco under controversial circumstances. Off the field the two clubs do have a good working relationship in regard to their ground sharing situation.
Club song East Perth Forever Boys is the theme song of the East Perth Football Club, played as the league team comes to the field at either a home game or final, and after a victory at a home game or final. It is sung to the tune of Anchors Aweigh The lyrics were written by John K. Watts, an ex-player of the club. He was also responsible for the club songs of Swan Districts Football Club and Geelong Football Club. The recording of the song used by the club was performed by Clem Grogan and the Blue Brass. Hobart also has a song sung to the tune of Anchors Aweigh. Its lyrics are very similar to East Perth Forever Boys. East Perth...East Perth
East Perth forever boys East Perth are we East Perth a great tradition With the premiership our mission East Perth forever boys And to the cause For we are the mighty Royals East Perth is the greatest team of all
We'll beat the Cardies Whether it be wet or fine We'll beat the others At the bell they'll be behind No doubt about The reason for it
East Perth forever boys East Perth are we East Perth a great tradition With the premiership our mission East Perth forever boys And to the cause For we are the mighty Royals East Perth is the greatest team of all
Honours
Club honours PremiershipsCompetitionLevelWinsYears won West Australian Football LeagueMen's Seniors171919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1926, 1927, 1936, 1944, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1972, 1978, 2000, 2001, 2002Men's Reserves151932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1948, 1961, 1965, 1966, 1967 1976, 1978, 1981, 1983, 2020, 2025Colts (Boys U19)51967, 1975, 1980, 2000, 2006Fourths (1965–1974)21965, 1967Perth First Rate AssociationJuniors11904Perth Third Rate AssociationJuniors21902, 1903 Other titles and honoursRodriguez ShieldMultiple91958, 1959, 1961, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1976, 2000State PremiershipMen's Seniors (1902–1924)31919, 1922, 1923 Finishing positions West Australian Football LeagueMinor premiership (men's seniors)221910, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1922, 1923, 1926, 1927, 1944, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1976, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2014, 2024Runners-up (men's seniors)181910, 1918, 1928, 1932, 1957, 1960, 1961, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1976, 1996, 2013, 2014, 2024, 2025Wooden spoons (men's seniors)71911, 1913, 1929, 1964, 1985, 1989, 2008Wooden spoons (women's seniors)22023, 2025
Individual honours Sandover Medallists: (19 total) 1923: William 'Digger' Thomas, 1925: George 'Staunch' Owens (1925), 1929: Billy Thomas, 1950: Frank Allen, 1956: Graham Farmer, 1957: Graham Farmer, 1958: Ted Kilmurray, 1960: Graham Farmer, 1969: Malcolm Brown, 1975: Alan Quartermaine, 1976: Peter Spencer, 1978: Phil Kelly, 1979: Phil Kelly, 1983: John Ironmonger, 1984: Peter Spencer, 1988: David Bain, 1997: Brady Anderson, 2001: Ryan Turnbull, 2023: Hamish Brayshaw
Simpson Medallists: (7 total) 1958: Ned Bull, 1959: Graham Farmer, 1972: Ken McAullay, 1978: Ian Miller, 2000: Dean Cox, 2001: Ryan Turnbull, 2002: Ryan Turnbull
Bernie Naylor Medallists: (10 total) 1909: Sam Sloss (30), 1924: Bonny Campbell (67), 1926: Bonny Campbell (89), 1927: Bonny Campbell (87), 1944: Alan Watts (101), 1958: William Mose (115), 1959: Neil Hawke (114), 1967: Phil Tierney (119), 1990: Glen Bartlett (69), 2006: Troy Wilson (74), 2013: Josh Smith (62)