Thunder caught playing catch-up in loss to East Perth

Peel Thunder suffered a frustrating 19-point loss against East Perth on Saturday at Leederville Oval.

The Thunder struggled to get into the game after a goalless opening quarter, going down 6.9 (45) to East Perth 9.10 (64).

Peel forward Blair Bell said their lack of intensity from the start set the tone for the rest of the game.

“Our intent and our pressure from the start (was poor), we made it a focus to come out today and restrict their marks but we were poor from the word go,” he said.

After coach Cam Shepherd’s quarter time address demanded his side to work hard and take control of the game, Peel responded with the opening goal of the second quarter. 

However, East Perth were much more efficient with their scoring opportunities, kicking six goals from 12 inside 50s compared to Peel’s two from 23 by half-time. 

Bell said their poor ball use hurt them on the scoreboard.

“It’s always just frustrating when we do get the ball in but we find it hard to score, their pressure was pretty good but our skill level wasn’t where we wanted it today and that just reflects it on the scoreboard,” he said. 

East Perth’s lead ballooned out to 36-points mid-way through the third term and the game looked just about over, Peel managed a response and closed out the quarter with some momentum with back to back goals through Lachie Shultz and Bailey Banfield. 

The Thunder then kicked the opening goal of the last and were looking increasingly threatening, cutting the margin back to an even 3-goals. Unfortunately, that would be as close as they would get, spurning a number of chances to creep closer before simply running out of time.

Bell said the team were left lamenting another poor opening quarter which made for an impossible task of playing catch-up.

“If we had started better it would’ve been a lot better but we’ve just got to self-reflect now and try and get back on the winning board next week,” Bell said.

Peel will search for answers this week and will look to bounce back against East Fremantle next Saturday, 2.15pm at East Fremantle Oval.