East Perth has earned the right to dream of a finals berth after recording a gutsy 16-point win over South Fremantle on Saturday.

The Royals’ upset victory at Fremantle Oval moved the club to within one game of Peel Thunder, which currently has a hold on the WAFL’s last finals spot with eight rounds remaining in the season regular.

The home side shot out of the blocks with quick goals to Steven Verrier and Mason Shaw, but the Royals hit back with four straight majors via Craig Wulff, Brant Colledge, Kane Lucas and Jack Redden to secure a four-point advantage by the first change of ends.

Shaw edged South Fremantle back in front with a strong clunk and straight kick from 35m in the opening minutes of the second quarter, but that’s where the fun stopped for the Bulldogs.

Dom Sheed got the scoreboard back in East Perth’s favour with a collect and kick from the goal square, Liam Duggan extended the Royals’ buffer with a left foot snap from 25m out, Redden bagged his second six-pointer with an imperious set shot from the left pocket and Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls kicked his first major of the day to gift the visitors an 18-point lead with a half to play.

Dual Bernie Naylor medallist Ben Saunders reduced South Fremantle’s deficit to 12 points with an accurate snap in traffic early in the third term, but Oakley-Nicholls nullified his contribution with a clever bending shot from the left boundary that dissected the tall posts minutes later.

The Royals went tit-for-tat for the remainder of the quarter; goals to Simon Tunbridge and Redden offset straight shots from Strom and Shaw.

The Bulldogs came out attacking in the final quarter and Shaw’s fifth goal of the day – a laser-like set shot from 40m – got Souths on the front foot and within nine points of East Perth.

Scoring proved hard to come by for the next 10 minutes as East Perth upped its defensive pressure and attack on the ball in the midfield.

Only Oakley-Nicholls found an avenue to goal when he broke free from a contest and streamed into the 10m square to ice the game for the Royals.

Jack Redden was East Perth’s best on ground with 28 disposals and three goals but was closely followed by Brant Colledge (32 touches, one goal) and Dom Sheed (26 gives, one goal).

Xavier Ellis notched an incredible 13 disposals in the first quarter and finished with 30 touches, Liam Duggan was solid in the centre of the ground with 22 touches and one goal and Eric Mackenzie limited the dangerous Ben Saunders to just one major while collecting the ball 22 times himself.

Malcolm Kaprany amassed 20 disposals, Kurt Mutimer and Paddy Brophy got their hands on the ball 18 times each, Tom Lamb accumulated 16 touches and defender Tom Cole got the ball moving 15 times at the back of the ground.

Simon Tunbridge (13 disposals, one goal) left several Bulldogs bruised with heavy tackles while Jonathan Giles effected 29 hit-outs against South Fremantle big man Brock Higgins.

Kane Lucas was forced from the field after the first quarter with a knee complaint and Fraser McInnes joined him on the bench after suffering a hamstring injury just before the half-time siren.