Luke Partington says an ambitious change in tactics helped East Perth overcome a big fourth quarter deficit to defeat South Fremantle on Saturday.

The Royals were staring down the barrel of a loss at Fremantle Oval with 10 minutes to play before Luke Webster sent a message to the group via his runners.

The senior coach said it was time to throw caution to the wind and go for broke.

“With about 10 minutes to go in the last quarter we were down by 17 points; it was an all-or-nothing scenario,” Partington said.

“You would rather lose by five goals than not have a go at it. We went into 'corridor blitz', which is just focused on attacking through the corridor. We went through the corridor at all costs and it worked out for us.

“We were able to win our individual contests, get the ball moving forward and Lamby (Tom Lamb) produced two goals and then Hutch (Mark Hutchings) stood up in the big moment. Obviously, Drew (Petrie) finished it off with his point at the death. It was really good.”

Partington’s 35-disposal, 20-contested possession, six-clearance and five-tackle game was central to East Perth’s fourth-quarter revival.

He applied 13 pressure acts, notched 13 one percenters and provided the Royals with plenty of run through the guts of the ground.  

While the second-year Eagle is averaging 29 touches per game in the WAFL, Partington said he was striving to improve his defensive output this season.

“I’m finding a little bit of the footy at the moment, but I’m really focusing on my ‘oppo ball’ at the moment and how I’m using the footy,” he said.

“They will be my two focuses moving forward.”