Joel Chianese opened the scoring after just 12 minutes and Perth began to steamroll from there without ever leaving second gear, Dino Djulbic marking his first goal in three years before Neil Kilkenny rounded it out from the spot.

"It was very important, we knew it wasn't going to be an easy game because they're playing for pride and contracts next season," Djulbic said.

"Good performance I think. The boss was giving me stick the whole week saying I still haven't scored yet, I said 'Wait, I'll score the important ones.'

"We set our target from the start, we've only lost two games. We go into every game to win and that's what we're going to do next week as well."

The win restores Perth's six-point gap at the top of the tree, meaning they could clinch the Premiership as early as next weekend.

Central Coast meanwhile remain mired in 10th with a telling 10 points. They're also looking at a near insurmountable gap to avoid the wooden spoon with Melbourne Victory up next.

"In parts we're disappointed, sometimes you've got to hold your hand up and say 'We've played a very good side," Jonathan Aspropotamitis said.

"We've got a very tough game next week so we'll take the positives and move on. We've been working on all facets of defensive structure. The goals conceded list doesn't look pretty.

"We can learn a lot (off Perth), we don't want the wooden spoon at all."