if I understand you right this can be achieved with a function mff() (multi_flip_flop) encasulating the logic and returning the stage number starting with 1.

 (\&doOtherProcessing, \&doStage1(), \&doStage2(),  \&doStage3())[ mff(/match1/, /match2/, /match3/, /match4/) ] ->()

or

if ( my $stage = mff(/match1/, /match2/, /match3/, /match4/) ) {
   if ( $stage == 1 ) {
       ...
   } elsif  ( $stage == 2) {
       ...
   } ...
} else {
    doOtherProcessing();
}
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