Kohlmann continues turning back the clock with Swans

Leigh Kohlmann continues to embrace that role as a full-forward that largely has disappeared from the game and fresh off a first ever win in his career against East Perth, he hopes for the same this Saturday over South Fremantle while doing it all as a first-time father.

Kohlmann continues to be spearhead in attack for Swan Districts and with the last two wins to breathe life back into the team’s season against West Perth and East Perth, he has fired kicking nine goals across the eight quarters.

That included five goals last Saturday in the win against East Perth at Steel Blue Oval which was the first victory against the Royals that he’s enjoyed across his 64-game WAFL career now that has seen him kick 142 goals including a best of 53 back in the preliminary final year of 2024.

The 33-year-old is now doing it as a father for the first time as well in 2026 and was just happy to kick some goals and get an important win back on Saturday.

“It was a great win on the weekend and it’s always fun to return to winning ways and it’s obviously nice to get a few myself as well,” Kohlmann told WAFL World on 91.3 SportFM.

Role as a full-forward

What Kohlmann is in his role as a full-forward is much more of a call back to a foregone era living inside the forward 50 and leading from the goal square more akin to what made Tony Lockett, Gary Ablett Sr and Jason Dunstall AFL greats.

It’s also what made Ashley Hansen and Scott Cummings closer to Bassendean household names, and it’s a role he enjoys because in the end, it benefits the team always having that deep forward target to work towards getting the ball down to.

“I don’t know if there’s much to say about it to be honest, I guess it’s just an old school type full-forward type of role where I just stay a bit deeper,” Kohlmann said.

“I’ve never really been good at playing up the ground anyway so I just sort of hang around deep and I just find that a lot easier for myself to time my leads when I stay deeper, and be patient and just wait for the ball to come my way.

“I think Pruey likes having that in the team as well, someone who’s deep and can stretch the ground that bit. So I always try to stay deep and stretch and open the ground up to allow our quick half-forwards to utilise that space and have the chance to get the ball down to me.”

Form can depend on teammates

Kohlmann’s form can appear to fluctuate from week-to-week and throughout a season, but that would be the case for any full-forward because more than any other position on the ground, you do rely on the amount and quality of supply you get from your teammates.

So three weeks ago against Subiaco and the supply towards Kohlmann was almost non-existent and as a result he had just one kick for the day. Now with the team playing better the two weeks in wins over West Perth and East Perth suddenly his form looks a lot better.

Over those two games Kohlmann has kicked nine goals from 15 kicks and 10 marks, but he knows that’s just the reality of life as a full-forward.

“To be honest I think as a full-forward, we’re very reliant on what’s going on up the ground so to be honest against Subi, obviously having one touch and no goals isn’t very good, but at the same time I didn’t think I was doing a lot wrong,” Kohlmann said.

“It was just that sort of game and I couldn’t get near it and I wanted to try some different things. But it feels like the last couple of weeks we’re moving the ball better and the games have been a lot more open, and we’ve been playing a lot better as a team.

“So as a full-forward, you’re very reliant on how the team’s going so the way we’ve been playing the last couple of weeks has really helped me. Kicking a bit straighter obviously helps a bit as well.”

Seeing improvement this season

All of a sudden with Swan Districts winning the last couple of games and including one over the fifth placed East Perth to close the gap on them, finals are now within touching distance.

While still not at full strength including the continued absence of last season’s Swan Medal runner-up Jye Chalcraft along with gun defender Jake Pasini, Swans have got some quality players back on the park.

But beyond that, it’s been a better game style both in terms of applying pressure and with the ball movement that he’s noticed and now he’s hoping that Swans can keep that sort of form going for the rest of the season.

“I think especially the last couple of weeks it feels like we’ve been building a bit and even a few weeks before that as well, and we’ve got a lot better with our pressure game,” Kohlmann said.

“I think we’ve got more of an identity of how we create a lot of pressure on the ground and push up, and we’ve got a lot of quick players who tackle well and create pressure all over the ground.

“We’ve improved that lately and in the last two weeks specifically I think our ball movement has gone up a lot.

“That’s something we’ve been talking about a lot and we feel like with our game style we probably rely on a lot of exposure on the outside and moving the ball well, and making good decision.

“It’s only been the last few weeks where that’s really clicked and then in terms of the future, it would just be nice if we stopped getting so many injury and that would probably help a lot.

“That would be the first thing, but if we just keep building on what we’ve been doing, we have a lot of good, young players coming through at the moment so we have to keep on improving and going with our confidence and we’re going good places at the moment.”

Trying to beat Bulldogs for first time

Last Saturday Kohlmann ticked off his first win in eight attempts to play in a win against East Perth and also kicked those five goals having kicked just 11 in the previous seven outings.

It’s now a similar story coming into this Saturday’s clash with South Fremantle with the Bulldogs the last remaining team he is yet to play in a win against across his 64 WAFL games.

Kohlmann has played six games previous against South Fremantle for just the four goals with four of those at Fremantle Community Bank Oval for each of those four majors.

He hopes that he can turn around those numbers this Saturday and that the Swans can keep their better form going at the same time as a team.

“I probably had similar stats against East Perth I reckon as well before the weekend and South Freo are always a pretty good side,” Kohlmann said.

“Then their oval is a bit of a smaller one and I feel like I’ve always struggled with that because I’m a forward that likes space, and needs space to lead into. So I think with that smaller ground I’ve always struggled a bit on a personal note.

“For us as a team, we’ll just keep promoting the same things that we have been bringing that pressure and ball movement and decision-making, and I’m sure Pruey will come up with a great game plan for us as well.

“I think at the moment we’re a bit more confident and keen to get going so it should be a good game.”

Juggling life as a dad

The other big change on the personal front for Kohlmann now in 2026 is that he and wife Ash are parents for the first time to a nearly three-month-old daughter.

That did mean that he had a delayed start to the season and might not quite be able to spend as much time around the club as he usually would throughout the week, but he wouldn’t change a thing about it.

“It’s a bit different for me this year, I’ve got a two-month-old daughter now and I’m well into my 30s and Pruey is pretty flexible with me,” Kohlmann said.

“So Monday nights is the recovery and review night but I’ll sort of take that off to try and help out at home a bit more with the baby duties, and get to the gym myself when I can.

“I’ll be down at the club on a Tuesday and Thursday as usual, and play on Saturdays obviously, and then recovery Sunday I’ll probably be trying to be on dad duties then instead as well.

“She’s going well at the moment and is almost three months now so it’s been a great experience and she’s going really well.”