Swan Districts will be back home to Steel Blue Oval this Saturday attempting to remain unbeaten at the venue against the West Coast Eagles while also bidding farewell to one of the club’s great servants, Nathan ‘Doc’ Blakely.

Swan Districts will be hosting West Coast on Saturday with the clash getting underway at 2:30pm with the black-and-whites looking to keep their finals hopes alive in the process.

Coming into the match up at Steel Blue Oval and Swans are attempting to bounce back from last week’s loss in Mandurah to Peel Thunder by 62 points while the Eagles knocked off the league-leading Claremont by 10 points.

That leaves Swan Districts with a 3-6 record coming into the Round 10 contest while West Coast are just one position above them on the ladder with a 4-5 record.

Not only is Saturday a big game in the context of the season for Swan Districts, but it’s also going to be the 127th and final game for the club of ever reliable, popular and hard working ruckman Blakely.

He made his League debut with Swans back in 2013 and there’s been plenty of hurdles along the way including knee injuries and his medical studies and now working as an anaesthetic doctor, but he has remained a tremendous workhorse on field over 126 games.

Life is now going to take him and his family to Canada, but he will play a farewell game on Saturday at Steel Blue Oval in what is sure to be an emotional occasion.

Swan Districts might have lost earlier this season in Round 4 against the Eagles for the first time in 13 meetings in the WAFL, but they do remain undefeated against them at Steel Blue Oval.

Swans played host to the Eagles at Bassendean in their first 11 matches in the WAFL and won all of them which is a run they will now be looking to continue this Saturday.

Swan Districts coach Andrew Pruyn is fully aware of the challenge the Eagles present, but he’ll be hopeful they can remain unbeaten against them at home in the process.

“They jumped out of the blocks in that game and I think they had five goals to our nothing by the 10-minute mark of the first quarter,” Pruyn told Around the WAFL.

“So that certainly made the day a little bit harder for us and in the second half we managed to claw some back, but that 10-minute period in the first quarter where they blew us apart is certainly something that we’ve addressed.

“Hopefully we won’t find ourselves in the same situation again, but we’re really excited to come up against West Coast and get them on our home patch.

“The thing when you play against the aligned clubs or West Coast’s standalone is that they’ve got so much flexibility and they bring in a Marcus Herbert mid-season and he’s got the ability to go into the inside or play across half-back.

“You don’t have a lot of information on someone like that other than the couple of games he’s played and the same with Francou so we know they’ve got some really good talent, some top level player who arguably should be in the AFL system with Flynn and the likes.

“We’ve got a big test ahead of us but we’re up for the challenge and are excited to get out there and make amends for the game last week against Peel.”

Swan Districts are trying to bounce back from that loss to Peel last Saturday and as well as Blakely coming into the team, Luke Cotellessa, Otis Harvey, Brad Lynch and Lewis Tester also come into the line-up to take on the Eagles.

Going out for the Swans are Kade Chalcraft, Jez Rigoni, Luke Kelly, Ayden Cartwright and Zane Trew.

West Coast knocked off Claremont last week and from that team, Malakai Champion, Sam Cipriani, Callum Jamieson and Shannon Lucassen come in to face Swan Districts.

Going out for the Eagles are Elijah Hewett, Josh Lindsay, Marcus Herbert and Tom Gross.

With the WAFL Men’s clash against the Eagles this week, it means it’s the bye for both the Colts and Reserves for Swan Districts.

The Colts suffered a loss in Mandurah last week to Peel Thunder by 14 points to currently sit in fifth position on the ladder with a 3-5 record.

Meanwhile, the Swan Districts Reserves had another win last Saturday against Peel by 30 points to maintain their perfect record this season to currently sit at 8-0 and to be two games and percentage clear in top spot.