Round 11 Women’s Preview v West Perth

Coming off learning plenty from playing the undefeated two WAFL Women’s teams in the past two weeks, Swan Districts will now look to further consolidate third place when taking on West Perth on Saturday night.

Swan Districts and West Perth met in the finals last year, they currently occupy and third and fourth positions on the WAFL Women’s ladder, and all signs point to a fascinating match up at Joondalup’s HIF Health Insurance Oval.

The WAFL Women’s contest will begin on Saturday night at 7:05pm following on from the Rogers Cup battle that starts at 5pm.

It could very well be a season-defining battle for both teams with Swan Districts coming into the weekend in third position with a 6-3 record to be just ahead of the fourth placed West Perth who are 5-4.

That’s where the difference in a win or loss is going to be significant for Swans. A win and they are two games clear in third position and remain in touch of top two teams, Subiaco and Claremont.

However, a loss and Swans will be in fourth position and left fighting for their finals position for the rest of the home and away season.

After being on a five-game winning streak, Swan Districts have lost their past two games but that has been against Subiaco and Claremont who are both yet to lose a game at all so far in 2025.

West Perth was also on a four-match winning run before losing to South Fremantle last Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval in a game that featured just two goals between both teams.

Saturday night’s match will be the second time the two teams have met this season with Swan Districts winning a thriller by five points against West Perth back in Round 5 at Steel Blue Oval.

That was on the back of their meeting in the first semi-final last year which saw West Perth beat Swan Districts by 34 points with Swans having won five of their six clashes in the WAFL Women’s competition prior to that.

Taylah Edwards is equal on the league’s goalkicking tally this season with Swan Districts and is fully aware of the importance of Saturday night’s game with West Perth with the timing of the game also adding to the challenges.

“When we sat down at the start of the week as a group we talked about what our season looks like with a win or loss this week,” Edwards said.

“Obviously we want to win this because if we do we still have a shot for top two so we need to rally together and try to get it done.

“It’s definitely not my favourite place to play at night time, but we just have to deal with it. We played them there last year in a night game in one of the last games of the season and what makes it hard is that it just gets dewy.

“It might not be raining but the ground is still wet, the ball gets slippery and you just have to adjust to all of that. The long sleeves will definitely be in abundance this week that’s for sure.”

Swan Districts have added Naomi Baker, Eliza Gelmi, Makaela Grau, Jaime Henry and Sienna Pollard to the squad from the team that lost to Subiaco by 21 points last week.

Going out for Swans are Sienna Gerardi and Ava Stewart.

Matilda Bennett, Jekylah Garlett, Tazma Hutson, Lunay Van Den Heever and Jamarah Walley have been added to the West Perth squad following their loss to South Fremantle last week.

Going out for the Falcons are Cara Dziegielewski, Emily Bennett, Elissa Price, Taylor Ferguson and Lexi Strachan.

The Rogers Cup contest starts at 5pm at HIF Health Insurance Oval and it features the top two teams in the competition coming into the weekend.

Swan Districts currently sit in second position with a 6-2 record to be behind the league-leading West Perth who are 8-1, but a win for Swans sets up a fascinating battle the rest of the home and away season.

The two teams met earlier this season in Round 5 at Steel Blue Oval and that saw Swan Districts hand West Perth the eight-point defeat with the Falcons having not lost in either of the past two seasons on the way to winning back-to-back Rogers Cup premierships.