Round 14 Men’s Preview v South Fremantle

Swan Districts have a chance to make a statement of what they are capable of on Saturday afternoon when hosting runaway WAFL Men’s leaders South Fremantle at Steel Blue Oval.

Swans come into the clash with the Bulldogs fresh off last week’s win against West Perth at Joondalup and now have the chance to continue that momentum at home on Saturday afternoon.

The day’s action at Steel Blue Oval gets underway with the colts match up starting at 9:05am followed by the reserves at 11:35am, and then the league game gets underway at 2:30pm.

Swan Districts produced a strong showing last Saturday at Joondalup to score the 11-point win against West Perth to bring some momentum with them against South Fremantle.

The Bulldogs arrive at Steel Blue Oval on a seven-game winning streak and sitting 10 points clear in top spot of the WAFL Men’s ladder with an 11-1 record, but Swans have a good recent record at home against them.

Swan Districts have won the last three games at Steel Blue Oval against South Fremantle including by 27 points in Round 11 last year. The last win for the Bulldogs at Bassendean was all the way back in Round 15, 2021.

Swan Districts coach Andrew Pruyn knows that taking on South Fremantle is a significant challenge given the form they are in, but he’s looking forward to unleashing his players to give it their best crack.

“This would be the hardest challenge for any team right now to take South on no matter where we’re at, and what we’re trying to do,” Pruyn told 91.3 SportFM.

“We’ll certainly go into it knowing that you can actually be super aggressive in your approach similar to what we did against West Perth after half-time.

“You can have a real crack at these sort of teams knowing where we’re at and where they’re at is very different. Having lost one game for the year and with every single one of their top line players out there playing, clearly they are a really classy outfit that we get a look at to throw everything at it.

“We can inspire our young boys to have a real crack so we’re looking at it as a pretty impressive opportunity for us.”

Coming off last week’s win against West Perth, Swan Districts have added Caleb Ernst, Brodyn Fitzgerald, Luke Kelly and Chase Loftus to their squad to take on South Fremantle.

If Ernst and Loftus make the final team, it will be their WAFL debuts with Swan Districts with the pair having been recruited to the club in 2025.

South Fremantle have made plenty of changes too from the team that beat Claremont with Cooper Clarke-Dehring, Riley Colborne, Toby Dodds, Hudson Pivac, Kyle Russell, Nick Stuhldreier and Robbie Turnbull all added to the squad.

Going out for the Bulldogs are Ashton Ferreira, Jamaine Jones and Trey Ruscoe.

The colts contest gets proceedings underway at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday morning with Swan Districts fresh off an 18-point victory last week against West Perth.

That saw Swans now come into Saturday’s clash sitting in fourth position with a 6-5 record and they will enhance their prospects of a higher placed finish with a win against a Bulldogs team currently sitting second at 7-4.

Then in the reserves, Swan Districts also beat West Perth by 16 points last Saturday and now will look to keep that momentum going at home to South Fremantle this Saturday.

Swans come into the game sitting in third position on the reserves ladder with an 8-3 record and there’s a chance they finish the weekend in top spot should they beat a South Fremantle side currently occupying that position.