Round 15 Men’s Preview v Perth

The injury curse for Swan Districts this WAFL Men’s season hasn’t dissipated but they are coming off taking it right up to the league-leaders last week and will look to knock off the finals bound Perth this Saturday.

Swan Districts do continue to suffer some cruel injury blows, but there was a lot to be encouraged about in the narrow 13-point victory against runaway league-leaders South Fremantle last Saturday at Steel Blue Oval.

Given that strong showing, Swans deserve to head to Mineral Resources Park this Saturday afternoon full of confidence taking on Perth.

The Demons do still sit in fourth position on the WAFL Men’s ladder with an 8-5 record but they are coming off their own 80-point defeat at the hands of East Perth last Saturday afternoon.

The two teams last played one another back in Round 10 at Steel Blue Oval with Perth ending up beating Swans 11.10 (76) to 9.7 (61).

Swan Districts’ 77-game defender and former captain Brandon Erceg is looking to help ensure Swans take as much out of the last month of the season as they can.

“There’s still such a big focus on the way that we want to play and trying to build on the way we want to play so that’s the focus,” Erceg told 91.3 SportFM.

“The other thing as well is just winning as many games of football as we can. Irrespective of what’s happening in the season and whether or not we can make finals, you don’t really like running out on a Saturday and then the game finishes with you not having won.

“I think we’ve been building a little bit in the little three or four weeks with how we’ve been playing, and even on the weekend against South Fremantle we did a lot right but didn’t quite knock them off.

“We put ourselves in a position where we quite easily could have won the game but it’s just the competitive nature of the playing group and wanting to win, and we’ve got some guys who are developing too as league players so it gives them a really good chance to keep building on their games leading into next season.”

Coming off that strong showing last Saturday against South Fremantle, Connor Blakely, Jacob Coniglio, Brodyn Fitzgerald, Brenton Hilton, Luke Kelly, Chase Loftus and Troy Yukich have been added to the squad.

Going out for Swans are Will Collins, Josh Cipro and Caleb Ernst.

Perth are trying to bounce back from an 80-point loss to East Perth with Tarkyn Brogan-Henry, Jack Evans, Tristan Jacques and Jed Kemp coming into the squad with no outs at this stage.

The day’s action at Mineral Resources Park begins with the colts match up at 8:55am with Swan Districts currently sitting in fourth position on the ladder while Perth are seventh.

However, there’s not much between the two teams with Swans with a 6-6 record while the Demons are 5-6 so Saturday morning’s game shapes as a crucial one in the context of the season and in the countdown to the finals.

Swan Districts are looking to bounce back from a 26-point loss last Saturday at Steel Blue Oval to South Fremantle while Perth also went down on the same day to East Perth by 15 points at Leederville.

Last time the two teams met was back in Round 10 and that was at Steel Blue Oval where they played out a thriller with Swans ending up narrowly beating the Demons 13.6 (84) to 12.4 (76).

That leads into the reserves match up that gets underway at Lathlain at 11:25am with Swan Districts coming into the game in third position while Perth are fourth, and there’s plenty on the line for both teams.

Swans are currently in that third place with an 8-4 record to be just ahead of the Demons who are 7-4.

A win for Swan Districts on Saturday and not only will they be guaranteed of staying third, but could even improve to second position whereas a loss and they will slip to fourth, but they would still be three games clear of the fifth ranked Subiaco.

Both teams were in action last Saturday with Swans going down to South Fremantle by 24 points while Perth also lost to East Perth by 38 points at Leederville.

Last time they played one another was in Round 10 at Steel Blue Oval with Perth claiming the 11.16 (82) to 7.5 (47) victory against Swan Districts.