Round 18 Women’s Preview v East Fremantle

It’s the last game of the 2025 WAFL Women’s season on Sunday when Swan Districts host East Fremantle at Steel Blue Oval with the black-and-whites already locked into third position.

Sunday afternoon’s Round 18 WAFL Women’s match up will see Swan Districts play host to East Fremantle with the two teams coming into the round in third and fourth position on the ladder.

Swan Districts can’t move from that third place no matter the result on Sunday afternoon with the game getting underway at 2:10pm.

Swans currently hold an 11-4 record to be a game and-a-half behind the second placed Claremont but two games ahead of the fourth ranked East Fremantle.

That means that they are guaranteed of finishing third no matter what happens on Sunday but it could very well be a first semi-final preview for the following week so winning form and momentum might end up being crucial.

East Fremantle do have to win the game to make sure of their finals position with a loss meaning the Sharks could very well drop out of the top four altogether dependant on what happens between West Perth and South Fremantle to open the round on Friday night.

The last time the two teams met was in Round 6 of this season at The Good Grocer Park with Swan Districts scoring the 32-point win, and now coming into Sunday’s match up Swans have won their past four matches and the Sharks five in-a-row.

Swan Districts WAFL Women’s coach Jason Burton knows it’s a unique position his team finds themselves in guaranteed of third place no matter the result, but he would much prefer them to go into the finals in winning form than the alternative.

“It’s an interesting one for us and an interesting final round so I think the WAFL will be pretty happy with the way they’ve fixtured things,” Burton told Around the WAFL.

“For us though, we can’t really move out of third spot but it does give us an idea of who we’re going to play in that first final.

“Obviously we want to win every game and momentum is everything so we’re not going to change anything there, but the ramifications is that there’s a fair bit that can happen over the weekend.

“We certainly don’t want to form any bad habits and even if the result of the game for us doesn’t matter so much, but certainly how we play really does matter going into finals.”

The Rogers Cup match up will get underway at 12:05pm at Steel Blue Oval also on Sunday between Swan Districts and East Fremantle.

Coming into the last game of the home and away season and Swans are sitting in third position on the Rogers Cup ladder with 11 wins, three losses and two draws.

The Sharks are only just above in second position with a 12-3 record which means that the equation is simple where whoever wins Sunday’s game will end up in that second place and earn a finals double chance.

It’s a significant difference for Swan Districts with a second place finish meaning they will take on West Perth in a second semi-final with a chance to win to earn a spot straight into the grand final for 2025.

Whereas a loss will mean they stay third and will play in a first semi-final to open the finals series against either Claremont or South Fremantle depending on other results in the last round of the home and away season.