Round 4 Men’s Preview v Peel Thunder

Swan Districts is back home at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday to host the also winless reigning premiers Peel Thunder to commemorate Anzac Day and looking for a breakthrough win this WAFL season.

Hosting a game to commemorate Anzac Day is always one of the highlights of any season and Swan Districts gets the chance at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday in what shapes as a monster game for both them and Peel at the same time with each chasing a first win of 2025.

The league contest will get underway at 2:30pm following on from the Reserves starting at 9:20am while the Colts will be in action on Sunday also at Steel Blue Oval from 12pm.

It hasn’t been the start to the WAFL season that Swan Districts was hoping for but the chance now presents to get on the board against Peel who is also having their own troubles in their premiership defence.

Coming off reaching a preliminary final last year, Swans have now lost their opening three games of the season to East Perth, West Perth and South Fremantle ahead of Saturday’s clash with Peel.

On the back of winning the premiership last year, the Thunder opened their season with a draw with Claremont but have since suffered defeats to South Fremantle and East Fremantle to now have just the two points from the first three games.

Saturday’s game presents the chance to earn a measure of revenge for last year’s preliminary final loss to Peel which also took place at Steel Blue Oval.

Swan Districts did win the meeting prior to that in the qualifying final in Mandurah last year but before that and Peel had won five games in-a-row against Swans dating back to 2022.

Saturday’s game will be the 35th meeting between Swan Districts and Peel at Steel Blue Oval with the home team having won 25 of the previous 34 clashes.

Swans did win the first nine of those meetings up until a breakthrough Peel win in 2004, and since then it’s been a lot more even with 16 wins for Swan Districts and eight for Peel.

Even though Swan Districts did suffer a third straight loss to start the season last Saturday away to the undefeated South Fremantle, it was an encouraging performance on a number of fronts.

Swans fought back from a 34-point second half deficit to get the margin back under a goal in the dying stages on a day where Ben Hewett and Evan Smith stepped up to have impressive patches to kick two quick goals apiece.

Jye Chalcraft also racked up 29 possessions, Josh Cipro 24, Jesse Turner 23, Brad Lynch 22 and Jackson McLachlan 18 with plenty to now build upon this Saturday attempting to get the first win of the season against Peel.

The Thunder also are coming off a 62-point loss at home last Saturday at the hands of East Fremantle and will be looking to respond strongly, but will be without premiership captain Ben Hancock who ruptured his ACL in that defeat.

It’s the reserves match up that is first up on Saturday at Steel Blue Oval with Swan Districts currently sitting in second position on the ladder only percentage behind the also unbeaten Claremont.

Swans have won their first three matches of the reserves season against East Perth, West Perth and South Fremantle and now will look to keep that momentum going against a Thunder team winless after three matches.

The colts game then takes place on Sunday afternoon with Swan Districts looking for a second win of the season and Peel a first.

Swans will be trying to bounce back from last Saturday’s heavy loss to South Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval while Peel also went down at home to East Fremantle by 74 points on the same day.