Round 4 WAFL Men’s Match Report

Every streak in football has to come to an end at some point and unfortunately for Swan Districts their undefeated run against the West Coast Eagles in the WAFL Men’s competition was stopped in heart stopping fashion on Sunday.

Swan Districts came into Sunday’s match up at Lathlain’s Mineral Resources Park as the only team in the competition yet to lose to the Eagles in the 12 matches they had played dating back to 2019.

The first 11 of those were all played at Steel Blue Oval before a first clash at Mineral Resources Park in Round 19 last year which saw Swans remain undefeated against the Eagles with the five-point win.

Sunday’s game then saw the Eagles make a flying start with five goals in 10 minutes but Swans worked their way back into the contest. Then by the time Jovan Petric kicked a goal just before time-on of the last quarter, it was Swan Districts up by four.

That was soon out to five but then West Coast kicked the last goal of the game to score their first ever win against Swan Districts 14.10 (94) to 13.15 (93).

Swans now sit on a 1-3 record after the opening four rounds of the 2026 WAFL Men’s season.

Jackson McLachlan ended up kicking four goals on the afternoon for Swan Districts from 13 kicks with Jovan Petric and Leo Steed also kicking two goals apiece.

Clint Hinchliffe continues to adapt immediately to playing at the level with another 30 possessions in the midfield for the Swans while Josh Cipro finished with 26 touches, Luke Kelly 24, Kade Chalcraft 23, Zane Trew 20 and Jarvis Pina 20.

Bryce Watson and Max Chipper picked up 18 disposals while Nathan Blakely came back into the team to have 16 touches with captain Jesse Turner also having 16 while Lucas Impey had 18 hit outs in the ruck against AFL veteran Matt Flynn.

West Coast had never beaten Swan Districts and were on a mission to change that and made a flying start with five goals in 10 minutes to start the clash on Sunday.

Suddenly the Eagles were 31 points in front just 10 minutes into the game before Swan Districts got a steadying goal thank to Jackson McLachlan.

The Eagles, though, kicked away further with two more in succession to open up a 42-point lead at the 23-minute mark before Swans did get a couple back just before quarter-time thanks to Josh Cipro and Otis Harvey to cut the deficit to 27 points after one.

Swans also made an encouraging start to the second quarter with a goal to Leo Steed but the Eagles continued to have the answers and kicked the next two to lead again by 33 points.

Steed did manage a second just before half-time, though, and that helped Swans limit the advantage of West Coast to 27 points at half-time.

Swans were then able to make the perfect start to the third quarter with goals to Jiah Reidy, McLachlan and then McLachlan again as it was just a seven-point ball game it was the black-and-whites with all the momentum.

West Coast again responded with the next two goals before Swan Districts hit back and it was thanks to Jovan Petric with the Eagles leading by 11 points at three quarter-time.

That all led into the dramatic last quarter and Swan Districts found themselves back in front following a fourth goal to McLachlan, another to Luke Kelly and then a second to Petric at the 18-minute mark.

They were leading by four points, then five with a behind to Petric but the Eagles had the last say with a goal to Tom Gross and they scored their first ever win over Swan Districts as a result.