Turner vows Swans to hit back in 2026

Swan Districts captain Jesse Turner will do all he can to ensure his team learns from this 2025 season and hits back hard in 2026 while still seeing some bright spots along the way, and looking forward to two big milestones in the run home.

It was a heartbreaking way for Turner to finish the 2024 season when he injured a knee in the qualifying final win against Peel Thunder in Mandurah and ended up missing the second semi and preliminary finals as a result.

That had him as determined as ever to get back there for another crack at it with Swan Districts in 2025. He’s had another standout season continuing his outstanding 172-game career, but it’s been a year of frustration from a team point of view.

The Swans have only won five games with two rounds of the season to go and while frustrated with how the season has gone on a number of fronts, Turner has vowed that 2026 will be vastly different for Swan Districts.

“As a group and a club we’re definitely not happy with where we’re at and are quite annoyed about it, and I can say it now that this won’t be the same next year,” Turner said.

“We’re going to be back being a contender next season and hopefully you get a bit of luck which you need with injuries.

“But with how we approach pre-season, I’m extremely confident that this year will be a one off and we can get back to where we were last season.”

It’s more than just the injuries

Turner and the leaders and coaching staff at Swan Districts have already begun reviewing what went wrong in 2025 to learn from it, and fix it for 2026 and there’s not going to be any excuses made.

While missing key players has played its part, nobody at the Swans wants to use that as an excuse. Turner does believe that they might have ever so slightly lost some of that hunger and drive to get to a preliminary final, and started to think it might just naturally happen again.

“It’s something that myself and Pruey our coach and some of the senior boys have been talking about a lot in this back end of the year, and it’s been extremely tough with how last season went and the success we had in getting to a prelim final,” Turner said.

“Then a few boys like myself unfortunately weren’t able to play in those last couple of finals and then the goal for us this year was to go one step final, and hopefully to reach the grand final.

“I think there’s a number of reasons it hasn’t happened and as a collective, looking back we definitely could do some things differently with the way we approached the pre-season.

“Instead of being the hunted, other teams looked at us as more of a threat and took us a lot more seriously and I think we probably had things we could have changed with how we attacked pre-season in terms of still being that hard running team.

“Last year we were so good at outworking teams and we’ve lost that edge a bit this season.”

The injuries are part of it though

While Turner doesn’t want to use the injuries or the absence of key personnel as an excuse for what has happened in 2025, it is a reality that can’t be totally ignored.

Swan Districts lost Nik Rokahr and Tom Edwards as key players from 2024 before the season even started, and then Zane Trew, Nathan Ireland, Jarvis Pina, Jake Pasini, Will Collins and Connor Blakely have only combined to play 18 games throughout all of 2025.

“Obviously losing Tommy as late as we did was hard because you’re not able to replace him with another centre half-forward so it’s been hard for Leigh (Kohlmann) because of that, and it’s been hard in general for us to score goals.

“Then obviously losing Nik sucked, but by getting Zane we felt that was a like-for-like but he’s missed pretty much the whole season and basically our whole spine has been out for a lot of the year.

“Even Leigh missed a few games and there are boys playing now who weren’t there early on like Brandon Erceg who we only got back halfway through the season, and Seb Bright only came back in Round 6.”

There are bright points

What the absence of so many of those key players has done is provide opportunities for other players including debutants Caleb Ernst, Ned Reiger, Chase Loftus, Luke Cotellessa, Brodyn Fitzgerald, Otis Harvey and Ethyn Kane.

Along with the encouraging signs from those players, Turner has also enjoyed seeing the likes of Max Chipper, Lewis Tester and Bryce Watson take the next steps in their careers.

“It has been tough but we definitely think we could have done things differently and a bit better, and we will but we also have to be realistic,” Turner said.

“It has been great that a lot of the younger boys have got games into them. Ethyn Kane has shown how good he’s going to be, Otis Harvey as a first-year senior player has been terrific, Luke Cotellessa is another one and then you’ve got players who have been around for a few years.

“Max Chipper, Lewis Tester and Bryce Watson are now starting to become some really good league players so it’s definitely going to help us going into next season.”

Playing without games record holder

Another thing that Turner has had to learn to become accustomed to in the back end of the season is playing without Swan Districts’ games record holder Tony Notte since his retirement back in Round 12 against East Perth at Steel Blue Oval.

“It’s definitely something that’s going to take a while to get used to. I’ve played quite a few games myself and I’m just so used to having Nottey being there, and with me wearing 29 and him being 28, we were locker buddies as well so I was used to him getting ready right next to me,” Turner said.

“It’s definitely been a bit strange and it sucks not having the great man there, but I know he’s had one of the best careers you can have. He’s one of the greatest not only Swan Districts players, but one of the greatest WAFL players of history.

“He was doing a lot for us the last few years driving up from Busselton and with the way the season went, and us not being able to make finals, it became too much for his family with Jess and the kids.

“He’s obviously still playing down south and I think Busselton are top of the ladder so he’s done well to jump on the bandwagon there and we’re hoping he can get a flag down there like we weren’t able to help him get one here at Swans because not only is he a great player, but one of the best people you’ll ever meet.”

Pair of big milestones – Jiah Reidy

Swan Districts might not be playing for finals with two rounds to go in the 2025 season, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to play for including two of Turner’s long-time teammates reaching significant milestones.

The first comes this Saturday night when Swans take on the West Coast Eagles at Mineral Resources Park and Jiah Reidy plays his 100th game with his captain delighted for a player that might be underrated from the outside, but thought so highly of within the club.

“I don’t think Reidy will ever fully get the credit he deserves but when we had the state selection earlier this year, the state coach spoke to me about Jiah and how they did talk about picking him,” Turner said.

“I told Jiah that because it means there are coaches and selectors out there that see the value that he brings to us. You might look at his statistics and think that he’s just a good player but nothing too special, but he is one of, if not the most, impactful player for us.

“He will get eight to 12 disposals, but the energy he brings and each possession he gets no one else on our team can do the things that he does.

“When we need a clearance he’s also the first person we call into the midfield or when we need pressure around the ball or up forward, he’s the one we turn to. Or when we need someone to break out of a stoppage or break out of a forward 50 stoppage, he’s the one.

“He’s done it for many years and he’s someone that will never get the credit he deserves, but I’m so happy for him to get to his 100th game and get his name on the locker.

“It’s a great achievement and something he should be very proud of and I know all the boys are very excited to run out there with him, and hopefully get it done.”

Aidan Clarke to also reach century

Then in the last round of the season in Mandurah against Peel Thunder, Aidan Clarke will also bring up 100 games. Turner couldn’t be more effusive with his praise of him and the player he is still capable of being.

“I’ve been with Clarkey for a long time and we first met back in 2015 when I was just leaving colts and he was coming up,” Turner said.

“He spent a year or two down in Bunbury before coming back up and now we’ve been playing together at league level for about seven years now.

“He’s my favourite teammate and I tell him that all the time because the talent he had at the start of his career, that was always evident.

“Then the last four or five years, you match that with the work rate and commitment he’s started to bring, and you get one of the best midfielders in the comp.

“He’s been that the last few years but he’s also suffered with a lot of injuries unfortunately and even this year he’s playing through a bad knee that hopefully he can get sorted in the off-season.

“I think back to 2023 when in my opinion he was the best player in the comp once he came in after a bad hamstring injury,” he added.

“He came back and absolutely tore the competition up and I was so happy for him to show what he was fully capable of because he had put in the work to get to that point.

“I absolutely love running out with him every single week I’m hoping he’s still sticking around for a few more years because he’s just about entering his prime and if we get him back fully healthy, he’s at worst a top five midfielder in the comp.”