Pickering Looks For Swans To Build On Solid Start

SWAN Districts has had a long time to reflect on a last up loss to South Fremantle prior to a double break but coach Adam Pickering has been impressed by what he's seen for the most part by the black-and-whites over the opening six games.

Pickering arrived as coach of Swan Districts ahead of the 2018 season having done a long and successful apprenticeship at both colts and reserves level at East Perth and Perth following his distinguished playing career in the WAFL at East Perth after time with both Carlton and Richmond.

When Greg Harding decided to stand down in charge of Swans' league side where he had been since the start of 2011, Pickering ended up earning the nod and he immediately threw himself right into the culture at Bassendean with Swan Districts.

His league coaching career couldn’t have started any better with first up wins against Perth and Peel Thunder before Swans suffered the same fate as what every other club has against them so far in 2018, losing to Subiaco.

Swan Districts then also lost to West Perth the following week at Steel Blue Oval but bounced back strongly a week later to hammer East Fremantle by 90 points.

They then put in a competitive showing against the on-fire South Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval back in Round 6 before losing by 13 points leading into a long break heading into this Saturday's clash against East Perth at Leederville Oval.

That game was the last that Swans have played with the WAFL State game in between where Tony Notte, Rhys Palmer and Corey Gault all performed well as Western Australia beat South Australia in Adelaide by 26 points.

Then with the bye in the WAFL last weekend, a lot of the Swans players had the chance to have a hit out against the WA State 18s team on Saturday in preparation now to face the Royals on Saturday.

This Saturday will provide Pickering the first opportunity to coach against the East Perth team he played 106 games for and then coached in the reserves and colts. But he couldn’t have been happier with the way he's been embraced by Swan Districts.

"It has been very enjoyable so far but certainly full on as well and testing at times. It has been enjoyable overall and it's great to be in charge of a program and have a good group of guys to work with," Pickering said.

"Especially the senior guys have been really supportive and that's guys like Riggio, Notte, Ugle, Howard and Gault. They've been really supportive of the new coach coming in and that's made the transition a lot easier."

Pickering couldn’t be happier with the way his experienced players like Palmer, Notte, Gault, Matt Riggio, Matthew Rogers, Steven Payne, David Ellard, Kirk Ugle and Alex Howard have been leading from the front.

But what has been even more pleasing for him is seeing emerging players like Jesse Turner, Tobe Watson, Brayden Hackett, Ben Holman, William Reidy grab their opportunities and play some impressive football early in their careers.

"The boys have been really good so far this season most weeks and been in the games apart from against Subiaco who seem to be mauling everyone at the moment. They've been really good the boys, especially a few of the young boys who are fairly early on in their careers. It has been very pleasing," Pickering said.

"We have lost some experience and talent from last year, but that can always be a positive on the other side of things as well with the young kids coming through getting an opportunity.

"That's allowed us to be able to play and give a lot of responsibility to guys like Tobe Watson, Jy Reidy, Brayden Hackett and Ben Holman early on in the season.

"You do lose some experience and talent, but some new talent always comes through and there are always those opportunities that open up."