Turner's Midfield Form A Shining Light For Swans

THE continued emergence of Jesse Turner into a quality WAFL midfielder remains one of the shining lights at Swan Districts the longer the 2018 season goes on.

Having come through the colts program at Swan Districts and then going on to spend virtually a whole season in the reserves in 2015, Turner did get four opportunities at league level that same season and then managed 17 in the difficult 2016 season that brought about just one win.

But then by 2017, Turner played 21 of the 22 games for Swan Districts as a permanent as he provided himself a more than valuable part of the midfield for a black-and-whites team that went on to play in two finals, and beat West Perth in the qualifying final at Steel Blue Oval.

Along the way, the now 22-year-old from Bassendean averaged 22.3 disposals a game and had cemented himself as a player Swans could bank on as a midfielder moving forward under new coach Adam Pickering.

Turner did have a slightly slower than expected start to the 2018 season despite a best of 30 possessions in Round 4 against West Perth, but despite the struggles of Swans as a team over the past four games, he has strung together a run of career-best form.

Even though Swan Districts is on a six-game losing streak to have slipped to eighth position on the WAFL ladder ahead of a must-win battle with East Fremantle at East Fremantle Oval this Saturday, Turner is in tremendous form.

He had 25 possessions back in Round 13 against Peel Thunder before 32 disposals in Round 14 against Perth, then 29 touches against East Perth and then in last Saturday's 90-point loss at the hands of the Falcons, he had another 24 possessions in a strong performance.

Turner continues to improve all the time and while he was always someone who could run all day and find plenty of the ball, his ability to win the contested ball and to do well at clearances has now greatly improved while his clean hands and kicking skills are a constant work in progress.

Turner himself has worked hard on improving all areas of his game and while he'd rather the team be winning as well, he can't complain about the form he is currently in personally.

"I work on my game a lot especially in the off-season and I worked hard with Riggers, Faulky and even Crowley last year, and Dave Ellard and Rhys Palmer this year and I've just been trying to improve on the little things," Turner told 91.3 SportFM.

"I've always had a good fitness and work rate, but it was more about getting better around stoppages and being clean with my hands. That's where I've made my best improvements so far this season."

While Swan Districts has lost its past six matches, a win against East Fremantle at Shark Park on Saturday puts them right back in the finals hunt. Turner is confident they can still break back into the top five and be part of the action come September.

"We do still feel like we can play finals. As bad as the run is that we've had, Pickers was telling us we're still only one game out of the finals and we have to just look at it like that," Turner said.

"We are team that is pretty low on confidence at the moment but all it takes is one good quarter or a half of footy where we're all playing to our strengths, and playing well and we can get back on track.

"If you told us at the start of the season that with four games to go we're only one game out of the finals it's definitely not the worst scenario.

"We know we're sitting eighth right now and we are in a bit of a hole, but the boys are working their backsides off at training and I believe that if we can start well and get our confidence up, we can play finals."