Four Swans Products Ready For AFL Prelim Finals

WHILE Swan Districts' next generation of young talent will be on show in Sunday's WAFL Colts Grand Final, four of the club's finest AFL products will be looking to advance to the big dance in the AFL this weekend as well.

Swan Districts' colts have qualified for the Grand Final at Optus Stadium on Sunday against Subiaco with a host of those players in black-and-whites destined for an AFL future.

But four men already in the midst of fine AFL careers having come through the ranks at Swan Districts will be taking part in preliminary finals this weekend as well.

Alex Rance and Nathan Broad already became AFL premiership players at Richmond by being part of the 2017 triumph and now the two Tigers defenders are preparing to play Collingwood in front of almost 100,000 people at the MCG on Friday night for a place in a second straight Grand Final.

Rance has become one of the game's all-time great defenders now over the course of his 198-game career with the Tigers earning the reputation as the best backman in the game right now.

Already over the course of his career he has been named an All-Australian five times including being captain in 2017 and is a best and fairest winner at Richmond.

Now he will play a key role against the Magpies in a blockbuster preliminary final at the MCG on Friday night.

His teammate Broad fought his way into the Tigers team in the second half of 2017 to become a premiership player through his strong defensive efforts. He has maintained that throughout 2018, so far playing 17 of 23 games, to now be within striking distance of a second Grand Final appearance.

Then at Optus Stadium on Saturday as West Coast hosts Melbourne for a place in the Grand Final against the winner of the Richmond-Collingwood battle, cousins Lewis and Neville Jetta will be in action on other sides of the field.

Both Jetta cousins began their careers at Swan Districts before entering the AFL and now Lewis is attempting to help West Coast into another Grand Final in front of 60,000 fans at Optus Stadium while Neville is out to help Melbourne reach its first premiership decider since 2000.

Lewis is already a premiership player from Sydney in 2012 but with 172 games in the AFL now under his belt, he is hoping to help the Eagles to another Grand Final to repay the faith the club has shown in him since he joined in 2016.

He is happy to see his cousin playing such good football with Melbourne and to now finally get a taste of finals football in 2018, but that doesn't mean family bragging rights won't be on the line on Saturday at Optus Stadium.

"He was drafted a year before me and I'm just happy to see him finally playing in some finals. He's put in a lot of hard work, we always had races when we were growing up to see who was faster and fitter," Lewis Jetta said.

"And even now when we do pre-season and we are back home, we always train together and our competitive nature always comes out with whoever wins the 400m. We won't celebrate it but we know inside I'll get you with the next 400.

"Hopefully on Saturday he doesn’t get the ball too much so I don’t have to run him down. But I know he'll get the ball and he has come a long way. It's amazing for the family especially being two Jetta boys from Bunbury.

"I know all our family would be proud and they will be proud of two boys who grew up together, uncles and cousins, we love it a lot and just playing on the big stage."

It remains one of the most bewildering selection decisions that Neville continues to be overlooked in All-Australian discussion, but there's no question he deserves to be acknowledged as one of, if not the, best small defenders in the AFL right now.

While it's a big stage for him to be on the field with Lewis on Saturday in a preliminary final, he's more focused on the job directly in front of him in the form of one of West Coast's small forwards – which should see him lining up on either Liam Ryan, Willie Rioli and Jamie Cripps.

"They're up there with the best small forwards in the competition. They've been kicking big scores all year and they finished second on the ladder," Neville Jetta said.

"Rioli is very, very good at ground level and Ryan loves to play as an old-fashioned full-forward who leads and jumps. We're going to have our hands full and we're going to have to play a lot better than we did last week against Hawthorn.

"We need to go over there as a back six and I feel like we've gelled and improved throughout the year. Our past five or six weeks have been our best for scores against us and we're going to back ourselves in again.

"But it's not just the backs versus forwards, it comes down to our whole team defence and our blokes have been unbelievable this year putting pressure on."