Round 4 Preview v West Perth

SWAN Districts heads to Joondalup Arena for the now annual ANZAC Round fixture with West Perth looking to record its first victory of 2019 against the also winless Falcons on Saturday afternoon.

Both Swan Districts and West Perth have lost their opening three games of the season raising the stakes significantly for Saturday's clash at Joondalup Arena with the knowledge that coming back in an 18-game season from starting 0-4 will be a significant challenge.

It is also the continuation of the now annual meeting over ANZAC Round between the Black Ducks and Falcons, with the recent tradition beginning in 2013.

IN THEIR WORDS – GEORGE HAMPSON ROUND 4
COACH Q AND A – ADAM PICKERING ROUND 3
SWANS CAN'T QUITE FLY OVER DEMONS

The past six years of clashes between Swan Districts and West Perth to commemorate ANZAC Day has provided some fascinating action too, beginning with that first clash in 2013 when Swans stormed home with six goals to one in the last quarter to win by 28 points.

The 2014 edition saw a narrow win by Swan Districts against an Andrew Krakouer-led West Perth while in 2015, West Perth won by seven points with the Falcons also prevailing by 23 points in 2016, five points in 2017 and 31 points last year at Steel Blue Oval.

That makes it four straight ANZAC Round victories for the Falcons over Swans after the Black Ducks won the opening two encounters of the now annual clash.

Swan Districts has been a chance to win each of its opening three matches to start the 2019 season, but have suffered tight losses to South Fremantle, East Perth and Perth.

While the combined margin over the three games is only 25 points, the reality is Swans are yet to win a game in 2019 and they need that to change on Saturday at Joondalup Arena.

West Perth, though, is also desperate to win under new coach Geoff Valentine. Coming off last year's Grand Final appearance, the Falcons have lost their opening three matches to Peel Thunder, Claremont and South Fremantle.

With both teams 0-3 and with it being a traditionally hot encounter, it's going to be all on the line on Saturday afternoon and Swans coach Adam Pickering will do everything he can to make sure his players are up for the challenge.

"That's the challenge of coaching because you are so invested in it and even as an individual you are really flat and down after a loss," Pickering said.

"But the reality is we are only three games into the season so it may look all doom and gloom in terms of being 0-3, but there's still a long way to go. 

"You play everyone twice this year so if you can turn it around and keep the energy and positivity up, we are not in too bad of a position given the losses we've had have all been by small margins. The message to the group has to be that we haven’t been blown away. 

"I didn’t think we were great the first two weeks but we started to click the second half this week and we've been in every game. If we can just bring four quarters of that we should start to win some games of footy."

Swan Districts has made just the one change from the team that lost to Perth by nine points last Saturday at Steel Blue Oval with Jiah Reidy coming in for his first league appearance of the season at the expense of Riley Garcia.

West Perth is coming off a loss to South Fremantle and from that side have recalled former Swan Districts ruckman Troy Yukich to do battle against Nathan Blakely and Corey Gault. He replaces last week's debutant Ben Delaporte.

ROUND 4
SWAN DISTRICTS v WEST PERTH – JOONDALUP ARENA, SATURDAY 2.15PM

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