Swans go down on home soil to Falcons

SWAN Districts couldn’t turn around their recent struggles at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday despite some impressive performances by emerging players with West Perth managing to go away with a 57-point victory.

Swans were coming in and looking to replicate their best performance of the season which came back in Round 4 on the road to West Perth and ended with a 44-point victory.

But since then, Swan Districts had only won once and West Perth lost just the one game, and that trend continued on Saturday with the Falcons leaving Bassendean with the 16.13 (109) to 8.4 (52) victory.

Corey Gault provided Swan Districts with a good option in attack kicking three goals with Leigh Kohlmann also booting two so five goals from their two key targets was a solid enough return. George Hampson also kicked two goals for the black-and-whites.

Swan Districts has been crying out for some more ball winners in the midfield and Jack O'Sullivan spent most of the afternoon in the middle and returned his career-high possession count of 24 for the afternoon.

Steven Payne also racked up 23 disposals for Swans, Matt Riggio 22, Jesse Turner 20, Jiah Reidy 19 and ruckman Nathan Blakely 19 to go with 37 hit outs.

Swans' back-line battled hard led by Tony Notte who had 23 possessions and seven marks. Jordan Bill had an impressive second game for 18 disposals too while Alex Howard finished with 17 disposals, six marks and four tackles, and Denzel More 17 possessions and nine tackles.

The fortunes of Swan Districts and West Perth have swung significantly since they last met back in Round 4 at Joondalup's HBF Arena and that was again on show in Saturday's clash at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval.

Back in that Round 4 contest, Swans proved far too good winning by 44 points to cap what had been a pretty good opening month for the black-and-whites despite that being the lone win. The previous three losses to South Fremantle, East Perth and Perth had been only by a combined 21 points.

So Swans had reason to be feeling good about themselves while the Falcons were in quite a hole having lost their opening four matches under new coach Geoff Valentine.

But things have swung viciously the other direction by the end of Saturday's big win for West Perth with the Falcons having now won five of their past six matches since that defeat to Swans.

Meanwhile, Swans have lost five of their six matches since that win over the Falcons and once again on Saturday they struggled on home turf. Swan Districts has now lost 11 of its last 12 matches at Steel Blue Oval.

West Perth came out firing early and put up six goals to two against Swan Districts in the opening quarter to lead by 27 points at quarter-time.

The Falcons continued with their momentum in the second stanza and kicked another four goals. But Swans did at least keep in a degree of touch by half-time by kicking three goals themselves to limit the West Perth half-time lead to 36 points.

There would be no sign of a Swan Districts fight back, though, with West Perth managing to find it too easy to score continually.

The Falcons booted four more goals in the third quarter and with Swans kicking three goals themselves, West Perth only marginally increased their advantage to 41 points a three quarter-time.

But after Corey Gault's goal at the 20-minute of the third quarter, Swan Districts didn’t manage another goal for the game.

West Perth kicked the last three goals and held Swan Districts to just the one-point in the last term to win 16.13 (109) to 8.4 (52).

The win keeps West Perth in fifth position on the ladder with a 5-5 record while Swan Districts is now in last place at 2-8.

Earlier, Swan Districts fell to its second colts defeat in as many weeks at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday morning with West Perth continuing its good form and winning by five goals.

Just two weeks ago and Swan Districts was clear on top of the colts table having won all seven of its matches to open the season.

But coming off that first defeat last week at the hands of Claremont, Swans suffered another defeat on Saturday morning this time at the hands of the Falcons who were able to continue their good form.

It was a goal apiece in the opening quarter but West Perth did have five scoring shots to one but only led by those four behinds at quarter-time.

The Falcons started to put the score on the board a bit better in the second quarter kicking three goals to two from Swans to head into the half-time break leading by nine points.

West Perth further extended its advantage in the third quarter coming out of the half-time interval. The Falcons kicked four goals to two from Swans and by three quarter-time they were well in control leading by 24 points.

West Perth kicked another three goals to two in the last term and that saw the Falcons claim the 11.10 (76) to 7.4 (46) victory.

The result means that Swan Districts slips to a 7-2 record on the season in second position on the ladder behind Peel Thunder. They are now just one game ahead of the third place West Perth too who improved to 6-3 with the win.

Atem Deng was tremendous for Swan Districts kicking two goals to go with 26 possessions and eight marks.

Ethan Nordahl also amassed 26 disposals for the black-and-whites, Kade Wallrodt 21, Jermarl Daly 20, Brenton Hilton 19, Brock Fisher 18, Jak Watson 16 and Jamison Ugle 17.

Ryan Letessier put in a solid showing in the ruck with 11 possessions, three tackles, 23 hit outs and a goal.

And then in the reserves match up, West Perth also had a win beating Swan Districts 12.15 (87) to 5.7 (37).

Brayden Noble responded to his demotion by kicking two goals from 17 possessions and six marks.

Lachlan Riley gathered 25 possessions for Swan Districts, Aidan Clarke 24, Chad Daniels 23, Mitchell Bain 20, Jackson Beck 18, Joe Hinder 16 and Dylan Smith 15 to go with 11 hit outs.
 

SWAN DISTRICTS        2.1    5.1    8.3    8.4    (52)
WEST PERTH            6.4    10.7    14.8    16.13    (109)

SWAN DISTRICTS – Goals: Gault 3; Hampson, Kohlmann 2; Stephens.
Best: O'Sullivan, Notte, Bill, Gault, Blakely, Reidy, Payne, More.
WEST PERTH – Goals: Knott 4; Strijk 3; Chalmers, Keitel 2; Moulton, Lourey, Shannon, Peirce, Riddoch.
Best: Keitel, Black, Knott, Riddoch, Manzone, Strijk, Wilhelm.