Round 14 Preview v East Fremantle

SWAN Districts will look to put together a four-quarter performance on Saturday against East Fremantle to score a win on the road to snap the current losing run and in turn move off the bottom of the WAFL ladder.

East Fremantle hosts Swan Districts on Saturday afternoon with both teams desperate to return to the winner's list as they currently occupy the bottom two positions on the ladder.

East Fremantle produced a good month of football with wins against Swan Districts, Perth and East Perth in amongst the WA Day Foundation Derby loss to South Fremantle, but the Sharks haven’t been able to continue that momentum.

They have now lost their past three matches to the West Coast Eagles, Claremont and Subiaco to have slipped to a 3-9 record to go with the second worst percentage in the competition.

Meanwhile at Swan Districts, their confidence continues to take blow after blow with their inability to string together a full four quarters of football.

Once against last Saturday, Swans played a strong opening half against East Perth but couldn’t keep it going after half-time and ended up losing at Steel Blue Oval by eight points.

That made it five consecutive losses for the black-and-whites who remain anchored to the bottom of the WAFL ladder with a 2-10 record.

Saturday shouldn't be expected to be a high-scoring affair with East Fremantle averaging just 58.3 points a game and Swan Districts 61.9. Defensively the Sharks are conceding 86.8 points a game and Swans 76.8.

Neither teams are high possession gathering sides either with Swans ranked last at 291.3 a game and the Shark second last at 301.5 per match. Swan Districts has averaged 53 disposals less than its opponents this season and East Fremantle 38 less.

In terms of quarter by quarter performances, Swan Districts hasn’t been too  bad in first halves in 2019 considering they have won two of 12 games. 

They have only been outscored by 71 points across those 12 first halves and broken even in third quarters. But then in last terms, Swans have been outscored by 108 points to be the worst finishing team in the league.

East Fremantle is the second worst starting team but its best quarters are the second. Then the Sharks have struggled in second halves being outscored by 120 points in third terms and 105 in fourth stanzas.

Giving Swans some confidence should be the fact that they have won their last two matches at Shark Park, and three of their past four.

From the Swan Districts team that lost to East Perth by eight points last Saturday at Steel Blue Oval, there will be another debutant with WA State 18s star Denver Grainger-Barras to make his first appearance at league level.

David Ellard also looks set to return for Swans with Jiah Reidy, Brayden Hackett and Brad Fullgrabe all a chance to come in as well.

Jordan Bill goes out of the Swan Districts team after making a strong start to his WAFL career with Patrick Farrant also out for the black-and-whites.

East Fremantle looks set to unveil a debutant as well in the form of Max Murphy with Tim Bockman, Cameron Davidson and Alex Montauban also coming into the line-up for the Sharks.

Ambrose Ryan is the only player named out at this stage for East Fremantle.

OPTUS WAFL ROUND 14

SWAN DISTRICTS v EAST FREMANTLE – NEW CHOICE HOMES PARK, SATURDAY 2.15PM

LEAGUE LIVE STATS
RESERVES LIVE STATS
COLTS LIVE STATS