Swans impress in WAFLW ahead of break

THERE was lots to like about Swan Districts' last appearance in the WAFLW competition ahead of another clash with Subiaco this Saturday and it was all led by a best on ground display by Fremantle Dockers AFLW star Gemma Houghton.

Swan Districts came into Round 9 of the Optus WAFLW Premiership Season as underdogs against the league-leading Subiaco at Steel Blue Oval who had just lost the once so far in the 2019 campaign.

But Swans produced their most impressive performance of the season to end up winning by 14 points ahead of a two-week break before again taking on the Lions on Saturday July 27 at Leederville Oval from 2.30pm.

There was a lot to like in the win for Swan Districts with Gemma Houghton starring with three goals while Shanae Davison and Hayley Cole kicked goals too and Lauren Osborne, Emily McGuire, Alicia Janz and Ashley Sharp were among the standout performance.

For Swan Districts WAFLW coach Kara Donnellan, it was the contribution from players all over the field that was key to the victory though leading into the two-week break with the bye and then general competition break for the State Game.

"It was a fantastic finish to the game by the girls. It was NAIDOC Round which is a very special round for us as a football club," Donnellan said. 

"We had seven Indigenous girls playing and we had one Indigenous coach so it was an extremely proud moment for us to get over the top of Subiaco who are on top of the table and had only lost one game. 

"I thought our back-line as a unit was fantastic all day led by Fiona and Lauren Osborne down there, and Aimee Ralph played a role and Emily McGuire was really strong. 

"I thought throughout our middle half, Alicia Janz in the ruck battled out all day and Kellie Gibson was another one who played a role who was fantastic. 

"Of our young kids, Shanae Davison chipped in and then Sarah (Condipodero) and Shannan Rene were fantastic as well. 

"And in the front half, Gemma Houghton chipped in with three goals in the end and gave a couple off including one to one of our young kids, Hayley Cole who kicked her first goal which was a fantastic moment for her. 

"Imahra Cameron down forward was also really good and we had another debutant in little Janeva (Alec) down there who got her hands of the footy a lot. 

"Then on the wings, Ashley Sharp and Taylor Ferguson played a dual kind of role on a dominant Subiaco wing pair so I'm just proud of the girls to get the points. 

"We have two weeks off now but we'll be training really hard and look to back this performance with another strong effort against Subiaco again."

Donnellan wasn’t the only one impressed with Swan Districts' win against Subiaco either with Fremantle Dockers AFLW coach Trent Cooper also impressed with what he saw in a high-quality contest.

He was watching closely the players he has on his Dockers' AFLW list and he was especially impressed by the dominant performance in attack by Gemma Houghton.

"This was the game I was able to get to, and it was a cracker! Subiaco are top of the ladder and dominated the game for periods, but the Swans did really well to contain them," Cooper said.

"At the end of the day, the difference was Gemma Houghton. She kicked three goals and gave off the other two goals that Swans scored. She marked the ball really well and made the difference due to her ability to influence and impact the scoreboard. We’re really happy with her form.

"This was an AFLW quality battle between Ashley and Lindal (Rohde), our new rookie signing, on the wing. Sharp had plenty of the ball and had some really influential inside 50s. We were really pleased with her game but I thought that Lindal probably won the battle. 

"It was great to see her take on a quality opponent, she won lots of the ball, she defended quite well and made sure that when Ashley got the ball, she wasn’t able to stream into inside 50 too often. Lindal showed that she’ll definitely be up to AFLW quality from her efforts on the weekend."