Round 16 Preview v South Fremantle

SWAN Districts will be hoping the bye will prove just the tonic to return to the winners list as they prepare to take on another team, South Fremantle, on a losing streak this Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

Swan Districts had lost its past six matches heading into last weekend's bye to be two games clear on the bottom of the WAFL ladder, but they have been significantly more competitive than that suggests.

With an increasingly youthful line-up, Swans have been able to keep themselves in games for the most part but not quite for the full four quarters which is a signal of the inexperience amongst the group.

Now they return to action this Saturday afternoon up against a South Fremantle team at Fremantle Community Bank Oval who sits in third position on the ladder with an 8-5 record but who has lost their previous four matches.

So with both teams coming into the clash having lost four and six matches in-a-row respectively, they will be running out on to Fremantle Community Bank Oval desperate to taste that winning feeling once more.

Prior to the bye, Swan Districts was overrun by East Fremantle in the last quarter to lose by 29 points at East Fremantle Oval which made it six consecutive losses since a victory over the West Coast Eagles back in Round 7.

South Fremantle, meanwhile, has had two weeks to stew over a second heartbreaking loss to Perth in 2019. After losing to the Demons by three points back in Round 2, South Fremantle looked to have the game won two weeks ago up 13 points at the 24-minute mark of the last term.

But the Bulldogs would concede the final three goals, including one after the siren and that saw Perth snatch the six-point win to hand South Fremantle a four consecutive defeat.

South Fremantle does remain in third position on the ladder at 8-5 thanks to a seven-game winning streak before the losses at the hands of Subiaco, West Coast, Claremont and Perth. 

But for the Bulldogs to stay third and maintain hopes of still finishing in the top two they will need a win on Saturday on home turf against Swan Districts.

The two teams started the season playing one another in Round 1 at Steel Blue Oval and that game went down to the wire with Swan Districts having a shot after the siren to win, but Josh Simpson's shot was off target.

Over the course of the season, South Fremantle does look the superior team sitting second with points scored at 83.5 points a game while Swan Districts are averaging 59.5. The Bulldogs concede 72.1 points a game and Swans 75.5.

South Fremantle averages 335 possessions a game and 17 more than its opposition while Swan Districts is averaging just 283 a game and 51 fewer.

Swan Districts' best hopes of a competitive showing will be to start well. While Swans have been outscored by 128 points over last quarters this season, they have only been outscored by 89 points across first halves and in fact are winning their third quarters over the season.

South Fremantle, meanwhile, is winning its first quarters by 23 points and second terms by 61 but then they are outscored by 20 points in third quarters. The Bulldogs have dominated last quarters, though, outscoring their opponents by 85 points.

From Swan Districts' team that lost to East Fremantle a fortnight ago, Kade Wallrodt, Brayden Hackett, Jesse Turner, Nathan Blakely, Warrick Wilson, Josh Cipro and Brad Fullgrabe have all been added to the squad to take on South Fremantle.

Denzel More, Jack O'Sullivan, Jiah Reidy and Denver Grainger-Barras have been named out of the squad at this stage.

Swan Districts co-captain David Ellard is confident of a strong showing from Swan Districts at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

"We always love playing at Fremantle Oval and we have performed there pretty well in the past. It's going to be a challenge but it's something that we are talking in-house about really embracing these challenges as a young group," Ellard said. 

"You will learn a lot about yourselves in these games but we go down there with the attitude that if we play our best footy, we'll be right in it and if not take the win.

"We played them earlier on in the year and played really well, and were probably unlucky not to win the game with a kick after the siren. We know our best footy stands up to it so we will go down there with a pretty positive attitude."

South Fremantle is coming off the after-the-siren loss to Perth two weeks ago and from that team, Shaun Bewick returns from an ankle injury that has kept him sidelined since WA Day. Glenn Byron also returns for his first game at league level since Round 1.

Zac De San Miguel and Seaton Thompson are the two players to make way in the South Fremantle line-up.

OPTUS WAFL ROUND 16

SWAN DISTRICTS v SOUTH FREMANTLE – FREMANTLE COMMUNITY BANK OVAL, SATURDAY 2.15PM

LEAGUE LIVE STATS
RESERVES LIVE STATS
COLTS LIVE STATS