Swans can't quite match Tigers to close season

IT might have not been the finish to the 2019 WAFL season Swan Districts was hoping for with a 106-point loss to Claremont, but it shouldn’t take away from the blocks built for the future this year.

Swans came into Saturday's game not without hope of causing an upset to end the season as well and even avoid the wooden spoon despite taking on a finals bound Claremont at Claremont Oval.

Swan Districts had won two of its past three matches to come into the clash with a degree of momentum, but it ended up a tough afternoon with the Tigers roaring into the finals with the 23.6 (144) to 5.8 (38) win on home soil.

Aidan Clarke was the only multiple goal scorer for Swan Districts booting two majors.

Brayden Noble presented hard for Swans and gathered a season-best 24 possessions and six marks but he could only manage the two behinds on the scoreboard.

Josh Cipro gathered 23 disposals for Swan Districts, Jesse Turner 23, Mitch Howlett 22, Corey Gault 20, George Hampson 19 and Warrick Wilson 17.

Swan Districts might have been in its best patch of form of the season in recent weeks but Claremont geared up for its finals campaign with an emphatic performance on Saturday at Claremont Oval.

Swan Districts came into the last game of the season on the back of winning two of its past three matches to revive hopes for the black-and-whites of still avoiding the wooden spoon for 2019.

A win for Swans would likely be enough to see them climb off the bottom of the ladder with East Fremantle and East Perth up against it opposed to finals bound teams, but it wasn’t to be with Claremont proving too strong on home turf.

The Tigers knew that unless South Fremantle lost to West Perth and they delivered a huge win that they were likely destined to still finished third, but in the end the 23.6 (144) to 5.8 (38) victory almost shot them up into second spot.

The result moved Claremont's percentage beyond that of South Fremantle's but the Bulldogs held on to win against West Perth to stay second with Claremont third setting up a qualifying final meeting between the two teams this Saturday at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

As for Swan Districts, the 106-point loss was a disappointing way to end the season that has seen so much youth given opportunities and brought abouts wins against the West Coast Eagles and Peel Thunder over the past three weeks.

Swans finishes the season in bottom place with a 4-14 record but it should be a season with the youth given opportunities that sets up a bright future moving forward.

Claremont got on top of the contest from the outset and by kicking five goals to one in the opening quarter, the Tigers were already leading by 26 points at quarter-time.

Swans did well to stick with the Tigers in the second term with two goals apiece and they even managed to bring the half-time deficit back to 25 points.

However, Claremont produced a remarkable third quarter to blow the game wide open. In the best individual quarter of any team this season, the Tigers piled on 12 goals straight while holding Swans to just the one goal and that blew a 25-point lead at half-time to 87 by the last break.

Claremont kicked another four goals to one as well in the final quarter and that saw them beat Swan Districts by 106 points making it the only triple-figure result of 2019.

In the reserves clash beforehand, it was a similar result with Claremont beating Swan Districts 15.14 (104) to 4.8 (32) to see Swans' season end in seventh position with a 5-17 record.

Leigh Kohlmann and Patrick Farrant kicked two goals each for Swan Districts while Mitchell Bain gathered 23 possessions, Patrick Italiano 18, Lachlan Riley 17, Graydon Wilson 15 and Joe Hinder 15.

The colts contest for the weekend took place on Sunday afternoon at Leederville Oval and it was a thriller with the Tigers prevailing over Swans by a solitary point.

While Claremont couldn’t move from second position no matter the result of the contest, Swan Districts had the chance to end up as high as third if they were able to knock off the Tigers.

It was a tight opening quarter with two goals apiece with scores tied by quarter-time before Swan Districts were the first ones to make a break in the contest.

Swans kicked four goals to one in the second quarter and that saw them hold a commanding 17-point advantage by half-time.

Things tightened up in the third term with Claremont kicking two goals to just one from Swan Districts and that saw the Tigers close the deficit to eight points by three quarter-time.

Claremont then dominated the final quarter with the first two goals through Ben Schuhkraft and Isaiah Butters. That saw the Tigers lead by eight points with time running out.

Jak Watson had two late shots on goal for Swans and kicked a goal and behind to make it a one-point ball game, but Claremont managed to hold on for the 7.12 (54) to 8.5 (53) victory.

The result means that Claremont finishes the season in second position with an 11-5 record and will now play West Perth this Sunday in the qualifying final at HBF Arena.

Swan Districts finished the season in fifth position with an 8-8 record and will take on East Perth in an elimination final on Saturday morning at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

Charlie Malone ended up kicking three goals for Claremont while Callum Jamieson had 20 disposals, nine marks and 24 hit outs in the ruck.

Joel Western finished with 27 possessions for the Tigers, Jack Cooley 19, Anthony Davis 17 and Jake Willson 16.

Jack Allen and Ethan Nordahl kicked two goals each for Swan Districts with Nordahl also compiling 26 possessions and nine marks.

Seb Bright racked up another 27 possessions for Swans, Kade Wallrodt 24, Brenton Hilton 22, Jake Pasini 22, Ashley Brockbernd 19, Jehb O'Donohue 18, Max Chipper 17 and Jak Watson 17.

ROUND 20 OPTUS WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON

SWAN DISTRICTS        1.1    3.3    4.7    5.8    (38)
CLAREMONT            5.3    7.4    19.4    23.6    (144)

SWAN DISTRICTS – Goals: Clarke 2; Glass-McCasker, Turner, Howlett.
Best: Notte, Gault, Howlett, Turner, Noble, Hampson, Cipro.
CLAREMONT – Goals: Richardson 6; Bradshaw 4; Waterman 3; Bolton, Palfrey, Treacy 2; Mitchell, England, Eastland, Law.
Best: Bolton, Richardson, Mitchell, Mountford, Busher, Bradshaw, Lim, Martinis.