Round 16 Preview v Perth

SWAN Districts will be determined to bounce back strongly this Saturday against Perth at Steel Blue Oval to further consolidate their top five position.

Swans suffered their fifth loss of the season last Saturday at home to South Fremantle but the black-and-whites remain in fifth position on the ladder coming into this week's clash against Perth back on home turf at Bassendean.

Swan Districts holds a 7-5 record on the 2021 Optus WAFL Premiership Season and Saturday's game against Perth will be a significant one in the context of where Swans end up going this year.

A win for the black-and-whites and they could potentially even end the round up in fourth position again depending on other results but either way they will maintain at least a three-game hold on that position inside the top five.

A victory against the Demons at Steel Blue Oval would go a long way to securing a first finals appearance for Swan Districts under the coaching tenure of Adam Pickering.

Perth comes into the game barely clinging to staying any chance of playing finals for a second straight season. The Demons sit second last with a 4-8 record and with the second worst percentage in the competition.

A loss for Perth on Saturday and their finals hopes would just about be officially over, but an upset win for the Demons against Swans and they do keep their slimmest of hopes of another top five finish just alive.

Perth might have played finals last year and Swan Districts didn’t, but Swans have won the last two meetings between the two teams including by 50 points back in Round 2 this year and then by 27 points in Round 8 last year at Steel Blue Oval.

Prior to that, Perth had won three games in-a-row against Swan Districts between Round 14, 2018 and Round 8, 2019.

Swan Districts has made three changes to the team that lost to South Fremantle by 36 points last Saturday also at Steel Blue Oval.

Frank Anderson, Nathan Ireland and Nelson Waite come into the team for Swan Districts this week to take on Perth while Mitch Bain, Seb Bright and Corey Gault go out.

Perth has made two changes from its team that lost to East Perth last Saturday to take on Swan Districts. The Demons have suffered two more injuries to key players with Fraser McInnes and Kasey Nicholas going out hurt.

Sam Perkusich and Jack Steel are the two teams to take their place for the Demons.

Swan Districts midfielder Jesse Turner knows that no matter what sort of injury troubles Perth has right now, that Swans can't afford to take them lightly and will need to play well to come away with the important four points on Saturday.

"It's obviously disappointing and you don't like to see anyone really injured let alone having heard how big Perth's injury list is, but I feel in previous years especially Perth has been the team in the five and we've been the team out of it," Turner told 91.3 SportFM.

"So when we've come up against them in the past we have the mindset of nothing to lose and trying to stop Perth making the finals, and I'm sure that's what they are thinking.

"Technically they're not still out of the race either but I think they'll still be hoping they can win a few games and make a late run towards making the finals, or even knock off some teams that are fighting for that top five.

"Especially after our performance last week, we definitely won't be taking it easy or thinking we have an easy game by any stretch. We will definitely be prepared for a strong Perth side."

Looking back on last week's loss to South Fremantle, Turner and his fellow midfielders were disappointed to get outpointed and will be determined to bounce back strongly this Saturday against the Demons.

"As a midfield group, we definitely put our hand up for not playing very well last week. We lost Frank Anderson coming into the game which didn’t help, but as a midfield group we were quite disappointing just around clearances and with the contested ball," Turner said.

"They were able to win it inside and then really get us on the spread which is something we do try and pride ourselves on. Us as a midfield group were quite disappointed with the way we played and we are expecting to bounce back this week now."

OPTUS WAFL ROUND 16

SWAN DISTRICTS v PERTH – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.10PM

Livestream: The West Australian

Radio: 91.3 SportFM