Round 17 Preview v East Fremantle

Round 17 Preview v East Fremantle

THAT first finals appearance potentially under coach Adam Pickering is so close to being locked in for Swan Districts and it will be just about 100 per cent guaranteed with a win away to East Fremantle on Saturday.

Swan Districts can go a long way to further guaranteeing their place in the finals for 2021 but East Fremantle can keep whatever slim hopes they have of staying in contention when the two teams meet at New Choice Homes Park on Saturday.

The East Fremantle venue will play host to the fascinating contest with Swans having the chance to move five games clear of the Sharks with a win. However, the Sharks keep their ever so slim chances still alive if they can close the gap to three games with the victory.

Working against East Fremantle's cause is the fact that they come into the game on a four-game losing streak including a 43-point defeat at the hands of Claremont last Saturday at Revo Fitness Stadium.

Swan Districts, meanwhile, comes into the game on the back of a solid performance to beat Perth by 24 points last Saturday at Steel Blue Oval in a solid bounce back outing from the black-and-whites following the previous week's home loss to South Fremantle.

Swan Districts comes into the game having won its last two meetings against East Fremantle as well including a 44-point win earlier this season at Steel Blue Oval and a 31-point win at Shark Park in Round 9 last season.

There's little reason for much change at Swan Districts on the back of the win against Perth but Warrick Wilson is available to return after missing that victory over the Demons last Saturday.

Tarir Bayok, Jake Dugan and Greg Ottaviano have also been added to the extended squad with a chance of breaking into the team on the back of solid reserves form but nobody has been named out at this stage.

East Fremantle continues to have a horror run in terms of personnel available and their cause to try and get the win on Saturday won't be helped with the loss of key former AFL players Blaine Boekhorst and Nick Kommer.

Corey Holmes, Dillon O'Reilly, Jordan Snadden, Brynn Teakle, Durak Tucker and Tom Wallis are the players added to the extended squad for Sharks to take on the Swans on home turf on Saturday.

Swan Districts' midfield was on fire last week in the win against Perth with Frank Anderson superb with 31 possessions while reigning Sandover Medallist Sam Fisher was brilliant with 37 disposals and two goals.

Fisher was happy enough with the win last week for Swans against the Demons and is now looking forward to the challenge this Saturday against the Sharks.

"It wasn’t a pretty game from our perspective for the majority of it but we did what we had to do and we strung some good football together in patches," Fisher told 91.3 SportFM.

"But I think that's sort of our on-going pursuit this season is to continue to try and play four quarters of football consistently. If we can get that right going into finals then that's all we can try and do, and the timing could get perfect.

"It's going to be about four quarters of football again this week. We need to win the contested ball and clearances to give our forwards the best chance to kick some goals.

"It's probably going to be a wet one so when we get opportunities to kick goals we just have to make sure we convert. Hopefully if we can do all that right we can have a good win."

OPTUS WAFL ROUND 17

SWAN DISTRICTS v EAST FREMANTLE – NEW CHOICE HOMES PARK, SATURDAY 2.10PM

Radio: 91.3 SportFM