Round 19 Preview v East Perth

Round 19 Preview v East Perth

SATURDAY is a massive day for Swan Districts at Steel Blue Oval with the celebration of the 1961 premiership team and the current day team looking to try and move up in the top five in a tantalising match up with East Perth.

Swan Districts is back to Steel Blue Oval on Saturday having secured their finals return but they face a significant test up against an in-form East Perth at the Bassendean venue.

Swan Districts beat Peel Thunder last week to record their ninth win of the season secure a return to the finals for the first time since 2017, and first time during the coaching tenure of Adam Pickering.

That victory saw Swans remain three games and massive percentage ahead of the sixth placed East Perth on the WAFL ladder. With four rounds and both teams having three games remaining, there's no way for the Royals to make up that gap meaning Swans are locked away for that finals berth.

For those mathematically minded, for East Perth to still finish above Swan Districts the Royals would need to win their last three games and Swans to lose all of theirs.

But East Perth would also need to make up 283 points that currently separates the two teams. While mathematically possible technically, it really isn’t with Swans to finish their season against South Fremantle and Claremont, and the Royals against East Fremantle and Subiaco.

Swan Districts played some good football last week to beat Peel to secure that fifth position but they will likely need to improve on that to overcome an in-form East Perth side on Saturday.

The Royals lost seven of their first eight matches this season to all but cancel them from the finals race, but they have since bounced back to have won five of their last six games including the past two against Claremont and Perth.

East Perth has also beaten the finals bound Claremont and South Fremantle this season so they will be attempting to take another big scalp with them on Saturday against Swan Districts at Steel Blue Oval.

Not only will the game be fascinating on the field, but it's a huge day for Swan Districts off the field with the day being used to celebrate the club's first ever premiership in 1961.

The 60-year anniversary will take place at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday remembering back to that remarkable breakthrough which was the beginning a hat-trick of premierships for the black-and-whites.

Times had been tough in the competition after entry for Swan Districts in 1934 and those first 26 years saw them only managed to play a total of six finals and winning two of them to reach a Grand Final in 1943.

So when Haydn Bunton Jr arrived as a playing-coach from South Australia in 1961, it was a change of culture he wanted to implement.

It started with the introduction of the fighting swan logo that remains to this day and the repainting of the club's rooms to a striking black colour to help create that intimidating atmosphere.

What would truly matter was what happened on the field, though, and it was a significant job for Bunton to turnaround a club that had won just two matches in 1960.

However, he immediately saw hope in building a team around local products Keith Slater, Ken Bagley, Fred Castledine, Cyril Litterick, Colin Maynard, Tony Nesbit, Craig Noble, John Turnbull, Keith Watt and, of course, Bill Walker.

Bunton pushed them to new levels in terms of fitness over the pre-season and Swans would go on to finish the home and away season in second position with a 12-7 record, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing in the finals.

Swan Districts, though, booked a place in the Grand Final with a win over Subiaco and went into the decider at Subiaco Oval with Bunton having a master plan to limit the influence of legendary East Perth ruckman Graham 'Polly' Farmer.

The plan worked perfectly with Keith Slater doing tremendously in the ruck opposed to Farmer, so well in fact that he won the Simpson Medal and Swan Districts beat East Perth 17.9 (111) to 12.15 (87).

It was a history-making day that Bunton reflects back on fondly.

"We got killed by East Perth in the second semi. Against Subiaco in the preliminary final the ball bounced out of bounds according to Subiaco people when Billy Walker hooked it back to kick a goal and we ran away with it," Bunton Jr said.

"Slater, Castledine and Nesbit made sure Farmer couldn’t get an arm free when going for the ruck and we had the brilliance of Bagley, Turnbull and Walker, plus Litterick so it was a pretty tough side.

"Wally Brown was on a half-back flank and was a hard nut and even Brian Gray, who played in the centre, was terrific."

Not only did Bunton inspire Swan Districts to that historic first ever premiership in his first season as captain-coach in 1961, but they went on to claim the premierships the next two years with him at the helm and a star-studded line-up that celebrates the 60-year anniversary this Saturday.

But back to the current day and Saturday's clash between the Swans and Royals, from the Swan Districts team that defeated Peel a week ago, Jackson Beck, Tom Edwards, Callum Garcia, Jack O'Sullivan and Greg Ottaviano have all been added to their extended squad.

Meanwhile, Lewis Jetta goes out of the side to face the Royals on Saturday.

East Perth is in a terrific run of form but have made three changes for the clash with Swan Districts.

Kade Dittmar has been named to make his debut with Ben McGuire and Stan Wright into the team with Jackson Ramsay, Corey Watts and Matthew Young going out.

OPTUS WAFL ROUND 19

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