NAIDOC Week Round 12 Preview v Perth

A massive day is planned at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday to celebrate NAIDOC Week with a spectacular Aboriginal mural to be unveiled with Swan Districts hosting Perth in WAFL Round 12 action.

Swans are at home to the Demons at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval with the game to commence at 1.40pm while being broadcast live on Channel 7.

Swan Districts come into the game fresh off an impressive last up win against Subiaco two weeks ago also at Steel Blue Oval which saw them improve to a 6-4 record on the season and to be sitting in fifth position on the WAFL ladder.

Perth, meanwhile, comes into the game on the back of having lost their previous six matches to be struggling in second last position with a 2-8 record.

The two teams met earlier this season in Round 3 and that was at Mineral Resources Park with Swans winning a nail-biter by five points over the Demons.

In that game, Tom Edwards and Chris Jones both kicked three goals for Swans with Sam Fisher picking up 27 possessions, Tobe Watson 26, Lachlan Riley 22, Greg Ottaviano 22 and Seb Bright.

Sam Stubbs and Fraser McInnes kicked three goals apiece for Perth with Corey Byrne gathering 34 touches, Matt Taylor 24, McInnes 23, Brayden Ainsworth 22, Austin Davis 22 and Dakota Baldwin-Wright 20 to go with 33 hit outs.

That meant that Swan Districts has won four in-a-row against Perth with the Demons' last win against the black-and-whites coming in Round 8, 2019 at Lathlain.

Swans have also won the last two home matches against the Demons by 24 points in 2021 and 27 points in 2020. Perth's last win at Lathlain was Round 3, 2019.

The day will include the official unveiling of a brand new mural by local artist Kevin Bynder made possible with support of the West Australian Football Commission and Rio Tinto.

The artwork is more than 11 metres long and will be featured at the entrance to Steel Blue Oval. It includes a map of the region featuring significant Indigenous landmarks and sacred sites, which will serve as a piece of recorded history for generations to learn from and embrace moving forward.

Swan Districts' Head of Social Impact Matt Hewitson has been at the forefront of making the mural become a reality and he is now excited for the big day to arrive on Saturday for its unveiling.

"For us this is more than about football. It's about community, it's about understanding and knowing where we come from and who came before us," Hewitson said.

"It's going to be a big day and we're really excited about it. We're unveiling the mural to the world and it's a TV game and we've done a lot of filming with Channel 7 to create a package that will broadcast on Saturday.

"It just sort of ties in really well with everything that we're doing. As far as we know we're the only sporting club in Australia that has both ends of our ground featuring Indigenous language, and now we've got this huge mural at our entrance gates.

"It's a big day for Swans, a big day for our players and a big day for our Aboriginal Advisory Committee and to see such a big project that we've worked on for a long time to come to fruition."

Also in celebration of NAIDOC Week, Swan Districts is wearing a jumper designed by Clayton Graham, Jamison Ugle and Edward Lyndon.

The name of the design is ‘The Swan on the Guernsey.’ It represents the Swan Districts emblem, and also represents the Maali known to Noongar people as the Swan. The Maali swims on the Derbarl Yerrigan River that is located next to Steel Blue Oval.

In the middle of the swan is an oval shape depicting an Aboriginal meeting symbol that represents Steel Blue Oval. The UII symbolises men, each symbol represents one of 10 teams coming together around the football oval.

The circles on the swan depicts the nine places that the 10 league teams travel to play each other. The swan footprints move to the back representing travelling to play opponent teams.

On the front of the guernsey in-between the Maali's footprints is the many different traditional water holes and camping places around the city of Perth known as Wadjak Boodja. The Boomerangs (kylee) down the side of the guernsey is a traditional hunting tool.

Over the first 10 rounds of the 2022 season, Swan Districts were ranked sixth in attack scoring 75.4 points a game but fourth defensively conceding just 70.1. Perth, meanwhile, was ranked ninth in both areas scoring just 62.3 points a game but giving up 88.6.

Swans have been the standout third quarter team so far this season having outscored their opponents by 119 points while they are ranked fourth in first quarters, ninth in second terms and sixth in last quarters.

Perth's best quarter is their second terms where they are ranked seventh but they are ranked eighth for first quarters, and ninth for both third and fourth quarters.