Round 17 Match Report

Swan Districts kept themselves right in the WAFL finals hunt with a thumping 85-point win at home to the West Coast Eagles on Saturday afternoon.

Following the bye last weekend, Swan Districts returned to action in Round 17 of the 2022 WAFL season and delivered a commanding performance to beat the bottom placed Eagles 13.18 (96) to 1.5 (11) at Steel Blue Oval.

Along the way, Swans remain undefeated in all six meetings with the Eagles in the WAFL with the 85-point margin the biggest in the six victories while the West Coast score of 11 points in total on the back of kicking one goal is their lowest output in their 53 WAFL appearances.

As a result of the win, Swan Districts improves to a 9-6 record on the season and while they remain in sixth position, they are just percentage behind Peel Thunder and only half a game behind South Fremantle.

The percentage boost out of Saturday's win was significant too with Swan Districts coming into the game with a percentage of 109.0, but that leaped to 118.0 following the thumping victory.

Not only was the 85-point winning the margin the biggest Swans have recorded in six attempts against West Coast, but it's also the biggest win for the black-and-whites over any opponent since beating East Fremantle by 90 points back in Round 5, 2018.

Swan Districts had four players all kicking two goals in the win and they were Josh Cipro, Chris Jones, Ryan Kemp and second-game excitement machine Darcy Jones while another five players all kicked a goal apiece.

Jesse Turner continued his remarkable form this season with another 40 possessions to go with five marks, four tackles and four entries inside the forward 50 on the wing.

Aidan Clarke was superb once more as well racking up 31 touches while Jarvis Pina compiling 29 disposals, Tobe Watson 27 (10 tackles), Jehb O'Donohue 25 (eight tackles), Sam Fisher 25, Cipro 23, Mitch Bain 21, Darcy Jones 19 and ruckman Brodie Morris 17 to go with 26 hit outs and four tackles.

West Coast actually got off to a good start with a goal to Logan Young inside the game's first three minutes. There would have been no way of knowing they wouldn’t kick another goal the entire rest of the afternoon.

Josh Cipro then set the tone for Swan Districts by kicking two goals in a minute. While Swans kicked a string of behinds on the back of that, eventually just before quarter-time Elijah Hewett and Lachlan Riley kicked a goal each and the home team was on top by 23 points.

Swan Districts did struggle to kick accurately with another run of four behinds to start the second quarter and it took until the 18-minute mark for a goal to come, and it eventually was courtesy of second-gamer Darcy Jones.

Ryan Kemp and Tom Edwards then also added goals just before half-time and Swans went into the break on top by 46 points.

It only took four minutes for Swans to kick their eighth goal of the afternoon thanks to spearhead Chris Jones before Aidan Clarke got on the board.

The lead got out to 11 goals when Chris Jones kicked his second of the quarter, Darcy Jones then added his second of game and Swans had again held the Eagles to two points for the third term to lead by 72 points at three quarter-time.

There were just the two goals kicked in the last quarter and they came courtesy of Kemp and the returning Jesse Palmer to secure the 13.18 (96) to 1.5 (11) win for Swan Districts.

Swan Districts will take on East Fremantle this coming Saturday in another massive clash at the WACA Ground before finishing the season at home to West Perth and away to Peel Thunder.