Round 18 Match Preview

Swan Districts heads to the WACA Ground on Saturday afternoon in what could well be a season-defining contest against East Fremantle in the race for a WAFL finals spot.

With just three weeks now of the home and away season remaining, there are six teams all fighting over positions in the top five and two of those are Swan Districts and East Fremantle who do battle at the WACA Ground on Saturday afternoon.

Swans come into the game in sixth position on the WAFL ladder with a 9-6 record but that has them just percentage behind the fifth placed Peel Thunder, only half a game back from the fourth placed South Fremantle, and just a game from the third placed East Fremantle.

That's where the stakes are so significant for both teams in Saturday's clash with Swan Districts a good chance to return to the top five depending on how other Round 18 results pan out, but it would without question strengthen their push to play finals at the end of the season.

While Saturday's game will be the 48th time Swan Districts has ever played at the WACA Ground, it's the first time since 1994. That was a 16-point loss to Subiaco in the elimination final.

The last home and away season game that Swans have played at the WACA Ground was Round 4, 1992 in what was a 31-point victory against Subiaco.

Overall, Swans have won 14 of their 47 matches ever at the WACA Ground but nobody in the current team has ever played there while this will be East Fremantle's seventh home match at the venue so far in 2022.

In fact, Swan Districts coach Adam Pickering has never even been to the venue at all since arriving in Perth as an East Perth recruit earlier this century so he's looking forward to getting to the WACA Ground, and the challenges in terms of smaller playing surface it presents.

"I think we are pretty excited, I am anyway. I've been in the state for 20 years now and I've never actually been to the WACA so I'm pretty excited to go and see it, and get out there," Pickering said.

"I've done the measurements and it's actually 47 metres shorter than Steel Blue so it will be quite different for our guys. That keeps the level interest levels even though we don’t need it when this is basically a final we're playing, but the guys are excited to be going to a world class venue.

"We've actually trained this week on shorter grounds and done a bit of match sim with that just to show the boys how quickly the ball can go from end to end if you get a chance, and how quickly defensively you've got to react.

"If you turn one over in the wrong spot on a ground that short, it can be straight back over your head for a goal. There will be some minor tweaks but it's more about how quickly it can move from end to end, and go back over your head."

Swan Districts is fresh off an 85-point thumping win at home to the West Coast Eagles last Saturday to keep them right in the finals hunt ahead of taking on the third placed East Fremantle.

This will be the second time in history that the two teams have met at the WACA Ground which was back in 1987 in quite the entertaining, high-scoring affair that saw Swans beat the Sharks 22.18 (150) to 15.15 (105).

More recently, the two teams played in Round 2 of this year with the Sharks winning a tight one over Swans by nine points at Steel Blue Oval.

Swans appeared on track for their first win of the new season when leading by 20 points seven minutes into the final quarter, but the Sharks finished the better to end up winning 13.11 (89) to 12.8 (80) for their first win of 2022.

Blaine Boekhorst was brilliant for East Fremantle back at his former home ground with 33 possessions, 10 marks and three goals while Dillon O'Reilly kicked three goals for the Sharks, and Ryan Lester-Smith two.

Kyle Baskerville had a day out for East Fremantle collecting 39 possessions, eight tackles and seven marks while Milan Murdock had 31 disposals, Cam Eardley 25, Jonathon Marsh 21, Luke English 20, Cody Leggett 20, Tom Bennett 20 and Jarrad Jansen 20.

Jesse Palmer kicked three goals for Swan Districts, Tom Edwards two, Brayden Noble two and Jesse Turner two to go with 33 disposals, six marks, six inside 50s and four tackles.

Aidan Clarke continued his emergence in the midfield for Swans with another 33 possessions, 11 marks, six tackles, seven inside 50s and a goal.

Sam Fisher also gathered 25 touches, Tobe Watson 23 and Jak Watson 20 while Tony Notte (20 possessions, 10 marks) and Chris Jones (20 disposals, seven marks) did well down back.

Now coming into Saturday's game and looking at the final three weeks of the season, Pickering is looking forward to the challenge that presents his team to lock away a finals spot.

"We're confident, nervous, excited – all of the above. It's like a little finals series for us coming up like the other teams that are fighting to play in the top five this year," Pickering said.

"It's a massive game this week against East Fremantle who are a game clear of us at the moment at the WACA. It's really exciting and if we can get through the next few weeks with a few wins we will know we've earned our spot that's for sure."