2022 WAFL Season Wrap Up

Missing out on playing finals this season was a disappointing result for Swan Districts' league team, but that can't get in the way of the fact that there were many more positives than negatives to come out of the campaign.

Swan Districts might have ended up narrowly missing finals, but along the way in 2022 they were able to beat West Perth, Claremont, South Fremantle and Peel Thunder who all went on to play finals.

On top of that, Jesse Turner, Sam Fisher, Aidan Clarke, Tobe Watson, Tony Notte, Brandon Erceg, and others, were among the league's standout players.

Swans came into the 2022 WAFL season having returned to finals action in 2021 for the first time since 2017, and the first time under the coaching of Adam Pickering.

That elimination final loss to West Perth only served for added motivation for those returning Swans players as well because it was a game that got away and that included quite the ounce of bad luck including the loss of Swan Medallist Frank Anderson to a knee injury that ended up ruling him out too for all of 2022.

While Anderson was a loss for 2022, Swans did come into the new season with some handy inclusions including the hard running Jarvis Pina from Peel Thunder, Victorian recruit Ryan Kemp and Tobe Watson returning following his stint with the Fremantle Dockers.

Swans then started the 2022 with two tight losses to East Perth and East Fremantle, but both games still featured plenty of positives before a breakthrough win in Round 3 against Perth by five points at Mineral Resources Park.

Swans backed that up beating Claremont by nine points in Round 4 in what was a performance that gave great belief of what this team would be capable of against a team that would end up reaching the Grand Final.

There was then a disappointing loss to Subiaco in Kalgoorlie before Swan Districts built some further momentum beating South Fremantle, West Coast and Peel Thunder.

The win over the Bulldogs snapped a nine-game losing run against them while the win over Peel meant they had already beaten three of the teams who would go on to play finals in the opening eight rounds of 2022.

Swans were in a good position to play finals with a 5-3 record before an 18-point loss to West Perth. However, they bounced right back to beat Subiaco by 51 points and continuing the momentum beating Perth in Round 12.

That had Swans sit on a 7-4 record to remain on target to make the finals before a one-point loss to South Fremantle. The black-and-whites responded to beat East Perth by 23 points before losing to Claremont and then thrashing the Eagles by 85 points.

With three rounds remaining, Swans were destined to be locked in a battle with their Round 20 opponents Peel for the fifth and last finals position. Swan Districts beat West Perth in stirring fashion at Bassendean in Round 19 to set up an all or nothing clash with Peel in Mandurah.

However, with Tony Notte and Tobe Watson unavailable, Sam Fisher going down injured in the opening minutes, and Peel loaded up with Fremantle-listed AFL talent, the end result was a 92-point loss meaning Swans just missed out on playing finals.

Still to win 10 from 18 matches for the season should be considered a positive and with a bit of luck going their way and a full squad available for Round 20, there's every reason to think Swan Districts could have played finals again in 2022.

As it turned out, Swans were ranked both sixth in attack and defence for the season, scoring 69.6 points a game while conceding 69.0.

Over the course of the season, Swans were especially impressive in third quarters where they outscored their opponents by 165 points to be ranked first in the competition. They came in third for first quarters but eighth in last terms, and then ninth in fourth quarters.

Plenty of players had standout seasons for Swan Districts as well including Jesse Turner and Sam Fisher being named to the Team of the Year while Brandon Erceg, Aidan Clarke, Tony Notte, Tobe Watson and Jarvis Pina were named to Teams of the Week at least three times.

The Swans midfield was impressive throughout the season even having lost Frank Anderson. Clarke, Fisher, Watson and Josh Cipro were all terrific while the season of Turner on the wing was simply superb where he averaged 30.6 possessions to be the league's leading ball winner.

Matthew Germs had a strong season in the ruck too averaging 35.9 hit outs in his 13 appearances.

The back-line was once again a strength for Swans and that was despite last year's retirement of Alex Howard and then with Chris Jones being moved into the forward-line.

Co-captain Erceg along with 279-game veteran Notte and Will Collins, Tony Stephens, Jehb O'Donohue, Jackson Beck and Cian Ehlers all held up strongly.

The move of co-captain Jones into attack gave Swan Districts a strong tall target too and he ended up kicking 29 goals with Jesse Palmer kicking 22, Tom Edwards 20, Ryan Kemp 19 and Brayden Noble 16.

Meanwhile, Swan Districts' reserves team managed to reach the finals in 2022 ending the home and away season in fifth position having won seven of 16 matches.

While things didn’t quite go to plan in the elimination final with a 73-point loss to Subiaco at Fremantle Community Bank Oval, there was a lot to like about how the team performed throughout the season.

Kristian Caporn ended up kicking 17 goals for the reserves in 2022 with Kane Hughes finishing with 13 goals and Warrick Wilson 12.

Ethyn Kane ended up playing all 17 games as the only player to do so while Hughes and Lewis Tester played 16 of the 17, and Lawson Humphries and Max Chipper 15.

Chipper had a terrific season averaging 26.9 possessions as well with Brenton Hilton averaging 20.8 disposals in his 12 matches, Tarir Bayok 19.7 touches in nine games, and Ben Hewett 19.6 possessions in nine appearances.

Ayden Cartwright also gathered 19.3 possessions in 12 games, Noah Hannan 19.0 in 14 and Hudson Babich 18.7 in 14.

And for the colts in 2022, it was tough going for just the three wins from 16 matches, but it was all about building up a young group that will be significantly more competitive and ready to contend for finals again in 2023.

Brodyn Fitzgerald finished the season kicking nine goals for Swan Districts in the colts, Evan Smith eight, Jai Cahill seven, Daniel Hirst seven and Brayden Jones seven.

Darcy Jones ended up averaging 25.5 possessions in six matches, Riley Hardeman 25.0 in six, Jack Saunders 21.8 in 11, Luke Kelly 20.7 in six, Bailey Jenkin 16.4 in nine and Angus Laurisson 16.4 in seven.