Round 1 Match Report v East Perth

Swan Districts went ever so close to a first up win against East Perth on Good Friday and while the one-point loss to the Royals will be frustrating, there were plenty of encouraging signs at Leederville Oval.

With Jarrod Cameron, Riley Hardeman and Jesse Glass-McCasker among the new faces to show good signs and with Frank Anderson, Jackson McLachlan, Nathan Blakely, Tony Notte and Will Collins among those to come in from the Round 1 team, there's good signs for new coach Andrew Pruyn to work with.

It was a terrific contest all afternoon on Good Friday but it was in the third quarter where Swan Districts took over having overcome a 24-point half-time deficit to be leading by nine points early in the fourth quarter.

However, East Perth kicked the next two goals from there and in a frantic finish, a late behind to Angus Scott proved the difference with the Royals winning 12.8 (80) to 11.13 (79).

Jesse Palmer and Lachlan Riley kicked two goals in the opening game of the season for Swan Districts while Jarrod Cameron was a livewire in attack and showed good signs despite kicking 1.4. He had nine kicks, four marks and four tackles.

Aidan Clarke was runner-up to Jesse Turner in last year's Swan Medal and opened up the new season in dominant fashion for Swan Districts with 38 possessions, eight inside 50s, six marks and a goal.

Turner wasn’t far behind again with 36 disposals and six inside-50 entries with Tobe Watson contributing 25 touches, Sam Fisher 25, Jarvis Pina 21 and co-captain Brandon Erceg 17 to go with six marks.

East Perth made the perfect start to the new season with a goal after just four minutes to Tom Medhat. 

The Royals then had the first two goals of the game with Hamish Brayshaw adding another four minutes later but Swan Districts responded thanks to Lachlan Riley to get on the board in 2023 themselves.

East Perth's good start continued further when Medhat kicked his second goal of the first term but Swan Districts were working into it too and goals to Jesse Palmer and Brayden Noble tied scores up just before quarter-time.

The goalkicking in an exciting opening term wasn’t done, though, with late goals to either team from Mitch Schofield and Jarrod Cameron, which ended up seeing East Perth lead by five points at quarter-time.

Again it only took four minutes into the second quarter for East Perth to get a goal through Schofield to stretch their lead to 13 points before Nick Bonomelli added another to put the Royals up by 18 points.

That advantage was out to 23 with a goal to ruckman Scott Jones. Chris Jones and Angus Scott traded goals for either side before half-time with the Royals maintaining their 24-point lead by the main break.

Swan Districts needed to start the second half well to stay a chance of beginning the season in winning fashion and it was a goal after just three minutes that gave them a promising start.

However, East Perth quickly answered with a third goal to Medhat but then it was all the black-and-whites for the rest of the third term with goals to Riley, Mitch Bain, Palmer and Aidan Clarke to see Swans have all the momentum and a two-point lead at three quarter-time.

Swans then pushed out to their biggest lead of the game early in the last term with a goal to Sam Fisher, but it wouldn’t last and the Royals would respond strongly firstly with a second goal to Brayshaw.

Scott then kicked his second and co-captain Christian Ameduri put them eight points in front but the game had more twists to come.

Swans big man Jesse Glass-McCasker made it a one-point game when he kicked truly at the 26-minute mark. A behind to Ryan Kemp brought scores level two minutes later, but it was a behind to Scott for East Perth soon after that secured the one-point win for the Royals.

Meanwhile, Swan Districts' reserves scored a strong 10.13 (73) to 7.7 (49) against East Perth on Good Friday.

Warrick Wilson put his hand up for a league recall with three goals from 15 possessions and seven marks while Max Chipper gathered 25 disposals, Ben Hewett 25, Jacob Sideris 24, Jamison Ugle 22, Lewis Tester 21 and Lawson Humphries 21.

Matthew Germs had 10 touches, 36 hit outs and a goal in the ruck.

And in the colts, Swan Districts went down to East Perth 15.11 (101) to 8.8 (56) on Friday morning. Lewis Zolnier-Owens kicked three goals for Swans and Baiden Parsons two with Otis Harvey gathering 26 possessions, Luke Kelly 19, Jack Saunders 16 and Evan Smith 15 to go with 36 hit outs.