Round 6 WAFLW Match Report

Swan Districts women are on the board this 2023 WAFLW season after a terrific display on Sunday at Steel Blue Oval to defeat West Perth by 51 points.

It had been a challenging start to the 2023 season for Swan Districts in the WAFLW competition with losses to Peel Thunder, Subiaco, Claremont and South Fremantle prior to the break over the Easter.

The week off seemed to do Swan Districts the world of good and they delivered a dominant display to beat West Perth 10.12 (72) to 3.3 (21) at Steel Blue Oval on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the day started at Steel Blue Oval with West Perth running out 5.8 (38) to 2.5 (17) winners in the Rogers Cup contest.

Despite Swan Districts having been a regular finals team in the formative seasons of the WAFLW competition and West Perth having not won a game coming into 2023, the fortunes of both had been different coming into Sunday's contest.

Swans had lost their opening four matches of the season while the Falcons had been impressive winning two of their four including a terrific last up win over the Thunder, but the black-and-whites got things going impressively on Sunday at Bassendean.

Swan Districts ended up with 22 scoring shots to six for the afternoon along with 34 inside-50 entries to 16, 61 extra possessions than West Perth and ended up claiming the 10.12 (72) to 3.3 (21) victory.

Taylah Edwards put together a dominant performance in the win for Swan Districts not only kicking three goals but finishing with 20 possessions and eight marks. Lily Paterson also kicked two goals from five kicks for the black-and-whites.

Ruby Mahony also picked up 20 possessions for Swan Districts while laying 10 tackles with Jaime Henry finishing with 20 disposals, Abbygail Bushby 18, Isabela Edgley 17, Jasmine Ware 16 and Sarah Wielstra 14 to go with 23 hit outs in the ruck.

While West Perth came into the game full of confidence and Swan Districts were still chasing a first victory of 2023, it was Swans who kicked the first goal at the eight-minute mark thanks to Taylah Edwards.

West Perth responded five minutes later through Elissa Price and a terrific contest was brewing, but Swans had come out firing and closed the opening term with goals to Sarah Wielstra and Tyla Fitzgerald to hold a 14-point edge by quarter-time.

It took almost 13 minutes of the second quarter for a goal to be scored with both teams a little inaccurate, but it was Swans who broke the trend thanks to Courtney Zappara which helped the home team to a 23-point lead by the main break.

After a string of four behinds to South Fremantle to start the second half, it was West Perth who got a goal on the board through Katherine Bennett to bring the margin back to 21 points.

But Swans responded with a second goal to Edwards and that saw the home team up by 26 at three quarter-time with that first win of 2023 within touching distance.

While West Perth did kick the first goal of the last term thanks to Grace Betti, it was all Swans from there as they produced their best football of the season to close the game with goals to Kayley King, Lily Paterson (two), a third to Edwards and Indiana West to claim the commanding 51-point win.

Earlier in the Rogers Cup contest, while Swan Districts went down to West Perth by 21 points, there were still impressive performances from the black-and-whites including a goal apiece to Sienna Gerardi and Tamzyn Beros.