Round 8 WAFLW Match Report

The WAFLW season of Swan Districts is building some momentum following a third successive victory with the Sunday win against East Fremantle at Steel Blue Oval.

The Swans played host to the Sharks at Steel Blue Oval on Sunday in Round 8 of the 2023 WAFLW season and the black-and-whites produced a commanding performance to keep their winning form going.

Swan Districts might have started the season with four successive losses, but now with the win on Sunday have made it three wins on the trot to be banging on the door of breaking into the top four at the end of eight rounds.

Swans would go on to score the 8.8 (56) to 4.3 (27) victory on the back of collecting 71 more possessions as a team, having 10 extra inside-50 entries and having 16 scoring shots to seven in the 29-point win.

Swan Districts came into the clash with some momentum after winning the last two games but with East Fremantle desperate to bounce back from a loss to South Fremantle, it was set up to be a terrific contest.

However, Swans dominated from the outset and were the only team who managed to score in the entire first half.

That included first quarter goals for Swan Districts from Lily Paterson and then two from Courtney Zappara to see the home team take a 19-point advantage into quarter-time.

Swans kept the momentum going into the second term with goals to Kayley King and then a third of the afternoon to Zappara. They held East Fremantle scoreless to half-time to head into the break leading by 34 points.

Little changed after the break with Swans remaining in control and kicking two more goals in the opening 12 minutes. That included a first to Teyharna Curry before Zappara kicked her fourth of the game with the lead growing to 49 points.

East Fremantle finally got on the board with a goal to Chloe Reilly at the 16-minute mark but still by three quarter-time Swan Districts were on top by 44 points.

East Fremantle had the better of the fourth quarter with a couple more goals to Reilly and another to Jasmine Johansen, but Swans also added their eighth of the game on the way to the eventual 29-point victory to make it three wins on the trot.

Courtney Zappara produced a brilliant performance up forward for Swan Districts and she threatened to have a historic goalkicking performance. In the end she kicked four goals from nine shots with five behinds as well from her 11 kicks and five marks.

The other goals from Swans were kicked by Kayley King, Naomi Baker, Lily Paterson and Teyharna Curry.

Ruby Mahony had another standout performance through the middle for Swan Districts finishing with 25 possessions and seven tackles with King also gathering 21 disposals and Abbygail Bushby 17.

There were plenty more strong contributors with Indiana West gathering 15 touches, Daisy Rigby 15, Jess Cox 15, Tyla Fitzgerald 13, Naomi Baker 13, Hope Ugle-Hayward 13 and Paterson 13.

Meanwhile, Round 8 in the Rogers Cup wrapped up with a thriller that saw East Fremantle beat Swan Districts 6.6 (42) to 5.9 (39) at Steel Blue Oval. Siena Jezierski-Brown kicked two goals for the Sharks as did Jasmyn Ihanimo for the Swans.