Round 6 WAFL Preview v Claremont

Swan Districts will welcome back club legend Tony Notte to take on Claremont at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday and will be hoping it helps bring a change of fortunes heading into the State game break.

Swans have now won just one of the opening five matches of the 2023 WAFL season heading into Saturday's contest at home against the league-leading Claremont.

It's the last game for Swan Districts prior to next week's State game break and the black-and-whites will be hoping to improve to a 2-4 record heading into that week off.

Swan Districts is looking to hit back from last week's loss in Mandurah to Peel and as a result, the black-and-whites have made plenty of mostly enforced changes for the clash with Claremont at home this Saturday.

The highlight at the selection table is the return of club legend Tony Notte from his knee reconstruction after rupturing his ACL in Round 18 last year against East Fremantle.

He has got through the last three weeks now in the reserves including last Sunday against Peel in Mandurah where he had 16 possessions and nine marks.

Notte has now got himself ready for his league return this Saturday for Swans to continue his 279-game playing career and he will have his work cut out whichever end of the ground he comes in to play at.

There are holes that Notte could fill at either end of the ground with co-captain and key forward Chris Jones along with tall defender Will Collins going out of the Swan Districts line-up with injury.

Also coming into the squad for Swans for Saturday's clash are Tarir Bayok, Max Chipper, Matthew Germs, Ben Hewett, Kane Hughes, Tyrell Metcalf and Jiah Reidy.

Joining Collins and Jones out of the Swan Districts team are the suspended Ryan Kemp and small defender Seb Bright.

Claremont is fresh off a nail-biting win against East Perth last Saturday and from that team, Mitchell Barron, Jack Buller, Jack Lewsey, Campbell Rogers and Felix Rogers have all been added to the squad to face Swan Districts this Saturday at Bassendean.

The only out for Claremont at this stage is key defender Declan Hardisty.

Claremont has enjoyed things against Swan Districts in recent times and really even dating back to that fateful 2010 season where Swans shocked them in the greatest WAFL grand final of this century.

While the two teams did split their meetings in 2022 with each side winning their respective home matches by nine points, prior to that and Claremont has dominated proceedings against Swan Districts.

Prior to that win for Swans in Round 4 last year at Steel Blue Oval and the Tigers had beaten them nine straight times dating back to 2017.

Going back even further and since Swan Districts stunned Claremont with that one-point grand final win in 2010, the Tigers have won 23 of the 31 clashes between the two teams since.

It's even more stark at Revo Fitness Stadium where Claremont has won seven straight against Swan Districts by an average of 45.7 points. The last win at Tigerland for Swans came by 39 points back in Round 17, 2013.

However, Swans ended a nine-year losing run against South Fremantle at Fremantle Community Bank Oval two weeks ago so this Saturday might be a good time to end a 10-year drought at Revo Fitness Stadium.

Coming into Saturday's clash and Swan Districts is the second worst defence in the competition having conceded 81.2 points a game so far in 2023 while being ranked seventh in attack at 70.0 points.

In contrast, Claremont is the second best team defensively giving up 58.2 points while third best by scoring 89.4 points a game themselves.

The Tigers are also winning more of the ball than their opponents than any team in the WAFL with an average of 46.4 disposals a game. Swans are ranked second last in that category too with 35.4 fewer possessions than their rivals.

Swans are a good starting team, though, ranked third in first quarters so far this season while the Tigers are placed fifth.

After that, though, and Claremont is the second best team in the last three quarters across the competition with Swan Districts ranked ninth in second quarters and eight in the last, but third terms have been more kind where they've outscored their opponents by 19 points.