Round 8 Match Report v West Coast Eagles

Swan Districts produced a dominant second half showing on Sunday at Steel Blue Oval with Tom Edwards kicking a career-best six goals on the way to the 81-point triumph against the West Coast Eagles.

Swans were back home on Sunday afternoon to play host to the Eagles at Steel Blue Oval desperate to notch a second win of the WAFL season having lost five games already by seven points or fewer in 2023.

That included a devastating four-point loss to Subiaco last Saturday but for the first half on Saturday, Swans couldn’t quite shake the winless Eagles to only be leading by 14 points at half-time.

However, Swan Districts dominated from there with two goals to nil in the third term, and then nine goals to one in the fourth stanza to claim the 16.18 (114) to 5.3 (33) victory.

The victory improves Swans to a 2-6 record on the season but keeps them in the finals hunt still after eight rounds especially considering their strong percentage thanks to Sunday’s big win, and the tight losses they have suffered.

Tom Edwards opened the best afternoon of his career on Sunday with the first goal of the game after just four minutes.

It took another eight minutes for Swans to add a second which came from Lachlan Riley before Brayden Noble added another and for the second straight week, the black-and-whites had the first three goals of the game.

West Coast did get on the board shortly after thanks to Tyrell Dewar and then another soon after to debutant Ryan Maric.

In between, Edwards kicked his second and Swans went on to lead by 15 points at the first change.

West Coast did start the second quarter with a burst with two quick goals to Jarrod Garlett and Harry Barnett, and suddenly it was just a four-point game.

Swans would kick three behinds before eventually getting a first goal of the term thanks to captain for the day Jesse Turner. That helped the black-and-whites to lead by 14 points at half-time.

West Coast was still close enough going into the second half for a drought breaking victory, but those hopes wouldn’t last long.

Swans would hold the Eagles scoreless the entire third quarter and had eight scoring shots themselves. Only two of those were goals with Edwards adding a third, and Ayden Cartwright adding the other.

Swans were leading by 32 points at three quarter-time as a result but then the black-and-whites turned it on in stunning fashion in the final term with a massive nine goals to one.

That included three more goals for Edwards to give him six for the day and Swans ended up winning by 81 points for the morale boosting second victory of the season.

Tom Edwards shook off the disappointment of missing a late shot in the narrow loss to Subiaco last week by producing the best performance of his 36-game career on Sunday.

Edwards ended up kicking six goals for the day from 22 possessions and nine marks.

Lachlan Riley also kicked two goals for Swans to go with his 27 disposals and five tackles with Jiah Reidy also booting two goals.

Jesse Turner bounced back from an uncharacteristically quiet 11-possession game last week against Subiaco. He embraced the captaincy too in the absence of Chris Jones and Brandon Erceg to rack up 37 possessions, five inside 50s and a goal.

Aidan Clarke continued his superb form on return from injury with another 36 touches for Swans while Jackson McLachlan racked up 32 disposals, Jarvis Pina 24 and ruckman Nathan Blakely 23 to go with 21 hit outs, six tackles and a goal.