Round 15 WAFLW Match Report vs. East Fremantle

Swan Districts guaranteed its place in the WAFLW finals for 2023 with a strong performance on Saturday evening at the WACA Ground beating East Fremantle by 14 points.

The two teams went to battle under lights at the WACA Ground on Saturday knowing that the winner would be guaranteed of playing finals this season while the loser would be in a must win situation in the last round to make sure they were there.

It was the second last round of the WAFLW season and Swans were looking to bounce back from a loss to Claremont the week before which brought to an end their impressive seven-game winning streak.

Swan Districts put together a tremendous performance to end up beating East Fremantle 7.6 (48) to 5.4 (34) and as a result improve to an 8-5 record and can't be knocked out of the top four no matter what happens this Sunday at home to the second placed South Fremantle.

With the reward of guaranteeing a finals appearance for the win, the stakes were high for the clash on Saturday night at the WACA Ground. It was Swans who made the fast start with a goal inside the opening two minutes to Taylah Edwards.

East Fremantle did respond with a goal to Grace Freeman but it was a stunning start from Edwards and she's already proven her match-winning potential earlier this season for Swans. She kicked another two goals heading into quarter-time and suddenly the black-and-whites were leading by 13 points.

Swan Districts' lead then grew to 19 points to start the second term with a goal to Courtney Zappara but the Sharks quickly responded thanks to Mylee Leitch to keep things close.

It was still a 13-point lead for Swan Districts by the half-time break and the third quarter started in a similar fashion with Zappara kicking the first goal to help Swans open up a 20-point lead.

Edwards kicked a fourth goal of the evening soon after and Swans went out to a game high 27-point advantage. East Fremantle, though, did stay in touch with a late goal before three quarter-time from Chloe Reilly.

Swans again started the final term well with an early goal to Cassie McWilliam.

The lead for Swan Districts was soon back out to 27 points and despite East Fremantle kicking the last two goals from Freeman and Reilly, they couldn’t quite get close enough to threaten with Swans going on to win by 14 points to lock in another finals appearance in the WAFLW.

Taylah Edwards made a hot start to the match for Swan Districts and ended up kicking four goals for the evening from 13 possessions and four marks. Courtney Zappara also kicked two goals from her six kicks.

Ruby Mahony continued her standout form in the midfield for Swan Districts with another 19 possessions and 10 tackles.

Hope Ugle-Hayward also finished with 15 disposals for Swans along with laying nine tackles with Tyla Fitzgerald picking up 14 touches, Kayley King 13, Eliza Gelmi 11, Emma Nanut 11 and Lily Paterson 11 to go with seven tackles.

Meanwhile, Round 15 of the Rogers Cup took place on Sunday with Peel Thunder beating Swan Districts 6.3 (39) to 3.7 (25) at Steel Blue Oval. Beelinda Gallagher kicked two goals for Swan Districts.