NAIDOC Round WAFL Preview v East Perth

Swan Districts will play host to East Perth as part of NAIDOC Round in the WAFL this Saturday with the black-and-whites back from the bye and needing the win to stay in the finals hunt for 2023.

Swan Districts returns to action this Saturday at Steel Blue Oval to celebrate NAIDOC Week and to take on the second placed East Perth.

The day's action begins with the colts contest between the Swans and Royals at Steel Blue Oval at 8.40am with the reserves clash to follow at 11.10am, and then the league match up begins at 2.10pm.

Swan Districts comes into the contest off the bye last weekend and prior to that scoring their best win of the season beating West Perth by 15 points at Joondalup.

That victory improved Swans to a 4-7 record on the season to remain a chance to still play finals in 2023 but they do need to keep winning and Saturday's game at Steel Blue Oval begins a run of five of the last seven matches on home turf.

East Perth comes into the game also off the bye last week on the back of a win by 110 points against Perth two weeks ago to improve to second position on the WAFL ladder with an 8-3 record having won five consecutive matches.

Last time the two teams played was in Round 1 this year and it was a thrilling one-point victory for East Perth over Swan Districts at Leederville Oval.

In that game, Lachlan Riley and Jesse Palmer kicked two goals each for Swan Districts while Aidan Clarke racked up 38 touches, Jesse Turner 36, Tobe Watson 25, Sam Fisher 25 and Jarvis Pina 21.

Tom Medhat kicked three goals for East Perth with Angus Scott, Mitch Schofield and Hamish Brayshaw adding two each with Brayshaw gathering 26 disposals, Angus Schumacher 21, Scott 21 and Alex Peare 20.

Prior to that result and Swans had beaten the Royals in three of the previous four meetings but before that and East Perth had won four in-a-row against Swan Districts.

At Steel Blue Oval, Swan Districts has won the last two clashes between the two teams by 23 points last year and then 41 back in 2021.

East Perth's last win at Bassendean came in Round 13, 2019 by eight points.

Swan Districts will now resume the season after the bye with four consecutive home matches against East Perth, Subiaco, West Coast and South Fremantle before a couple of away games to Claremont and Perth, and then at home again to Peel Thunder in the last round.

Considering Swans have won their last two home games this season and 11 of the past 14 at Steel Blue Oval dating back to last year, and there's good reason for optimism from coach Andrew Pruyn about the way the season could still finish off for the black-and-whites.

"We've got five of our last seven games at home and we only play two more games away from Bassendean so hopefully that turns out to be a positive for us," he said.

"There's no one in the competition that we don't think we can beat. We know that if we get going and we're playing our best footy that we should be able to take it up to anyone that's out there.

"I think we're progressing and our trajectory is in the upward direction with our footy so as long as we have the belief then I definitely think that we can give ourselves a shot. Then I think if we can get there then you never know what could happen."

Swan Districts has made two changes to the team that beat West Perth so impressively two weeks ago at Joondalup.

Co-captain Chris Jones and lively midfielder Jackson McLachlan are the two players to come back into the Swan Districts after missing against the Falcons with a hamstring and concussion complaint respectively.

The two players to make way for them to return are Ryan Kemp and Max Chipper.

East Perth, meanwhile, has selected the same 22 that beat Perth by 110 points two weeks ago with Nick Bonomelli, Taylor North, Sandon Page and Riley Saunders the four emergencies who can't quite force their way into the side.