Reserves Qualifying Final Preview

The Swan Districts reserves might have narrowly missed out on the minor premiership in 2023, but are still two wins away from a Grand Final spot starting with Saturday's qualifying final match up with Subiaco.

The only side from Swan Districts to make the finals at the end of the 2023 home and away season was the reserves and their finals campaign gets underway this Saturday afternoon at Leederville Oval.

Swan Districts will play Subiaco from 11.35am in the reserves qualifying final with the winner to advance to a second semi-final next weekend while the loser will receive a second chance by advancing to a first semi-final.

That will take place against the winner of Sunday's elimination final in the reserves between Claremont and East Fremantle also at Leederville Oval.

What that means is that coming into the finals series and after finishing in second position on the ladder, Swan Districts is two wins away from advancing to the Grand Final which will be at Optus Stadium on Sunday September 24.

Saturday's qualifying final in the reserves was set up with Swan Districts finishing the season in second position and Subiaco in third.

While Swans did earn the rights to be the home team, with Subiaco's league side hosting Peel Thunder in a qualifying final, it will be at Leederville Oval that the game will be held in an unfortunate quirk working against the black-and-whites.

Swan Districts did finish the season with an 11-5 record from the 16 matches throughout the season to be a game clear in second position of Subiaco who ended up with a 10-6 record.

Both teams feature plenty of quality with league experience as well with the Swan Districts team including Will Collins, Luke Taylor, Lawson Humphries, Ben Hewett, Max Chipper, Ayden Cartwright, Mitch Bain, Jiah Reidy, Tarir Bayok and Matthew Germs.

That's an impressive group of players with Collins to have played more league games in 2023 had it not been for a nasty concussion suffered against Peel back in Round 5, but he is a high qualify defender.

Taylor is another strong defender who is fresh off making his league debut in the last round while Humphries is an exciting youngster fresh off the best game of his league career last week where he had 22 possessions against the Thunder.

Chipper is also coming off 15 disposals in the league team last Saturday while Germs is a proven commodity in the ruck while Hewett, Cartwright, Bain, Reidy and Bayok give Swans plenty of quality through the midfield at reserves level coming into the finals series.

With Subiaco's league team also in the finals, the Lions have a full squad to pick from and as a result the players who miss out on selection for the league qualifying final against Peel will line-up in the reserves against Swan Districts.

That means the Subiaco team could feature the four players to miss out from the extended interchange bench which currently includes Koltyn Tholstrup, Kyle Stainsby, Jake South, Jordan Snadden, Rylie Morgan, Corey Hitchcock, Jordan Faraone and Michael Braut.

The Subiaco reserves squad also includes Jaimon Alone, Lachlan Vanirsen, Jake Stergiou, Henry Berenger, Kody Eaton, Connor Faraone, Isaac Clinch, Lachlan Henderson, Oskar Matthews and Corey Robinson who have all experienced playing at league level with the Lions.

It has been 17 years since the Swan Districts reserves won a premiership with that last triumph coming back in 2006 when Brian Dawson was coach.

It's now another former league coach in charge of the reserves for the finals campaign, with Greg Harding the coach and Swans are two wins away from reaching that Grand Final to attempt to win a first premiership since 2006 over the next four weeks.