Pasini craving Swans success upon homecoming

Jake Pasini is excited to be back home in Perth after four years in Adelaide, can't wait to return to Swan Districts after four seasons at Port Adelaide and a WAFL premiership is now his ultimate goal.

The Caversham product had a memorable 2019 season at Swan Districts where he mostly played with the colts team, but also had a stint with the reserves and then made his league debut in Round 19 of that season against Peel Thunder.

He looked right at home too with 12 possessions, five marks and three tackles, and on the back of that was taken in the AFL Rookie Draft by Port Adelaide and that's where he has been ever since.

While the strong bodied and versatile key defender wasn’t quite able to breakthrough for a debut for the Power over the past four seasons, he enjoyed the experience of being able to live away from home for the last four years, and to spend that long on an AFL list.

It was a roller coaster ride including going through a knee reconstruction after rupturing an ACL, being away from home during COVID and also playing some impressive football in the SANFL, but Pasini now is excited to be back home.

On a personal front, coming back home to his family after four years is something he is already cherishing, but on a football front he is delighted to be making his return to Swan Districts to resume his WAFL career.

"I reckon coming back home to Perth was an easy decision," Pasini said.

"I've lived at home for four years and I feel like it's definitely taught me a lot and I've definitely grown from that, but coming back to Swan Districts was a bit more of a tough decision.

"Pretty much every WAFL club hit me up but Swannies is always my home and I was pretty comfortable coming back to the team and the boys, and the coaching staff and everyone at the club. That definitely made that decision easy and I'm looking forward to coming back."

Looking back on the last four years, and aside from not quite achieving the dream of making his AFL debut, there's not much about the whole experience that Pasini would change from being with Port Adelaide and living in Adelaide now that he looks back.

"I had no mum over there obviously so I had to learn how to do all my own washing and my own dishes, and all that sort of stuff, but I adapted pretty well," Pasini said.

"I was living with Willem Drew over there for the four years and he made it certainly comfortable as did all the other boys. I loved my time over there and I'll definitely look back on that time positively.

"I guess it would have been a lot nicer if I did make my debut for Port Adelaide, but I have no regrets from my time over there. I absolutely loved it and made some lifelong friends, and had some lifelong memories as well on and off the footy field.

"I certainly am never going to forget my time in Adelaide and I thank Port Adelaide for that, but now it's just time to move on and look into the future with Swan Districts and see where we go from there."

While the 22-year-old would love another AFL opportunity, he knows at the end of the day that's out of his control for the most part and if he plays good football at Swan Districts, then that will take care of itself and will get him noticed.

So looking to the 2024 WAFL season with Swans, all he is worried about is settling back in at Steel Blue Oval and reacquainting himself with some old teammates, coaching staff and the black-and-white faithful.

"Obviously if I play good football and if another opportunity comes up I would love that to happen, and that would be my main career goal," he said.

"I was still contracted at Port Adelaide when they let me go so I was pretty disappointed at that and was pretty eager to make my debut. But right now I'm just wanting to do what I can for Swan Districts and play good football there, and help them boys out, and if I get picked up again that will just be a bonus."

Going back to that league game that Pasini did play in 2019 and it featured the likes of Jesse Glass-McCasker, Jiah Reidy, Josh Cipro, Nathan Blakely, Tony Notte, Jesse Turner, Aidan Clarke and Nathan Ireland who he will again call teammates in 2024.

He can't wait to play with some familiar faces again but beyond that, what excited him about signing on at Swan Districts is the potential for success he feels that is right in front of the group.

"I remember before I got drafted back in 2019 I played a league game and a few ressies game, and I remember playing with guys like Tony Notte and Jesse Turner," Pasini said.

"It was great back then and seeing them still playing now and for me to be able to run out with them again over the next couple of seasons, that's something that's great to looking forward to.

"The playing group is definitely one that looks capable of winning a premiership so that's also a big factor in me deciding to come back to Swannies."

While Pasini has personal ambitions, like any player, it's team success at Swan Districts that he is craving more than anything and having watched the reserves win the 2023 premiership at Optus Stadium, he now wants to taste some of that for himself.

"Especially seeing the ressies boys win the grand final this year as well, I was at that game, and just seeing the culture with all the league boys getting around them all, you could see how unreal the culture of the club was," he said.

"Seeing that up close will help us league boys now try to achieve that ourselves now hopefully next year and we know we're capable of it with the coaching staff we have, and the team we have. I reckon that's definitely something we should be striving for."

In the bigger picture, Pasini is just happy to be home in Perth after a bit of a rollercoaster ride over the last four years, and can't wait to make the most of being back as a 22-year-old man after being drafted as an 18-year-old kid.

"It is great being home. Obviously when I did come back to Perth, I didn’t get a lot of time back here when I was over in Adelaide so being back here full-time is pretty awesome," Pasini said.

"There was a few tough years in there and the COVID years were definitely pretty hard, but now I'm pretty happy being home.

"I don’t know how much mum will love it, but it's definitely going to be nice and I do hope she'll like having me a bit more. It'll be nice seeing more of my family and friends, and being able to do a lot more things than when I was over in Adelaide so I'm looking forward to it."