Round 1 WAFLW Preview v Claremont

The new era in the WAFLW competition for Swan Districts gets underway on Saturday with a big challenge up against the might of Claremont at Revo Fitness Stadium.

While it is a significant test for Swan Districts first up on the road to Claremont on Saturday afternoon, it presents a terrific chance to make a statement under new coach Ben Bowness and with a significant amount of new, and mostly younger, faces in the line-up.

It has been a summer of significant change in the WAFLW program at Swan Districts with last season's assistant coach Bowness stepping into the main role on the back of the strong work done over a number of seasons by Adam Dancey.

Swan Districts is coming off a strong second half of the 2023 WAFLW season. The black-and-whites bounced back from a slow start to the season to end up making the finals once again.

While they did lose that first semi-final to East Fremantle, given the Sharks went on to win the premiership there was certainly no shame in that and there was lots from that 2023 season that gave an indication that the immediate future was bright for Swan Districts.

Now the season gets underway on Saturday afternoon and it's a Claremont team the opponent who enter the season having also undergone plenty of change in personnel, but who enter the new season high on motivation.

Claremont won the WAFLW premiership back in 2022 and then were the dominant outfit throughout 2023. The Tigers didn’t lose a single game all season but that all changed on Grand Final day thanks to East Fremantle.

From that Grand Final team for the Tigers, Taylah Angel, Rebecca Tuckey, Sarah Viney, Brooke Whyte, Andie Payne, Sarah Garstone, Tess Blackburn, Rachel Ortlepp and Matilda Sergeant all won't be out there on Saturday for the Round 1 match up.

As a result, there are plenty of new faces for Claremont including the returning Emily Bonser and recruits Anjelique Raison and Jess Ritchie.

Other new faces for Round 1 in the squad include Georgia Webb, Eva O'Donnell, Matilda Husband, Juliet Kelly, Laura Cinnani, Hayley Colvin, Emily Elkington, Lauren Hutton, Jayde Musika and Savannah Muir who all didn’t play in that Grand Final last year.

Meanwhile for Swan Districts, new faces in the Round 1 team on Saturday include Tayla Thorn, Emma Humphries, Hannah Plummer, Tannah Lee and Millie Edgar. 

That's a group that includes current West Coast Eagles AFLW player Humphries, another player with AFLW experience at two clubs in Thorn along with Plummer who has played some strong WAFLW football previously at Subiaco.

Tannah Lee is stepping up from the Rogers Cup team last year who will be provided with opportunities early in the 2024 season in the WAFLW.

The WAFLW league match begins on Saturday afternoon at Revo Fitness Stadium at 4.10pm and it will follow on from the Rogers Cup match up also between Claremont and Swan Districts which will get underway at 2.05pm.

It's a new look Rogers Cup group for the 2024 season as well and that's always a natural given the players move on to the senior program once they are old enough.

There's also a new coach for the Swan Districts Rogers Cup team in 2024 and it's inaugural Swans' Youth Girls player and former WAFLW player Tayah Reed who will be at the helm leading the team into action for the clash with the Tigers for Round 1 on Saturday afternoon.