Round 12 WAFL Preview v East Perth

Swan Districts has the chance to make another significant statement this Saturday when taking on East Perth back at Steel Blue Oval.

Swans are fresh off a stirring win last Saturday to claim the John Todd Memorial Cup with the victory against South Fremantle and now this Saturday presents a chance to make a statement against the second placed East Perth.

The Royals will become the first team that Swans have played twice now in the 2024 WAFL season with the last meeting coming back in Round 2 which saw East Perth end up scoring the 37-point victory at Sullivan Logistics Stadium.

In that game, Jiah Reidy kicked three goals for Swan Districts with Ayden Cartwright, Leigh Kohlmann and Tom Edwards adding two apiece with Jesse Turner amassing 43 possessions, Jye Chalcraft 37, Nik Rokahr 31, Tony Notte 23 and Jackson McLachlan 20.

Swan Districts now come into Saturday's match back on home turf at Steel Blue Oval having won the past three matches in impressive fashion against West Perth, Subiaco and South Fremantle.

That has Swans improve to a 5-4 record on the season to now be a game and percentage clear in fifth position on the WAFL ladder and just a game behind East Fremantle and South Fremantle, and only two games back from top two teams East Perth and Peel Thunder.

That's what makes Saturday's game such an opportunity for the black-and-whites to move to within just one game of an East Perth team currently sitting in second position with a 7-2 record.

The Royals come into Saturday's game at Steel Blue Oval having had the bye last weekend and prior to that suffering a nine-point defeat at the hands of Claremont.

From the Swan Districts team that beat South Fremantle so impressively by 27 points last Saturday, Ayden Cartwright, Matthew Germs, Jehb O'Donohue and Luke Taylor have been added to the extended squad.

From the East Perth team that lost to Claremont two weeks ago prior to the bye, the two players to come into the side to take on Swan Districts are Tom Graham and Stan Wright.

Going out for the Royals are Adam Boules and Sandon Page.

Swan Districts coach Andrew Pruyn was especially pleased with the four-quarter effort from his team last week against the Bulldogs and now hopes to see a lot more of it.

"We really respect South and what they've been able to do, and their season so far has been really impressive and we didn’t take anything for granted when we were preparing to take them on," Pruyn said.

"For us it was actually our first where we were able to string four quarters of footy together, but also better than that we were able to play the way we wanted to play.

"We got things on our terms essentially with our ball movement and control of the tempo of the game, which was really impressive from our boys. Now we need to back that up and keep on doing that moving forward."

The day at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday will get underway with the colts match up that starts at 8.55am with Swan Districts trying to break into the top four with a fifth win of the season while they take on an East Perth sitting seventh at 3-5.

The reserves contest between Swan Districts and East Perth will then follow at 11.25am with Swans hunting a second win of the season on the back of last year's premiership up against a Royals team sitting with a 4-4 record.