Stephens ready to embrace finals opportunity

The first two WAFL games Tony Stephens ever played with Swan Districts were finals, but he knows as well as anybody how hard it is to get back there and that's why he wants to embrace the chance that lies ahead over the next month.

As a 19-year-old back in 2012, Stephens broke in for the finals series with Swan Districts making his debut in the second semi-final against Claremont. He had every reason to think two things – he had a long career ahead of him and that finals would be commonplace.

However, a combination of knee problems and the struggle to be able to commit fully to play in the WAFL while working and studying to be a teacher meant that Stephens only played six league matches up to the end of the 2018 season.

The last of those had been in Round 22, 2014, but fast forward to the eve of the 2024 finals series, and Stephens is proud that he took the leap to give WAFL one more crack back in 2019 and to now be an important, experienced defender ready for another September opportunity.

Stephens has now played 85 WAFL matches with Swans but only one more of those since his first two in 2012 has been a final and that was a loss to West Perth back in 2021.

He is yet to play in a winning final as well and hopes that changes this Saturday afternoon in Mandurah against Peel Thunder with Swan Districts knowing two more wins and they will be into a first Grand Final since 2010.

Embracing finals opportunity

Stephens will be playing his fourth career final in his 86th match on Saturday against Peel as he chases a first finals victory, and the majority of his teammates are in a similar situation.

The only other players remaining from that 2021 elimination final team that lost to West Perth are Aidan Clarke, Jiah Reidy, Brayden Noble, Josh Cipro, Matthew Germs, Alex Howard, Tony Notte, Jesse Turner, Brandon Erceg and Jehb O'Donohue.

The only Swans current players to have played in a winning final are Howard, Notte, Turner and Noble. That's why this team of 2024 wants to embrace this chance having qualified for the finals from third spot to earn a double chance.

"I think that's been the messaging in the back end of the season once we figured we could put ourselves in with a chance to make finals was that now that we have this chance, we have to make the most of every moment we can to have a real crack at going all the way," Stephens said.

"It's definitely something that we talk about as a playing group and we really want to cherish this opportunity because we know nothing is guaranteed going forward and this opportunity might not come again. So we want to give this our best shot and see what we can do with it."

Making debut in finals

Considering that only three of Stephens' 85 matches for Swans have been finals, it's remarkable to think that his very first two games were finals back in 2012.

He earned his first opportunity in the second semi-final team that lost to Claremont before then being part of the losing preliminary final to East Fremantle at Steel Blue Oval.

As a 19-year-old back then, Stephens felt reasonably that there would be plenty more finals ahead of him. The fact that it's now 12 years later and he has only played in one final since means he'll never taken a chance to play in September for granted again.

"I probably took it for granted to be honest back at the time and unfortunately it was so long ago that I don't really remember about it too much with the games in particular," Stephens said.

"It was a bit of a whirlwind and I wasn’t expecting to get a game at all, then was thrown straight into it and it all just sort of happened, and went so fast.

"I did probably take it for granted and thought that was a bit of the norm, but since then I've only played in one final since and we unfortunately couldn’t get over the line against West Perth.

"Then since then we've been trying to fight to get into finals and now we've finally been able to put a good campaign together to give ourselves a double chance."

A long road back to Swans

Stephens was forced to sit out the entire 2013 season on the back of those two finals appearances at the back of 2012 and then did get back to playing four league matches in 2014, but then for a variety of reasons life took him away from Swans and playing in the WAFL for the next four years.

However, as the years rolled on, he realised he didn’t want to always live with the regrets of wondering what his WAFL career could have been and he's now been a key part of the Swans' back-line ever since returning in 2019.

"I left after 2014 because I was having issues with my knees and that's what stopped me playing colts footy as well in 2013 when I couldn’t play," Stephens said.

"I took some time off footy and then had a bit of a kick around at Swan Valley and I think it was in 2016 when I came back down to Swans and did a pre-season.

"But it proved to be too much with work and I was studying full-time to become a teacher as well, and the knee still wasn’t working too well for me.

"Then I had another couple of good years at Swan Valley and my body was feeling better so I thought I didn’t want to be that guy in a few years sitting at the pub telling everyone how good I could have been.

"So I wanted to give WAFL one last crack so I had no regrets and I haven’t looked back since, and have absolutely loved it since being back. I'm real grateful to the club for allowing me to come back too."

Becoming such a rock solid defender

What has made Stephens such a valuable member of the Swan Districts team since he returned in 2019 is the variety of roles he can take on as a defender.

Whether it's a tall, small or in between forward, Stephens is able to take on whatever role his coach sets for him and he takes great pride in the defensive work he's able to do.

"When I came back to the club in 2019 I sort of made it a point that I just wanted to get a game first, and then my primary role would be to be a lockdown defender," Stephens said.

"I just focused on how I could stop my opponent no matter their size or what their strengths are, and try to focus on what I can do to stop them before thinking about what I need to do from an offensive point of view.

"Something I just take pride in is making sure I can do my job for the team and lockdown someone dangerous from the other team."

Strength of defensive group

The back-line unit continues to be a great strength of the Swan Districts team coming into the finals series of 2024 that Stephens remains such a critical part of.

There are still fellow veterans like Notte, Howard and Erceg playing still in 2024, but then the emergence of players like Will Collins and Jake Pasini is something he has enjoyed seeing close up.

"Even in our tough years our back-line has always been a strength of ours, and there's a lot of trust back there especially this year with how flexible we are in who we can play on," Stephens said.

"Most guys can play on talls and smalls so I think that's added to our strengths with that flexibility, and ability to hand over, cover each other and back each other in to get the spoil, take the mark or win it on the ground.

"It just provides such a belief in each other that we can get things done and that we know when the ball's there to be won that we're going to be at least 50-50 it and work it out from there."

Relief to enter finals in winning form

Even coming into last Saturday's game and Swan Districts needed to win to guarantee a place in the finals. Not only was Stephens relieved they were able to do that, but especially to do so with a dominant four-quarter performance against Perth.

"Getting to finals can be few and far between so I guess we're looking to take every opportunity we've got now. If we can win this week and then get those two chances to get to the Grand Final then it's really exciting at the moment what's ahead of us," he said.

"I think the biggest relief was that we were able to put together four quarters. That's probably something that we've struggled with for the most part throughout the year even though we've had good games.

"We haven’t really put together too many four quarter efforts so to get over the line like we did on the weekend was quite the relief to know how well we are set up for going into the finals campaign.

The remarkable Swan Districts support

Another thing driving on Stephens and the rest of his teammates is the fact that they want to reward the loyal Swan Districts supporter base who have stuck loyal over the last 14 years waiting for the chance to enjoy some more finals success.

"Our supporters are second to none and we had a couple of tough years there, but the support even when we lost that they give is like nothing else," Stephens said.

"It can feel a little awkward when you're coming off the ground after a loss and our supporters are still cheering us because they appreciate our effort, and want to still support us.

"That's something that I and a lot of guys think about what it would feel like walking off after winning a final and having them cheering us off.

"Hopefully that might even be a home final and the crowd would be ridiculous with their support of us, and I can't thank all of them enough. The energy that they supply always gives us that extra lift and it's always awesome playing in front of them."