Qualifying Final Preview v Peel Thunder

Swan Districts has earned a finals double chance for the first time in 12 years to be two wins away from a first Grand Final in 14 years with the first hurdle coming this Saturday away to Peel Thunder.

Swans will take on the Thunder at Mandurah's Lane Group Stadium on Saturday afternoon in a qualifying final with the winner to advance to the second semi-final next weekend against East Perth.

The loser will still have the chance to make the most of their second opportunity by getting to host a first semi-final next weekend too against either East Fremantle or Claremont.

Swan Districts earned the finals double chance by finishing the home and away season in third position with 11 wins, six losses and a draw.

It's the best finish to a season for Swans since 2012 as they now prepare to take part in a finals series for the first time since 2021, and to try and win a first final since the 2017 elimination victory against West Perth at Steel Blue Oval.

Since the 2010 premiership, that is the lone finals victory that Swans have experienced and Saturday will be a day of firsts as well. It's the first time that Peel and Swan Districts have met in a final, and the first time the black-and-whites have played in a final in Mandurah.

Peel earned the right to host the qualifying final with a second place finish and 13-5 record on the back of reaching last year's Grand Final.

Swan Districts will be attempting to add Lane Group Stadium to the list of venues they have won finals at that only includes Subiaco Oval, Fremantle Oval, Joondalup's Pentanet Stadium and of course, Steel Blue Oval.

While it's a first finals meeting between the two teams, they have played one another 65 times previously in the WAFL with Swan Districts winning 45 of those including the first 11 until the Thunder broke through in the opening round of 2001.

Coming into Saturday's match up, Peel has won five straight against Swan Districts with the last win for the black-and-whites coming back in Round 8, 2022 at Steel Blue Oval.

The last win for Swans in Mandurah against the Thunder was Round 9, 2021 by eight points.

The two teams have played twice this season with Peel winning at Steel Blue Oval by 19 points in Round 7 and then just two weeks ago also in Mandurah by 31 points in some terrible conditions.

Swan Districts locked away a finals spot and top three finish with last Saturday's 55-point victory against Perth while holding the Demons to two goals and Leigh Kohlmann kicking six himself.

From that team, Max Chipper, Brandon Erceg, Ben Hewett, Jesse Glass-McCasker and Matthew Germs have been added to the extended squad.

The only confirmed out at this stage for Swans is Tom Edwards because of concussion protocols.

Peel has added eight players to the squad from the team that lost to East Perth last week and they are Joel Brown, Aidan Hare, Jacob Hewitt, Ollie Murphy, Corey Tregenza, Will Brodie, Liam Reidy and Nathan O'Driscoll.

The confirmed outs at this stage for the Thunder are James Aish, Bo Allan, Sebit Kuek and Oscar McDonald.

Experienced defender Tony Stephens can't wait to try and play in the first finals win in what will be the 86th game of his WAFL career.

"It's almost a little bit surreal really and I'm so excited to get stuck into the finals. I'm looking forward to finding out what sort of match ups Pruey has for us and then I can focus on who I might be playing on," Stephens said.

"I'm just really excited to get down there on Saturday and two weeks ago we weren’t quite good enough to beat them so there's a bit of redemption there that we want to get. We're just looking to put our best foot forward and have a real good crack at it, and try to get to East Perth."

Swan Districts' colts team has also qualified for the finals in 2024 and will be playing against Perth on Saturday morning at Mandurah's Lane Group Stadium starting at 9.10am.

Swans finished the colts season in fourth position with a 9-7 record and will now play the same Perth team that they took on Steel Blue Oval last Saturday.

The winner of Saturday morning's colts elimination final will advance to a first semi-final next weekend against either West Perth or Subiaco.