Excitement building with Cipro and Swans

He had to wait until the 93rd game of his WAFL career with Swan Districts to taste a finals victory for the first time but gun midfielder Josh Cipro can't help but be excited to now be part of a team one win from a Grand Final.

Cipro was at Subiaco Oval with his dad as a supporter 14 years ago when Swan Districts last played in, and won, a WAFL Grand Final. Having been playing in a black-and-white jumper virtually ever since then, it's been quite the wait to get his own potential chance as a player.

Having come right through the ranks at Swans, Cipro made his WAFL debut with Swans in 2016 as an 18-year-old and by 2019 was a regular member of the midfield, and he's never looked back since.

There might have been some bigger name stars around him like Sandover Medallist Sam Fisher, current co-captain Jesse Turner and even this year's gun recruits Nik Rokahr and Jye Chalcraft, but Cipro has remained a cornerstone of the midfield brigade with Swans.

What had been missing was some finals success and having played in just one final in the first 92 games of his career, he played in a first victory last Saturday in the qualifying final against Peel Thunder, and he wants more.

Swans will now take on East Perth in this Saturday's second semi-final against with the winner to be the first team into the WAFL Grand Final while the loser will get a second chance with a home preliminary final next weekend.

Being one win from Grand Final

Ever since watching Swan Districts win that remarkable premiership in 2010 at Subiaco Oval by a point against Claremont with the heroics of Andrew Krakouer and Stephen Coniglio, Cipro has dreamed of being part of something similar himself.

Now that he's almost 100 games into his career and 26 years of age, this season is his first real chance of being part of something special at Swan Districts to be one win away from a Grand Final, but he is fully aware nobody in black-and-white can get ahead of themselves.

"It's been a very long time and I've been at the club since I was 13 pretty much going through all the development squads," Cipro said.

"I've gone through a lot of poor years and when I was playing in those you always wanted to win, but I think because where the club was at it was more about focusing on player development with me and some of the other younger guys like Clarkey who is the same age as me.

"But I would say over the last two months it has really sunk in and when I think about potentially playing in a Grand Final, it literally gives me goosebumps.

"Just thinking about being one win away from playing in front of 40,000 people at Optus with the chance to do something special gets me pretty excited to think about.

"But you have to contain that because there's still a long way to go before we achieve that but this is an awesome group to do it with and Pruey has moulded us over the last two years to get us to where he expected us to be at."

Feeling after first finals win

Like all his teammates aside from Tony Notte, Jesse Turner and Brayden Noble, Cipro was attempting to get a first finals victory with Swan Districts last Saturday in the qualifying final in Mandurah against Peel Thunder.

To come away with such an impressive win against the second placed team is now something Cipro and everyone at Swans will look to keep the momentum flowing from.

"It was very exciting after that first taste a lot of us got in Joondalup against West Perth in that elimination final which was a memorable experience even though we lost," Cipro said.

"So to have that opportunity again was great and obviously to get the win made it a lot better. After having some mixed up and down years including finishing with the spoon at least once, it's been a year where playing finals and winning a final, if that didn’t happen it would feel like it was a bit of a failure.

"Realistically with our group and where we wanted to be, we felt like we needed to at least win a final so everyone was pretty excited to get that win."

Brand of footy stacking up in finals

What Swan Districts have had throughout the 2024 season is a distinctive game style that second-year coach Andrew Pruyn has been able to implement now that he's had the majority of his playing group available unlike in 2023.

That style was a more attacking and direct brand of football and was a big reason why Swans finished third at the end of the home and away season. To see it stack up in finals football last Saturday is another thing Cipro and his teammates can take heart from.

"Even though we haven’t been a great first quarter team all season, we know that when we are playing that brand that Pruey wants us to play, we're just so confident that we can get over the line against any team," Cipro said.

"Even coming into this week and unfortunately Jesse and Clarkey are missing, it's more about how we play as a team and not about any individuals that is important.

"Playing top of the ladder away with a big crowd I'm sure at Leederville, we just feel like we can control the game if we play it our way.

"We know every team we play finals is going to be good, but we feel like we're confident that when we have our turn with the momentum that we can control games and minimise teams from scoring too much against us, and playing their way as well."

Doing without midfield stars

Nothing worth earning is ever going to come easy and with match winning forward Tom Edwards to miss a second straight game with concussion protocols this week against East Perth, the Swans midfield will also be without two key players.

With co-captain Jesse Turner out with a knee injury and Aidan Clarke suspended, they are two big holes for Swans to have to fill but Cipro is confident that the players who can come into the team will help ensure the group as a whole covers their absence.

"I'm pretty sure I haven’t played a game without Jesse, I have played a few without Aidan but it's a tough one because obviously they are such important players, and we know what they contribute," Cipro said.

"I feel like both of them contribute more than just their football ability especially Jesse who is the captain, but they will still be able to contribute even without being out there with us.

"We also bat so deep with our depth this year and it's not necessarily about replacing someone with their ability, but it's about replacing the understanding of what they have to do for the team to allow us to still play really well.

"That's following the game plan, listening to instructions and things like that. The guys who will come in to do that will be able to get it done and it shouldn’t impact us too much hopefully how we play as a team."

Midfield depth a great strength too

One of the great strengths also of this Swan Districts team of 2024 is the depth and especially in the midfield group.

In an ideal world you wouldn’t want to have to replace players the quality of Clarke and Turner, but with Cipro, Chalcraft and Rokahr to continue holding down the fort, and then with the likes of Jackson McLachlan, Jehb O'Donohue, Ben Hewett, Jiah Reidy and Max Chipper, the depth is there.

"We've had players come in before who have been really good players and have come in but not quite had the impact that Jye and Rokes have or quite gelled into the team straight away like they have," Cipro said.

"You don't get the opportunity to be playing finals like we are now all the time so a lot of things align to make that happen, but I would say that those two guys have definitely been two of the main contributors.

"Then you throw people like Jehb O'Donohue who spends time in the midfield too and always does a job for us, and even Jacko McLachlan who played midfield all of last season and can come back in if we need him to. So we have guys who can fill gaps when we need them to and that's a good position to be in."

Having a spearhead to look for

Another big change for the Swan Districts team of 2024 is now having a key forward spearhead to be their target in attack.

While it's far from a one man forward-line with Tom Edwards, Brayden Noble, Jesse Glass-McCasker, Brad Lynch, Jackson McLachlan, Jiah Reidy and Luke Kelly playing roles, Cipro can't speak highly enough of what Kohlmann has brought.

He has returned to Swans in 2024 and the 32-year-old has kicked 48 goals in his 15 games including 10 in the past two weeks with Cipro loving having him to look for when going forward.

"Before the Perth game and then going into the finals, we sat down as a team and each of us said something that would help our own game if the team did that for them," Cipro said.

"Leigh Kohlmann's one was just to put the ball in an area to give him a chance to run and jump at it. Everyone knows that he's got a pretty good set of mits on him and then after that, we did that well against Perth by kicking it to him even in the wet.

"Sometimes he might have been out of position and they had a guy floating back in front of him, but he still kicked six in that and then kicked four again against Peel.

"It definitely makes it pretty good to have him there but then if he's not the one we have Tom Edwards when he's playing or Noble has just come back and there's big Jesse too.

"We're not lacking firepower up there and that's a good thing, and you can even add guys like Lynchy, Jacko McLachlan and Luke Kelly into that too."