Second Semi-Final Final WAFL Match Report

While Swan Districts lost in the second semi-final to East Perth on Saturday, both the league and colts teams will now play in preliminary finals this Sunday at Steel Blue Oval in what's shaping as a massive day.

On the back of a stirring qualifying final win in Mandurah against Peel Thunder, Swan Districts moved to within one win of reaching the 2024 WAFL Grand Final.

The first opportunity presented at Leederville's Sullivan Logistics Stadium on Saturday afternoon, but trying to beat the Royals without Aidan Clarke, Jesse Turner and Tom Edwards proved a challenge.

East Perth ended up prevailing 11.6 (72) to 6.8 (44) to be the first team to advance to the Grand Final for 2024 at Optus Stadium.

While never ideal to lose, the great bonus for Swan Districts is now they get to play a home preliminary final at Steel Blue Oval this Sunday against Peel Thunder. The colts will also play against Subiaco with a Grand Final spot on the line.

Leigh Kohlmann kicked the first three goals for Swan Districts of the second semi-final with the 32-year-old having now kicked 51 goals in 2024.

The other goals on the day came courtesy of Brad Lynch, Jiah Reidy and Bryce Watson.

Gun recruits Jye Chalcraft and Nik Rokahr again did a power of work in the midfield for Swans with the former finishing with 29 possessions and three tackles, and the latter 28 touches and six tackles.

Max Chipper returned to the team to play on the wing in the absence of co-captain Jesse Turner and compiled 22 possessions with Josh Cipro ending up with 22 touches, Tony Notte 20, Jake Pasini 19, Jehb O'Donohue 18 and Jackson McLachlan 18.

Ruckman Nathan Blakely was giving up plenty of size to East Perth's Scott Jones, but battled hard to finish with 19 touches, 13 hit outs and five tackles.

It took only a minute into the second semi-final for East Perth to kick the first goal of the game but it didn’t take Swan Districts long to respond courtesy of Leigh Kohlmann.

It continued to be goal for goal and after the Royals added their second, Kohlmann kicked his second for Swans before East Pert captain Christian Ameduri added another before quarter-time to give his team the five-point edge.

East Perth also managed the first goal of the second term but again it was Kohlmann keeping Swans in touch when he booted his third of the contest already.

Jiah Reidy then got on the board to tie scores up at the 14-minute mark of the second term, but the Royals managed four goals in the space of nine minutes in response to go into the half-time interval leading by 25 points.

It was just one goal apiece in the third quarter with the major for Swan Districts courtesy of Bryce Watson with the black-and-whites then able to manage just the one goal in the final term too through Brad Lynch with the Royals advancing to the Grand Final with the 28-point victory.

Meanwhile, the Swan Districts colts also booked in a home preliminary final this Sunday by continuing their stirring finals run with a stunning first semi-final victory against West Perth on Saturday morning.

On the back of beating Perth in a heartstopper by two points in the elimination final, Swans took on a Falcons team at Leederville who ended the home and away season in second spot before a first up loss to Claremont.

Swans started the first semi-final with the opening goal in just over a minute thanks to Anthony Hansen and they would end up leading by 13 points still by quarter-time with three goals to one.

It was two goals apiece in the second term with Swan Districts still leading by 12 points at the half-time break, but West Perth then kicked five goals to two in the third term to take charge.

The Falcons were leading by 14 points with less than 10 minutes of the game to go, but Swans weren’t done and Leo Steed kicked his second to keep them in touch.

In the space of two minutes, Tom Cathcart delivered a goal firstly to bring Swan Districts within a point and then in front with just seconds remaining to secure the eventual 13.6 (84) to 12.7 (79) victory.

Hansen ended up kicking three goals in the win for Swans with Cathcart, Chayse Martinson, Steed and Leon Kickett adding two apiece.

Otis Harvey racked up 22 possessions for the Swan Districts colts, Zaid Buckland 17, Blake Kelly 16, Lucas Andrews 16, Ned Reiger 15 and Soren Feast 15.