Motivation high for Reidy to be part of success

As much as Jiah Reidy enjoyed helping Swan Districts to a reserves premiership 12 months ago at Optus Stadium, what it did was whet his appetite for league success and that's why he and his teammates don't want to let the chance slip ahead of them.

Reidy is now 82 games into his WAFL career with Swan Districts having made a stunning debut kicking four goals back in 2018 as a 19-year-old – ironically also against Peel Thunder who Swans now take on in this Sunday's preliminary final at Steel Blue Oval.

It took until the 81st game of his career for him to play in a winning final which also took place against Peel two weeks ago in the qualifying final. Now with a Grand Final spot on the line on Sunday, Reidy and his teammates don't want the chance to slip through their fingers.

Reidy has become a key part of everything Swan Districts do and while he plays most of his football across half forward, he is versatile enough to play a variety of positions and he'll be happy to play whatever role asked of him to help the black-and-whites into a Grand Final.

Reserves experience last year

Despite still playing another 18 league matches in 2023, Reidy had played enough reserves game to qualify for the Grand Final and then played a huge role in the premiership for Swan Districts.

He played as an inside midfielder in the Grand Final win against West Perth finishing with 24 possessions and while he will cherish that flag he experienced winning with his teammates, it's ultimately only made him hungrier to get that success at league level now.

"I felt like it was a bit of a driving factor for me in the off-season and through the year. It was pretty awesome stepping out onto Optus and getting to play that game, and getting the win," Reidy said.

"It was a pretty cool thing to do but then I thought a bit more about it, and I'd played most of the year with the league team and it did feel great for a short time but then it made me want the real deal even more.

"You think about how good it felt to win in the ressies and how much better it would be to get a league medallion so I think that's how I ended up feeling about it. it was an eye-opening experience because it was a small taste of what that success would feel like, and it leaves you wanting more. At least that's how I felt."

Thoughts on home preliminary final

Reidy was only 11 years of age the last time that Swans won a preliminary final which was against East Perth in front of more than 11,000 fans at Steel Blue Oval back in 2010.

He was only 13 in the last preliminary final Swans played in which was also at Steel Blue Oval in front of over 5000 people so he is fully aware just how rare these sort of opportunities can be to come across.

Reidy now can't wait to get out there on Sunday with the Swan Districts out in force to try and will their team into a first Grand Final in 14 years.

"We're all very excited and even last week you obviously want to win the game against East Perth and get straight into the Grand Final, but also the idea of playing a prelim at Bassendean is pretty exciting too," Reidy said.

"I saw a clip of the 2010 prelim at Bassendean and the crowd looked absolutely massive so even just the thought of playing in front of something remotely close to that is very exciting for sure. Words can't really describe how exciting it is to potentially play in front of a big crowd like that.

"I played in that elimination final against West Perth back in 2021 and that was a pretty exciting experience, and then we had a another 5000 at Sullivan Logistics last week. The chance to have even more at home this week and to see the hill packed out is very exciting."

Wanting to make most of chance

Given Tony Notte is the only player on the Swan Districts team to have played in a WAFL Grand Final and there is nobody in the side to have played in a premiership, there's nobody at Swans taking this opportunity ahead of them for granted.

Reidy is certainly in that camp given it took him until the 81st game of his career to play in a winning final and the chance ahead for a win on Sunday is something he can't help but feel excited about.

"Definitely when you don’t play finals very often it makes you appreciate the opportunity that you have and we know that we've got such a strong supporter base as well so it's not just about us as players," Reidy said.

"We know that we're such an important part of the culture of Bassendean and that we can bring so much joy to so many people with what we do on the field.

"It's pretty surreal to actually now be playing finals because we've always been watching in from the outside and seeing the other teams go on and have success.

"You're always a bit jealous so to be still in the mix now at this point of the year it's a different feeling. I'm not quite used to it yet but I'd definitely rather be here than on the sidelines that's for sure."

Preparing to face Peel again

Peel and Swan Districts are certainly no strangers to facing one another having met in the second last round of the home and away season, and then again in the qualifying final leading into this Sunday's preliminary final.

With the combination of the fact that the two teams now know each other well playing one another for a third time in five weeks and with the added spice with how the qualifying final panned out, and then with a Grand Final spot on the line, Reidy knows it's going to be a hot occasion on Sunday.

"It's an exciting opportunity and you don't really get the chance to play the same team three times in five games like we have now with them," Reidy said.

"That's a challenge in itself and even though they got the better of us that first time, we beat them last time and both sides kind of have an advantage of knowing what it takes to beat the other team.

"It makes it a bit harder to prepare to play them in a way because you know that they will be expecting something from you or your team.

"And then with Clarkey going out and Turns injured, they definitely are two key players for us and they provide a lot of run and carry, and Clarkey can create opportunities that seem to come out of nothing at times.

"But we do get Tommy back so that's exciting for us and adds another string to our forward-line. I feel pretty confident that if we show up on the day we can match it with them like we did two weeks ago."

Versatility a key factor of game

Reidy has spent a lot of the early years of his career playing as a running half-back or a midfielder, but it was once he kicked four goals in his league debut of Round 2, 2018 against the Thunder where his ability as a forward was on show.

He has spent the majority of his 82-game WAFL career now playing as that high half-forward who can use his speed, running power, good ball use and tackling pressure to good effect in a number of ways.

However, as he showed in that reserves Grand Final of last year and at different times at league level, he can play at any part of the ground and have an impact.

"I think one of my strengths is that I'm happy to go anywhere and I feel like I can play most positions reasonably well," Reidy said.

"I look back throughout playing in the colts and I was playing as a half-back, and played some of my best footy there and then in my debut year, I trained all the pre-season and played the first ressies game as a defender.

"Then in Round 2 I got selected in the league team and got put up forward, I kicked a few goals and I've stayed forward most of the time ever since.

"I've still been thrown around some random positions at times and I've definitely played all over the ground in my career so far, and I'm more than happy to jump in wherever Pruey and the coaching staff think I can offer something a little bit different. I'm always happy to do the team thing."

Life away from football

After graduating from Aquinas College, Reidy did study sports science but when he entered the work force, he took a different path and is now currently a policy officer at the Department of Finance.

While he can't always see the direct impact the policies he is helping to create are having in the community, the ability to have such a positive impact on large groups and especially within the Indigenous communities means a lot to the 25-year-old.

"I do have a million interests and ideas of what I want to do, and want to get out of my career, and I'm still in the early stages of that," Reidy said.

"There's so many opportunities out there that it's kinda hard to narrow it down to one thing to focus on, but I definitely think helping people is a big part of that and I feel like in my current role there's a lot of that.

"With policy work you don't necessarily get to see all of the positive impact firsthand and a few years I worked as a physio assistant with the health department.

"When you do something like that, you can see the immediate impact you are having with the progress the patients make so policy work is a bit different to that.

"The impact that policy has can be bigger than that even if you don't directly see it and it's exciting because you can create more change for a bigger group of people. So you just have to remind yourself that what you're doing is hopefully helping a lot of people."