Colts Grand Final Preview

The Swan Districts Colts have made an amazing finals run and now they have the chance to finish with the ultimate prize by taking on Claremont in Sunday's Grand Final at Optus Stadium.

The Colts Grand Final for 2024 will take place on Sunday afternoon starting at 12.10pm at Optus Stadium with Swan Districts taking on Claremont in what is shaping up as an exciting contest with both teams full of high-quality young talent.

It has been an exciting run for the colts from Swan Districts to book in their place in the Grand Final as well after finishing the home and away season in fourth position with a 9-7 record.

That saw Swans then take on Perth in the elimination final where they fell behind early and were still two points down at three quarter-time, but Otis Harvey kicked the last goal of the game for them to hold on from there for the two-point victory.

That set up a first semi-final match up with West Perth where again Swan Districts found themselves 14 points down with only nine minutes of the game remaining.

However, usual defender Tom Cathcart was thrown forward and he kicked his first two goals of the season to be the hero for Swans to win by five points and qualify for last Sunday's home preliminary final at Steel Blue Oval.

It was another thriller against Subiaco with Swan Districts coming from three points down at three quarter-time to kick five goals to two in the last term, with three of those from Chayse Martinson, on the way to the 13-point victory.

That sets up a Grand Final meeting against a Clarmeont team who did win the colts premiership in 2023 and has backed it up by finishing the 2024 in top spot with a 14-2 record before beating Subiaco in the second semi-final by 63 points to be the first team into the decider.

The two teams have met twice during the season starting in Round 6 at Joondalup with Claremont winning by 15 points but Swans were in front at the start of the last quarter thanks to a goal from Tylah Williams.

The second meeting was at Steel Blue Oval in Round 15 with Swan Districts again in front early in the final quarter with a goal to Anthony Hansen before Claremont kicked the game's last six goals to win by 33 points.

Swan Districts coach John Armstrong is already a premiership winner from 2021 with the colts for the black-and-whites, and deserves tremendous credit for building the squad back up over the past two years to now be a contender once again.

While he is fully aware of the challenge ahead against a strong Claremont side who regains co-captains Hamish Davis and Austin Van Der Struyf, he will always have full confidence in what his Swan Districts team is capable of.

"We're in the Grand Final so you're always a chance if you're there," Armstrong said.

"And looking at both games this year, we were in front against Claremont this year but you know the talent they have and they deserve to be the team to beat with how they've played throughout the year.

"But we're confident in playing the way we want to play and knowing that if it works we can get the result.

"The boys are excited and it will be what it will be, but we won't die wondering and if we control what we can control, play as good as we can for 100 minutes, we'll give ourselves the best shot at getting the result."

Swan Districts come into the Grand Final led by co-captains Colby McDonald and Chayse Martinson with the former having kicked 26 goals throughout the season while Martinson has starred with 18.2 disposals to go with 15 goals.

There have been plenty of strong contributors all over the field throughout 2024 for Swans including Tylah Williams kicking 16 goals, Adam Sandrini 16, Otis Harvey 16 and Carlos Partington 12.

Luke Cotellessa has been a big ball winner averaging 22.3 possessions a game with Harvey going at 20.7, Blake Kelly 20.4, Lucas Andrews 16.7, Max York 13.9, Leo Steed 13.4, Cody Ryan 12.8 and Even Smith 12.4 in the ruck to go with 29.3 hit outs a game.

Sunday's Grand Final gets underway at Optus Stadium at 12.10pm and will also be shown live on Channel 7.