Almanac Footy: WAFL Finals Preview – Swan Song

 

As an Eagles member and AFL cynic I have taken a lot of pleasure from the WAFL season and the reemergence of my Swan Districts as a seriously competitive side.

 

The joys of local footy are many.  The players know your name when you buy them a post-match beer.  Young men appreciate old blokes taking an interest in their lives outside football.  On the field the playing standard is good.  Top 6 in any WAFL side are as good as the bottom 6 players in most AFL sides.  Play is more open and unstructured than AFL.  Coaches are facilitators not dictators.  Support staff are mostly there for love of the game and the club – not a career.

 

The season was very even with 4 teams vying for the last 3 spots in the final 5 in the last round. East Perth (the Royals) were surprise minor premiers after defeating Peel Thunder convincingly in a final round top of the table clash.  East  Perth earn a first round finals bye, but only time will tell how good the Royals are or if Peel caught Dockers disease.   Only 2 points (a draw) separated third from fifth in the end.  The form lines are spotty with the last 2 rounds played in mud and rain – a rarity in Perth.  Here is a an overview of the teams and finals games – with some players featured for an interstate audience.

 

 

Qualifying Final (2nd v 3rd) – Peel v Swan Districts

 

Peel Thunder are based in the dormitory town of Mandurah – an hour’s drive south of the CBD.  The Geelong of the West.  Peel are the Fremantle Dockers affiliate club, which is both their strength and weakness.  12 AFL paid, coached and strengthened players are expected to line up in their team on Saturday.  Familiar Dockers names like Matt Taberner, Neil Erasmus, Will Brodie, Neil Erasmus, Nathan O’Driscoll, Pat Voss, Ethan Hughes, Karl Worner and recently promoted ruckman Liam Reidy.  There are also good local players like Michael Sellwood, Ben Hancock, Blair Bell and the former AFL listed Nathan Wilson and Brady Grey.  Obviously talent isn’t the problem, but team cohesion sometimes can be.  Peel were red hot favourites in last year’s Grand Final but phoned it in on the day – losing to East Fremantle by 6 goals. There is a lingering feeling that with AFL contracts settled for 2025, many listed players are thinking of sunny Bali more than muddy Mandurah by September.  Which Peel team turns up on the day is the great unknown.

 

Swan Districts (the Black Ducks) had a slow start and finish to the season, but strung together a club record run of 8 undefeated games mid season.  Second season coach Andrew Pruyn is a savvy businessman, people manager, motivator and strategist.  After several seasons in the wilderness he has rebuilt a hard running, hard tackling game style based around fitness and effort.  There is a core of veterans led by ageless high marking CHB Tony ‘Spaghetti’ Notte – the Jeremy McGovern of the WAFL.  34yo Notte passed 4x Sandover Medallist Billy Walker’s club record 305 games late in the season.  Marathon running winger and co-captain Jesse Turner is the possession getter that Andrew Gaff used to be.  The other co-captain is my nephew full back Brandon Erceg who has had a career cruelled by injuries.  Last year the dreaded syndesmosis high ankle sprain and leg fracture. Just back late this season from hamstring tendon surgery.  He will be wheeled out in a wheelchair until Swans win a flag.  The club has recruited well in recent years with 2 former Geelong VFL captains in Jye Chalcraft and Jackson McLaughlin and dual Magarey Medal runner-up Nik Rokahr from Norwood in the SANFL.  All are tireless small mids.  Swans has the strongest club culture and supporter base in the WAFL – home finals at Bassendean add a real 19th man element from the heritage listed timber stands and the can bar in the outer.  A culture exemplified by the stream of local talent returning after being delisted by AFL clubs – Jake Pasini (Port Adelaide); Jesse Glass-McCasker (Carlton); Brad Lynch (Bulldogs); Will Collins (Eagles); and Jarvis Pina (Dockers) add class and depth.  The club has won Colts and Reserves flags in successive years with young talent adding speed and flair to the established stars.  Can you believe Geelong AFL Rising Star Lawson Humphries played in our Reserves flag last year?  Perhaps the most notable player is undersized lead ruck Nathan Blakely (brother of former Docker Connor) who at 31 has survived 2 knee reconstructions and qualified as a specialist anaesthetist.  Blakely’s guile competes with opposition monsters most weeks and makes ‘awkward’ an art form combined with strong hands and tireless ‘plodding’ around the ground.

 

 

 

 

Elimination Final (4th v 5th) – East Fremantle v Claremont

 

East Fremantle Sharks are the reigning premiers and the most talented list outside of the AFL affiliates.  On games won they finished 3rd but were penalised a game for salary cap breaches.  They somehow combine being the best led team on-field with being an off-field shambles.  The salary cap breach (incompetence rather than intention) is small beer compared to not having a home ground for 3 seasons.  The redevelopment of East Fremantle oval has been a mess with playing surface issues and the operational management of the facility still up in the air.  Coach Bill Monaghan is the WAFL’s most astute and captain Matthew Jupp a first class full back and leader.  The Sharks are entirely local WA product with stars Milan Murdock, Blaine Boekhorst, Cam Eardley and brothers Jono and Harry Marsh (both ex-AFL).  The club lost ruckman Bryn Teakle (ex Port Adelaide) to the AFL mid season draft with North Melbourne.  Miraculously his 25yo 204cm replacement Lachlan Blakiston looks an even better prospect – an AFL draftee in waiting.  The Sharks have played better the longer the season has gone, and their main impediment looks to be having to win 4 games in a row for the flag.

 

Claremont Tigers are the perennial bridesmaids of the competition.  Like Swans they had a poor start, good mid season and trailed off at the end.  The team is strengthened by the return of captain Declan Mountford (ex North Melbourne and Eagles) from Paris where he supported his long term partner Nina Kennedy in her Olympic gold medal winning pole vault performance.  The team has Sandover Medallists Jye Bolton and Bailey Rogers in the midfield and a fine ruckman in Oliver Eastland.  To my eye they lack the depth of other teams but they are well coached by former Tiger and Docker Ashley Prescott who has coached at WAFL and AFL assistant coach level for over 20 years.

 

Selections: Swan Districts (Heart) and East Fremantle (Head).

 

 

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