ROUND 5 PREVIEW v SWAN DISTRICTS

SOUTH Fremantle returns home to play Swan Districts for the John Todd Cup on Saturday afternoon looking to continue their unbeaten started to the 2020 WAFL season.

The Bulldogs improved to a 4-0 record four rounds into the Optus WAFL Premiership Season last Saturday with an impressive 50-point win against Subiaco at Leederville Oval.

The Bulldogs now can’t afford any sort of let up against the winless Swan Districts this Saturday afternoon at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

South Fremantle sits clear on top of the WAFL table having won its opening four matches of the season with by far the best percentage in the league as well while Swan Districts is coming off the bye and yet to record a win in 2020.

Not helping Swans’ cause is the Bulldogs’ recent record against them. South Fremantle has won its past six matches against Swan Districts including 10 of the past 11.

Swans’ last win against the Bulldogs came in Round 2, 2017 and their last win at Fremantle Community Bank Oval was Round 13, 2014.

South Fremantle has made two changes from the team that beat Subiaco so emphatically by 50 points last Saturday at Leederville Oval. Jacob Dragovich and former Perth defender John Levien come into the side for injured pair Zac Dent and Brock Higgins.

South Fremantle coach Todd Curley is fully aware that even though Swans might have yet to record a win so far in 2020 that they won’t be any pushovers.

“Well hopefully we come out a bit more fired up than this week because it wasn’t a great start. But we had a quick chat after the game and the boys were pretty resilient and already looking ahead,” Curley said.

“We have some young blokes in but we do have some experience in there too and our leaders led the way this week after quarter-time, and they’ll drive us again this week. Swans move the ball pretty quick and they’ve got some speed, and they also have some options.

“Their ruckman (Corey Gault) is in great nick and they’ve got some good key forwards, and good key backs. They have shown some really good glimpses with quick ball movement so we’ll have to be on our game.”

With the shortened WAFL season in 2020, the Bulldogs will only be playing eight games and to already have four wins on the board means they are inching ever closer to booking in a finals spot for a fifth successive year.

But Curley certainly isn’t taking anything for granted.

“We didn’t make any special mention of this week or who we were playing or anything like that. It was about an opportunity to win another game and we think if you win six it will be pretty hard to miss a double chance so we are focused on trying to win six as quick as we can,” Curley said.

“We’ve got four now and we are pretty happy with that but we have a chance next week to obviously add another one.

“We’ll recover really well and prepare to beat Swannies who have been pretty unlucky in their first couple of games. They’ve been in games and haven’t been far off so it will be another tough battle for us.”

Swan Districts will come into the game with the same side that it took in against Subiaco a fortnight ago prior to the bye.

ROUND 5 – OPTUS WAFL PREMIERSHIP SEASON
SOUTH FREMANTLE v SWAN DISTRICTS – FREMANTLE COMMUNITY BANK OVAL, SATURDAY 2.30PM

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