RD 17 PREVIEW | v SWAN DISTRICTS

SOUTH Fremantle is looking to bounce back from a rare derby defeat last Saturday and to avoid losing twice in the one season to Swan Districts for the first time under newly re-signed premiership coach Todd Curley.

Swan Districts and South Fremantle meet in a fascinating match up at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday afternoon with the Swans having won two straight and the Bulldogs coming off a derby loss.

The last month of the season begins for both teams on Saturday afternoon at Steel Blue Oval with Swan Districts looking for a third straight win and South Fremantle trying to bounce back from a rare derby defeat.

South Fremantle lost a derby for the first time in 16 attempts last Saturday at home to East Fremantle and the Bulldogs would have been frustrated to lose having led by 14 points early in the last term and then conceding the game's last four goals.

The Bulldogs now come into Saturday's game at Bassendean against Swans with a 5-9 record on the season and looking to start building some momentum to finish the season on the back of premiership coach Todd Curley having signed on for 2024.

Swans come into the clash on home turf having won their last two matches prior to last week's bye in two thrillers against Subiaco and the West Coast Eagles.

That improved the black-and-whites to a 6-8 record on the season with four matches remaining as they look to keep the momentum going.

Swan Districts has now won two of the last three meetings with South Fremantle including winning by 18 points earlier this season in Round 4 at Fremantle Community Bank Oval.

Dylan Main kicked three goals on that afternoon for South Fremantle with Zac Strom and Brendon Ah Chee adding two apiece.

Toby McQuilkin racked up 29 possessions, Tom Blechynden 27, Jacob Dragovich 25, Brendon Ah Chee 25 and Main 21 along with those three goals.

That was a first win at the venue for Swans since 2014 with Jesse Palmer kicking four goals for Swan Districts, Chris Jones three and Tom Edwards two.

Tobe Watson finished with 22 touches for the black-and-whites, Jesse Turner 20, Jarvis Pina 19 and Jackson McLachlan 19 in what was also Brayden Noble's 100th game for Swans.

Prior to that and the two teams split their meetings in 2022 with a home win apiece but before that and South Fremantle had dominated proceedings against Swan Districts.

The Bulldogs won nine straight matches against Swans by an average of 34.8 points between Round 17, 2017 and Round 21, 2021.

South Fremantle is looking to bounce back from a first derby defeat in seven years with the Bulldogs adding Aaron Drage, Jacob Dragovich and Toby McQuilkin to the team to face Swan Districts at Bassendean on Saturday.

Going out of the South Fremantle team that lost last week's derby are Jordan Gallucci, Toby Dodds and Jarrod Salmeri.

Swan Districts escaped with the win two weeks ago with the after the siren goal from Tom Edwards and from that team, the black-and-whites have made no changes to take on South Fremantle at home this Saturday.

Mitch Bain, Ayden Cartwright, Riley Hardeman and Tom Smith are the four emergencies for the game for Swan Districts while Greg Ottaviano, Brandon Erceg, Jarrod Cameron, Sam Fisher, Will Collins and Seb Bright remain out of the team.