Round 21 Preview v Swan Districts

SOUTH Fremantle is out for revenge for a disappointing loss this season for the second straight week while also shooting for a third consecutive victory this Saturday up against the third-placed Swan Districts at Bassendean's Steel Blue Oval.

Swan Districts is guaranteed of playing finals football in 2014 and is still most likely to finish third, but the black-and-whites haven’t been impressive for some time now and Saturday against South Fremantle at Steel Blue Oval would be the ideal time to regain some strong form.

Swans went on a stunning eight-game winning streak between Rounds 3 and 10 this season, and then had their season set up for them by Round 15 when sitting on an 11-3 record, but the form of the black-and-whites has been slipping over the past two months.

After a solid 41-point win over Peel in Round 12, Swans won a game they had no right to against South Fremantle in Round 13, then lost to Claremont by 26 points, beat West Perth by 26, lost to Claremont by three, beat Perth by six, lost to West Perth by 56 and lost to East Perth by 35.

The loss to Claremont was a game Swan Districts was in a position to win before struggling against Perth, being poor against West Perth and then lacking key personnel to never really be in the contest last week against the league-leading Royals.

However, Swans still look on track to host the first semi-final against East Fremantle despite the form slump but they desperately will want to return to some decent form heading into the finals.

There's no reason to suggest that Swan Districts will have an easy time returning to good form against South Fremantle, though, with the Bulldogs now having won their last two games against East Fremantle and Peel.

The win against the Sharks was a dominant performance by South Fremantle in a 43-point victory before the Bulldogs escaped with a remarkable one-point win last week thanks to a goal to 17-year-old Jarrod Pickett right on the siren against the Thunder.

That means that South Fremantle is in some good form heading to Steel Blue Oval and the Bulldogs will always have fresh in their memories the Round 13 loss to Swans at Fremantle Oval when they led by as much as 35 points, and still 32 at three quarter-time before losing by five points.

Over the course of the season, South Fremantle has been a strong starting team as opposed to Swans being poor in first halves having been outscored by a total of 100 points by their opposition.

However, South Fremantle is the second worst performing teams across second halves this season while that has been the great strength of Swan Districts with the black-and-whites having outscored their opponents by 201 points across final quarters in 2014.

There are no outs to the South Fremantle team at this stage from the one that beat Peel Thunder on the siren last Saturday at Fremantle Oval, but Jarrod Garlett, Adam Guglielmana and Mitch Carter are vying to return to the league side.

Garlett had another 23 possessions, seven tackles and two goals last week in the reserves for South Fremantle as the 18-year-old continues to try to break in for his league debut with the Bulldogs.

Guglielmana returned from a hamstring injury last week in the reserves and picked up 24 possessions and laid seven tackles to show that he is up and about to come back into the league side to continue what is likely the best season of his league career.

Carter had a terrific reserves game last week as well with 31 possessions, seven marks, six inside-50 entries and a goal to put himself in the mix for a 10th league match of his season.

Swan Districts put in a horror showing two weeks ago losing to West Perth on the back of a goalless first half and then last week in Bunbury against East Perth, Tim Geappen was out suspended, Tallan Ames out with the affects of a concussion and Matt Riggio, Adam Faulkner, Blaine Boekhorst and Matthew Jukes played reserves.

In the end Swans were outplayed by the league-leading Royals, but it made no difference to the black-and-whites remaining in third position on the ladder.

And now this week captain Ames is back and so is star veteran forward Geappen along with Riggio, Jukes, Boekhorst and Faulkner with the former three all dominating in the reserves last week.

Riggio had 32 possessions and two goals, Boekhorst 29 disposals and two goals and Jukes three goals and

Travis Casserly also made his return in the reserves last week and had 21 possessions and six marks to put himself right back in the mix for a league game this Saturday against South Fremantle along with Ethan Hughes after he had 29 disposals.

Jacob Burnham, Josh Kirkup, Connor Blakely, Dylan Harvey and Jesse Manton are at least five of the players who will make room for the returning Swan Districts stars.

RESERVES TEAM
M Bolger, S Borovac, J Branchi, M Carter, E Collard, J D'Vauz, B Fimmano, J Garlett, A Gillespie, J Hall, L Harvey, B Hill, J Maskos, K Matera, A McIntosh, S Mills, M Nicholson, N Olds, S Panizza, M Pickett, J Sgherza, B Sokol, T Stewart, J Tartaglia

COLTS TEAM
C Ah Chee, M Ah Siu, D Brown, D Cabassi, J Collard, B Collier, J Culleton, J Depane, B Donaldson, J Dragovich, B Fimmano, J Florenca, J Foster, W Frampton, C Loersch, B Matera, J McComb, G McLeod, J McMaster, B McPhail, J Mirco, D Moore, A Nodari, L Pearson, A Robinson, C Salmon, K Stewart, N Strom, S Williamson