Round 3 Preview - East Perth v Swan DistrictsFriday, March 31, 2017 - 3:00 PM - by Chris Pike

EAST Perth has played finals for five straight years but losing the first three games of 2017 could make that difficult to again achieve adding extra significance to the Royals' clash with Swan Districts.

East Perth will be taking on an undefeated Swan Districts on Saturday at Leederville Oval.

Coming off five straight years of playing finals including the grand finals of 2013 and 2014, East Perth has made a slow start to 2017 under new coach Luke Webster with losses to Peel Thunder and West Perth.

Swan Districts, on the other hand, has already matched its win tally from last year following victories over Perth and South Fremantle to begin the 2017 season with.

If Swans can open the new season with three straight wins it will set up their 2017 while a third successive loss for the Royals could prove tough to battle back from in such a tight and even competition.

It's not as though East Perth hasn’t been competitive in its losses to Peel and West Perth to open the season though.

Against the Thunder in Round 1 on a Saturday night at Leederville Oval, they remained right in the contest in a low-scoring game despite a goalless drought of more than two quarters.

Then against West Perth, it was a tight affair most of last Sunday afternoon at HBF Arena until the Falcons piled on three unanswered goals to start the last quarter to end up winning by 21 points.

Kicking goals has been the biggest problem for the Royals with just 16 majors over the opening two matches.

Meanwhile, Swan Districts has already bounced back from its disastrous two-win season in 2017.

Swans rebounded from a slow start in Round 1 against Perth to beat the Demons by 12 points before then being tremendously impressive last Saturday to beat South Fremantle by 21 points at Steel Blue Oval.

Looking back to last year, East Perth beat Swan Districts on both occasions by 40 points in Round 16 and 91 in Round 9. That Round 16 game at Steel Blue Oval saw the Royals hold Swans to their equal lowest ever score of 2.6 (18).

From the East Perth team that lost to West Perth on Sunday at HBF Arena, Tom Barrass and Jonathan Giles have been both called up by the West Coast Eagles to play St Kilda at Domain Stadium on Saturday night.

The Royals should still have two of Liam Duggan, Will Schofield and Kurt Mutimer in their side on Saturday against Swans. The trio have been named emergencies for West Coast.

Not helping East Perth's cause will be the added loss of co-captain Patrick McGinnity along with midfielder Dom Sheed.

Helping to offset that will be the return of Lewis Jetta from the Eagles.

Tom Hodgson, Steven Payne, Julian Ameduri, Daniel Venables, Nathan Eaton, Paddy Brophy and Ajang Ajang are all in the for a call up with East Perth as well following some solid reserves form.

Swan Districts will lose Ryan Crowley who still kicked three goals last week in the win over South Fremantle despite a hamstring complaint.

Jamie Bennell will return, though, after being a late withdrawal against the Bulldogs. He was outstanding in Round 1 against Perth and now will take on some of his older West Coast and East Perth teammates for the first time since being delisted by the Eagles and returning to Swans.

Jacob Coniglio, Troy Yukich and Levi Ridley are the other players in the mix of receiving a call up with the black-and-whites.

EAST PERTH v SWAN DISTRICTS – LEEDERVILLE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams, live stats 
Broadcast – 91.3 SportFM