Round 8 Preview - Swan Districts v SubiacoFriday, May 5, 2017 - 1:02 PM - by Chris Pike

SWAN Districts and Subiaco have been two of three dominant teams over the opening seven rounds of the 2017 season leading to what should be a tremendous contest at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday.

Swans and the Lions both enter Saturday's clash with 5-1 records and there is the potential they end the round on top of the WAFL ladder with a victory if South Fremantle loses to Perth.

The clash between two impressive teams is a far cry from last year when the Lions were on their way to a third straight grand final, and Swans destined for the wooden spoon.

Subiaco narrowly missed a third successive premiership losing the grand final to Peel.

Despite a significant turnover in players, the Lions have maintained pace as one of the league-leaders in 2017.

The Lions lost the opening round clash to South Fremantle but have gone on to beat Perth, West Perth, Peel, East Perth and Claremont since prior to a bye last week.

Swans, meanwhile, won just two games in all of 2016 but took just two weeks to equal that feat this season.

The black-and-whites did have a slip up against West Perth two weeks ago, but before that defeated Perth, South Fremantle, East Perth and East Fremantle, and responded to beat Claremont last Saturday at Steel Blue Oval.

It's now back to the Bassendean venue for the black-and-whites to host the Lions.

Subiaco did win all three matches over Swan Districts last season by 39, 34 and 74 points, but Swans won their last meeting in 2015 despite the Lions winning the premiership. The black-and-whites now look vastly more capable of taking it up to Subiaco this time around too.

Highlighting the quality of both sides is their strong representation in the initial WAFL State squad named to face the VFL later this month.

Tallan Ames, Tony Notte, Ricky Cary, Corey Gault, Matt Riggio and Kirk Ugle were all named from Swan Districts.

While Subiaco were represented by Kyal Horsley, Leigh Kitchin, Angus Litherland, Jordan Lockyer, Chris Phelan, Liam Ryan and Clancy Wheeler.

Interestingly little has separated the two teams throughout their opening six games of the season, but Swans are a better fourth quarter team. They have outscored their opposition by 35 points in last terms this year while Subiaco has only been better in final quarters by three points.

There will be some tremendous battles all over the field as well including Swans trying to find a way to shutdown livewire Subiaco forward Liam Ryan. Laurence Grescos and Kirk Ugle appear the most obvious choices.

Declan Jackson will also have to be on song to keep Ricky Cary quiet up the other end while Clancy Wheeler has a big job to do in the ruck up against both Corey Gault and Jake Nuich.

Swan Districts has been forced into one change with Ryan Crowley out with a knee injury. But it doesn’t appear as bad for the veteran midfielder as first thought.

That leaves Freddie Clutterbuck, Jacob Coniglio, Brandon Erceg and Ethan Maguire all vying for a spot in the Swan Districts team. 

Clutterbuck and Coniglio both dropped back to the reserves last week against Claremont following the loss to West Perth while Maguire and Erceg have been delivering solid form in the reserves through the first part of the season.

Subiaco has had the bye since its 55-point win over Claremont back in Round 6, but from that team Rowen Powell, Bailey Matera and Joel Latham all go out.

There are some handy inclusions led by Lachlan Delahunty who will be able to help Wheeler in the ruck if he makes it out on to the field.

Adam Cockie is also a chance to play his first league game of the season to add some further grunt and experience to the midfield.

Justin Joyce, Daniel Perkins and potential debutants Michael Braut and Ryan Borchet are the other players in contention at selection for Subiaco.

SWAN DISTRICTS (5-1, 3rd) v SUBIACO (5-1, 2nd) – STEEL BLUE OVAL, SATURDAY 2.15PM
Selected teams, live stats 
Broadcast – KIX Digital