Season Review 2022 – Swan DistrictsTuesday, November 15, 2022 - 10:50 AM - by Chris Pike

ULTIMATELY to miss out on playing finals for the second straight season was a disappointing result for Swan Districts, but that can't get in the way of the fact that there were many more positives than negatives to come out of the campaign.

Swan Districts might have ended up narrowly missing finals, but along the way in 2022 they were able to beat West Perth, Claremont, South Fremantle and Peel Thunder who all went on to play finals.

On top of that, Jesse Turner, Sam Fisher, Aidan Clarke, Tobe Watson, Tony Notte, Brandon Erceg, and others, were among the league's standout players.

Swans came into the 2022 WAFL season having returned to finals action in 2021 for the first time since 2017, and the first time under the coaching of Adam Pickering. 

That elimination final loss to West Perth only served for added motivation for those returning Swans players as well because it was a game that got away and that included quite the ounce of bad luck including the loss of Swan Medallist Frank Anderson to a knee injury that ended up ruling him out too for all of 2022.

While Anderson was a loss for 2022, Swans did come into the new season with some handy inclusions including the hard running Jarvis Pina from Peel Thunder, Victorian recruit Ryan Kemp and Tobe Watson returning following his stint with the Fremantle Dockers.

Swans then started the 2022 with two tight losses to East Perth and East Fremantle, but both games still featured plenty of positives before a breakthrough win in Round 3 against Perth by five points at Mineral Resources Park.

Swans backed that up beating Claremont by nine points in Round 4 in what was a performance that gave great belief of what this team would be capable of against a team that would end up reaching the Grand Final.

There was then a disappointing loss to Subiaco in Kalgoorlie before Swan Districts built some further momentum beating South Fremantle, West Coast and Peel Thunder. 

The win over the Bulldogs snapped a nine-game losing run against them while the win over Peel meant they had already beaten three of the teams who would go on to play finals in the opening eight rounds of 2022.

Swans were in a good position to play finals with a 5-3 record before an 18-point loss to West Perth. However, they bounced right back to beat Subiaco by 51 points and continuing the momentum beating Perth in Round 12.

That had Swans sit on a 7-4 record to remain on target to make the finals before a one-point loss to South Fremantle. The black-and-whites responded to beat East Perth by 23 points before losing to Claremont and then thrashing the Eagles by 85 points.

With three rounds remaining, Swans were destined to be locked in a battle with their Round 20 opponents Peel for the fifth and last finals position. Swan Districts beat West Perth in stirring fashion at Bassendean in Round 19 to set up an all or nothing clash with Peel in Mandurah.

However, with Tony Notte and Tobe Watson unavailable, Sam Fisher going down injured in the opening minutes, and Peel loaded up with Fremantle-listed AFL talent, the end result was a 92-point loss meaning Swans just missed out on playing finals.

Still to win 10 from 18 matches for the season should be considered a positive and with a bit of luck going their way and a full squad available for Round 20, there's every reason to think Swan Districts could have played finals again in 2022.

As it turned out, Swans were ranked both sixth in attack and defence for the season, scoring 69.6 points a game while conceding 69.0.

Over the course of the season, Swans were especially impressive in third quarters where they outscored their opponents by 165 points to be ranked first in the competition. They came in third for first quarters but eighth in last terms, and then ninth in fourth quarters.

Plenty of players had standout seasons for Swan Districts as well including Jesse Turner and Sam Fisher being named to the Team of the Year while Brandon Erceg, Aidan Clarke, Tony Notte, Tobe Watson and Jarvis Pina were named to Teams of the Week at least three times.

The Swans midfield was impressive throughout the season even having lost Frank Anderson. Clarke, Fisher, Watson and Josh Cipro were all terrific while the season of Turner on the wing was simply superb where he averaged 30.6 possessions to be the league's leading ball winner.

Matthew Germs had a strong season in the ruck too averaging 35.9 hit outs in his 13 appearances.

The back-line was once again a strength for Swans and that was despite last year's retirement of Alex Howard and then with Chris Jones being moved into the forward-line. 

Co-captain Erceg along with 279-game veteran Notte and Will Collins, Tony Stephens, Jehb O'Donohue, Jackson Beck and Cian Ehlers all held up strongly.

The move of co-captain Jones into attack gave Swan Districts a strong tall target too and he ended up kicking 29 goals with Jesse Palmer kicking 22, Tom Edwards 20, Ryan Kemp 19 and Brayden Noble 16.

FINISHING POSITION: Sixth, 10-8, 100.8%

WHAT WENT WELL: For much of the season Swans were on track to play finals for the second straight season. Despite losing their first two games, they won five of the next six and seven of the next nine to be well on track for a top five finish. Even with three rounds to go they were in the box seat, but two heavy late losses to East Fremantle and Peel Thunder sealed their fate of finishing frustratingly in sixth spot. However, it was a season full of positives. Jesse Turner cemented himself among the elite of the competition while Sam Fisher was tremendous and Aidan Clarke took a great leap forward. Tobe Watson and Jarvis Pina were strong additions and the back-line led by Brandon Erceg, Tony Notte, Anthony Stephens and Will Collins stood up strongly. Chris Jones gave a good target in attack. There was a lot to like about what they did all season, which made it more frustrating for them to miss out on playing finals.

BEST PLAYER: Jesse Turner has been a consistent performer for a number of years now through the middle or on the wing highlighted by being part of the Team of the Year squads in three of the past four seasons, but what he did in 2022 was go to another level in remarkable fashion. He turned himself into one of the elite players in the competition and his engine to run all day on the wing, and outwork his opponents became one of his great traits. His consistently standout performances meant he was one of the players of the season and was named to the Team of the Week in 10 of his 18 games while leading the league at 30.6 possessions a game. That included a career-best 47 possessions in Round 10 while having 40 on another two occasions and over 30 another nine occasions.

DEBUTANTS
Ryan Kemp – Round 1
Elijah Hewett – Round 1
Bryce Watson – Round 1
Cian Ehlers – Round 2
Ben Hewett – Round 3
Brodie Morris – Round 6
Brenton Hilton – Round 6
Darcy Jones – Round 15
Max Chipper – Round 15

MOST IMPROVED: Aidan Clarke has been a handy player at Swan Districts for a couple of years now splitting his time between playing in the midfield and at half-forward, but he took a giant leap forward in 2022. He became a permanent on-baller and showed his quality with his toughness around the contest and his flair with the ball in hands. He ended up averaging 26.6 possessions a game including a career-best 37 touches in Round 14 and ended up runner-up in Swan Medal voting to Jesse Turner. He now has 51 WAFL games under his belt and appears ready to be a foundation piece for the Swans midfield for a long time to come.

OUTLOOK FOR 2023: The talk out of everyone at Swan Districts is that no longer are they happy with just being competitive and a finals contender, but the premiership is what they are shooting for and they are making no secret of that. New coach Andrew Pruyn hast outlined those lofty ambitions and so has Swan Medallist Jesse Turner, and it shows just how far the group has come in a short period of time to change that mindset. They will welcome back 2021 fairest and best Frank Anderson as well, they have signed Jesse Glass-McCasker to return and it was largely a youthful playing group that made up the key players throughout 2022. The expectations are high at Swan Districts coming into 2023, the team was frustrated with how 2022 finished and now it's up to them to back up their plans with action and putting themselves in the premiership hunt.