Swan Districts claim thrilling Reserves Grand FinalSunday, September 24, 2023 - 12:05 PM - by Chris Pike

SWAN Districts was able to withstand a blistering start and finish from West Perth to win the WAFL Reserves Grand Final in thrilling fashion by three points to open proceedings on Sunday at Optus Stadium.

Despite West Perth finishing the home and away season on top of the ladder looking to make amends for losing last year's Reserves Grand Final in heartbreaking fashion to Subiaco, it was Swan Districts who was the first team into the decider beating the Falcons in the second semi-final.

West Perth then got there with last week's preliminary final win against Subiaco and kept that momentum going to dominate the first quarter to lead by 12 points at quarter-time.

Swans turned the tide to dominate the next two quarters and despite kicking eight behinds in the second quarter, they kicked four goals to nil in the third to lead by as much as 14 points.

West Perth weren’t done with and hit the front once more in the last quarter but it was Merv McIntosh Medal winner Ben Hewett who kicked the match-winning goal for Swans who went on to win a thriller, 7.15 (57) to 8.6 (54).

It's a first Reserves premiership win for Swan Districts since Brian Dawson led them to the triumph in 2006 and now Greg Harding becomes a flag winning Reserves and Colts coach with the black-and-whites to go with the seven seasons he spent at League level.

Hewett was judged best afield on the back of kicking two goals for Swan Districts to go with 20 touches, seven marks, seven tackles and six inside 50s.

Jack Cox threatened to be a match winner for Swans in the forward-line too with six scores from his seven kicks, but he managed to just converted two of those into goals.

Jiah Reidy showed all of his 64 games of WAFL experience to be terrific in the premiership win for Swan Districts with 24 possessions, eight marks, five inside-50 entries and three tackles.

Jacob Sideris ran hard all morning on the wing for 21 disposals too while Lewis Tester was superb down back for 19 possessions, six marks and six tackles. Will Collins (16 touches, five marks, four tackles) and Luke Taylor (11 disposals, seven marks) also held up well defensively.

Matthew Germs was strong in the ruck with 17 touches and 31 hit outs with Max Chipper also collecting 18 possessions, Brodyn Fitzgerald 18 and Prendergast Medallist Mitch Bain 17.

Daniel Gathercole fought valiantly the whole game for West Perth to finish with 24 possessions and five marks with Callum Johnson collecting 20 disposals, Kane Bevan 20 and ruckman Riley Sprigg 14 to go with 14 hit outs.

League premiership winning pair Blake Wilhelm (18 possessions) and Mark Hutchings (19) both had strong impacts for the Falcons with the former already having announced his 131-game WAFL career is now over.

West Perth captain Luke Reilly battled hard for 10 touches, nine tackles and a goal.

Swan Districts might have been the team who won the second semi-final and had the week off, but it was West Perth who came out ferocious in the Grand Final to dominate the opening quarter.

With Mark Hutchings, Kane Bevan and captain Luke Reilly setting things up through the middle, it was all West Perth in the first term and the first goal came at the six-minute mark through key forward Zak Patterson.

Jasper Scaife added another soon after but West Perth didn’t quite capitalise fully on the dominance with just the two goals in that first quarter to be leading by 13 points at quarter-time.

Swan Districts came out ready to work back into the contest in the second term and eventually Jack Cox did kick the first goal of the Grand Final for Swans at the four minute mark.

However, West Perth responded with the next two from Corey Rundle and Zarne Robis and suddenly it was threatening to blow out to a match-winning lead for the Falcons up by 18 points.

Swans had worked back on top in general play, though, but kicking straight was proving quite the challenge inside Optus Stadium.

Ben Hewett did manage a second goal for the black-and-whites but the Falcons responded through Scaife and that saw the minor premiers leading still by 11 points at the main break with Swan Districts left to stew over eight behinds for the second term.

It was a ferocious Swan Districts team that came out after half-time ready to start putting that ascendancy on the scoreboard and it was Cox who kicked a second goal of the game to get things rolling.

Henrick Alforque then added another to put Swans in front for the first time in the game. Tom Smith and Brodyn Fitzgerald added goals before three quarter-time as well and after holding West Perth scoreless, the black-and-whites were on top by 14 points.

It was West Perth's turn to respond and the Falcons did exactly that desperate to not lose consecutive Reserves Grand Finals. Callum Johnson kicked a long bomb to start the final term and then Reilly added another and suddenly it was a three-point ball game.

West Perth was then back in front when Logan Foley bombed one from 50m and the challenge was back on Swan Districts to respond.

It became a ferocious contest over the final 15 minutes with the premiership on the line and both teams had their chances, but it was a clever snap in congestion with his left foot from Merv McIntosh Medallist Hewett that put Swans back in front for good.

There were still huge plays the rest of the way but ultimately West Perth had one last chance with 30 seconds to go to take the ball the length of the field down three points after a Swans behind.

Wingman Griffith Julian tried to do the right thing by taking it on, but when he lost control after a bounce, his opponent swooped and the premiership went the way of Swan Districts.

WAFL RESERVES GRAND FINAL 2023

SWAN DISTRICTS        0.2    2.10    6.11    7.15    (57)
WEST PERTH            2.3    5.3    5.3    8.6    (54)

SWAN DISTRICTS – Goals: Hewett, Cox 2; Alforque, Smith, Fitzgerald.
Best: Hewett, Reidy, Sideris, Chipper, Tester, Cox, Collins, Germs, Fitzgerald. 
WEST PERTH – Goals: Scaife 2; Patterson, Rundle, Robis, C Johnson, Reilly, Foley.
Best: Gathercole, Hutchings, Reilly, Wilhelm, C Johnson, Bevan.

MERV MCINTOSH MEDAL: Ben Hewett (Swan Districts)