Swan hoping grand final dream eventuates in 2013Friday, September 13, 2013 - 3:52 PM - by Chris Pike

MICHAEL Swan has been at East Perth for 10 years desperate for the chance of playing in a grand final after his brother became a triple premiership star with the Royals, and the former skipper credits new coach Brian Dawson with providing the chance in Sunday's preliminary final.

Swan arrived at East Perth in 2003 after time with the Sydney Swans with the Royals on the back of a premiership hat-trick of which his older brother David played in all three.

That meant that he had every reason to expect he would get the chance of at least playing in a grand final during his East Perth career, but it hasn’t eventuated over the last decade with Swan so far racking up 169 games including 106 of those in his seven years as an inspirational captain.

Swan might not have the captaincy in 2013, but remains the inspirational leader along with fellow veteran Craig Wulff with East Perth now entering Sunday's preliminary final against Claremont at Claremont Oval with the chance of making a grand final for the first time since 2002.

Wulff will play his 224th game for East Perth on Sunday and Swan his 170th, both without a grand final appearance, but that dream of getting there and belief that it will happen one day has spurred he pair on and now Swan is hopeful that this year could be the time.

"For Wulffy and I to have that chance of playing in a grand final, we would give anything for that and that is what has spurred us on over the past decade. Having that dream is probably what gets you through when you might not be travelling that well as a team or individually with injuries," Swan said.

"That dream and goal that you are chasing to try and win a premiership is what keeps you going and now to have this chance in front of us on Sunday to win into a grand final means a hell of a lot to not just us two, but the whole playing group.

"We are getting a bit of an understanding of what opportunity we do have in front of us and we have prepared really well so far this week. We have been building towards this and we will be giving it our best shot this Sunday."

In his decade at East Perth, Swan has had an interesting array of coaches starting with Andy Lovell before Warren Mahoney, Paul Peos, Glen Bewick, Tony Micale and now as of 2013 former Swan Districts premiership coach Dawson.

Nothing against those previous coaches, but Swan has really enjoyed everything about Dawson's coaching this year.

"Daws has been outstanding this year. His support and education of the players that he has brought in this year has been outstanding. He has a different demeanour to what Tony had but it still is very effective and to take us into a prelim final in his first year has been a great job," Swan said.

"His communication with the younger boys is outstanding and he has really developed the group. We've had a lot of debutants this year, which has been really promising, and Daws has been excellent for the group. He is very calm and keeps a calm and cool head, and explains things very clearly and you know where you stand and what you need to do with Daws. He has done a great job."

Even though his older brother David won three premierships in his 129-game East Perth career, they actually haven’t shared stories about what winning a flag is like but the 32-year-old is hopeful that his third trip to a preliminary final on Sunday will be a positive experience.

"We actually haven’t spoken directly about that in terms of what he experienced playing in the premierships. We have more so spoken about personal things that I want to try and work on to make sure that I am performing at my best to help the team. In terms of tapping into what he experienced and what the feeling was like, we haven’t spoken about that directly really," he said.

"In 2003, which was my first year, we made it to the prelim final and that was against West Perth when they were way too good for us that. Since then we have only made it back to one prelim final, which was 2010, and Swan Districts were good for us again on that day as well. You don’t get these opportunities too often and I feel we definitely have the team to be able to win on Sunday and progress into a grand final."

East Perth earned the chance of playing in the preliminary final by downing Swan Districts in last Sunday's first semi-final in front of over 5000 vocal fans at Steel Blue Oval in a performance Swan was proud of, and contributed strongly in with two goals from 13 possessions.

"It was definitely a really good, solid performance from all our 22 players that played last Sunday because Swans are extremely tough to beat at their home ground," he said.

"They've always got a strong supporter base who come out to watch the game there and they are always very vocal and hard to beat at home, but our second half was really good football. We got the result that we wanted so we move on to this week."

That victory provides East Perth with the chance of winning into the 2013 grand final but Swan is well aware that all it is now is a chance and he's not taking anything for granted having played in losing preliminary finals to West Perth in 2003 and Swan Districts in 2010.

"It is definitely a big opportunity for us and East Perth haven’t been in a grand final since 2002, and no one in the current was part of that premiership," Swan said.

"It is a big opportunity for us to give ourselves the chance to play in a grand final. Everyone is really looking forward to it and everyone is prepared as well as they can be. We are doing everything we can to make sure we are ready to play come Sunday."

Standing in East Perth's way of making the grand final is a Claremont team that has been minor premiers for four straight years, played in three successive grand finals and won the last two premierships before losing last week's second semi-final at home to West Perth.

"We will be expecting Claremont to really come out and give it a red hot go obviously but we did watch a little bit of vision of last week and West Perth's pressure was outstanding," Swan said.

"That obviously went a long way to them winning that game so we will need to apply a similar sort of pressure to give ourselves a chance of having a win against them."

The preliminary final is one of vastly contrasting grand final experienced teams.

Claremont will have 13 premiership players in its line-up while East Perth has no players who have previously played in a WAFL grand final let alone in a premiership side. However, Swan thinks both teams can take the positives from that heading into the game.

"From our point of view, our hunger will definitely be there just because we haven’t been there before," he said.

"The hunger and desperation will definitely be there from our group, but in saying that they obviously have a lot of guys who have been there and done it before, so they know what it takes.

"You can look at both sides of the coin and use it as a positive for them and for us, but we will just be very desperate to do what we need to do to get the win."

If East Perth does beat Claremont on Sunday to make the grand final, it will set up what is sure to be an incredible decider with arch-rivals West Perth, but Swan is fully aware if anyone at the Royals is thinking about the grand final opponent already then the Tigers will make them pay.

"It may sound cliché, but we really just have to focus on this Sunday and getting the job done because if for a second we look ahead to next week to a grand final then we will get caught short and won't beat Claremont," Swan said.

"All we can focus on is performing to the very best of our ability this Sunday and then everything from then will take care of itself. We can't be looking ahead a week in advance and we just have to focus completely on Claremont and pay them full respect. They have won the last two premierships and have been in the past three grand finals so we know they are going to be a huge challenge."

Swan has played just the 13 games this season after injuring a shoulder in the first half of the campaign, but that had ended up being a positive in the sense that he is now fresh and firing come finals time. What his future holds in 2014 isn't something he has decided on yet though.

"I did injure my shoulder early in the year and it sort has been a blessing in disguise a little," Swan said.

"Now I am feeling pretty fresh and ready, and raring to go when at the past at this time of the year I have been pretty fatigued and worn down. I haven’t made a decision on that yet. I will weigh that up once the season finishes."