Fully fit Ames ready to fire Swans against LionsThursday, May 14, 2015 - 1:00 PM - by Chris Pike

SWAN Districts captain Tallan Ames has escaped a hamstring injury and now is preparing himself and his team to topple the league-leading reigning premiers Subiaco this Saturday with some old premiership teammates of his in his sights as well.

Ames had an injury scare with a tight hamstring during Saturday's loss to Claremont in Mt Barker, but has pulled up fine from that this week with scans giving him all the clear.

And that is a double dose of good news for the 218-game full-back who will now be available to take on Subiaco this Saturday at Medibank Stadium and then also being available to play for Western Australia against South Australia in next Saturday's State game at Lathlain Park.

The 31-year-old has been in tremendous form again this season getting all the big jobs in Swans defence and shutting down some of the opposition's best forwards – whether they be talls like Claremont's Darcy Cameron, power men like West Perth's Michael Lourey or small men like East Fremantle's George Hampson.

Now that his hamstring has been given the all clear, Ames' job this Saturday could very well be on trying to stop Subiaco's Shane Yarran who is in remarkable form having kicked 29 goals already in just six matches this season.

"I think we got out of the game prior to the injury actually happening so the scans on the hamstring have come up all positive, and I'm looking forward to taking on Subi this week," Ames said.

"I always enjoy taking the most potent forward and that is Shane Yarran at this present time for Subiaco.

"I'm not sure if I'll match up on him based on other match ups but I believe Boland might still be out, and if that's the case then I have to sacrifice my game for the benefit of the team and I'd look forward to the match up. We might have a couple of other guys who will go to him, but we'll see how it goes."

Swan Districts has had an up and down start to the season looking good in wins over Perth, South Fremantle and Swan Districts, but then struggling against East Fremantle and Claremont, and blowing a match-winning lead against West Perth.

However, Ames has no doubt that his team has the ability to more than take it up to a Subiaco team that currently sits a game clear on top of the ladder.

And Ames and the black-and-whites have the added motivation of taking on former premiership players of their club Wayde Twomey and Brett Robinson, with Twomey in his second year with Subiaco and Robinson his first.

As luck would have it, Tim Geappen will also return for Swan Districts for the clash with the two men he originally joins Swans with back in 2008.

"We are actually hanging to play these guys. We tend to really set ourselves for these big games and the Peel game is an example. What we need is consistent strength at all stages of the game," he said.

"Our best football, don't get us wrong, is finals football and will get us into the finals but we have to produce that across all stages of every game. We are really focusing on a couple of aspects with basic football this week that will put us into a promising position come the final siren against Subiaco.

"And we've got a bit of ammo this week as well and we look forward to using that. Both Twoms and Robbo are elite WAFL players and we have to respect that firstly, and we have a couple of facets to try and negate their strength across half-back and in the middle. We'll have a game plan with that and we'll put it into practice come Saturday. We are looking forward to it."

Ames has been frustrated with Swan Districts' start to the season so far that sees them sit on a 3-4 record despite having shown that their best football is as good as that of what any other team can produce.

"It is something that has been spoken about in-depth in the inner sanctum at Swans. Yes, we have to learn from those poor performances but the position that we put ourselves in and then relinquish leads and end up losing four points is totally not acceptable," Ames said.

"There's been some crucial errors made by not only senior players, but also some of our rookies at certain points of matches when we've handed momentum back to opposition sides and put them into attacking positions. If the simple, right decision was made we would be attacking at the other end of the ground.

"It's something that we are disappointed in and games that come to mind are the West Perth game, East Fremantle when we didn’t play a quarter of football let alone four quarters and then the recent game against Claremont. Yet we've played some amazing games, Peel for example and our opening match against Perth, and we have to replicate that and be consistent in replicating that.

"The golden question is about how to do that, but it solely comes down to mental application and intensity around the football at all stages. That's something we have to get better at to be able to be consistent leading into the business end of the season."