Round 1 Preview Perth V Swan Districts

Perth gets its season underway this Saturday when they take on Swan Districts at Steel Blue Oval.

It will be Earl Spalding’s first game in charge of the Demons since taking over at the end of last year.

A very different Perth team will take to the field than the one that lost by 82-points to West Perth at the end of last season.  The Demons will be without former captain Paul Bevan who has returned to Sydney, Gerald Ugle who has gone to Peel Thunder, Jared Risol who is travelling, Clem Smith who was drafted to Carlton, Matthew Hunt who has left the club and Nick Kane who has retired and now works with Essendon in the AFL.

Other players to have played with the club last year that are now no longer at the club are Joel Houghton who has gone to Swans, Haydn Busher who is now at Claremont, Cale Morton who will line up for Coburg in the VFL and Mitch Leyendekkers who is travelling.

The Demons have built up a strong rivalry with Swans over the past two seasons with four of the last six games being decided by under a goal.  However the last time Perth beat Swan Districts was back in round four, 2013 when a controversial free kick to Christian Eyres gave the Demons a two-point win.

Perth have had a mixed preseason so far going down by 104-points to Subiaco but showed signs of improvement against East Fremantle on the weekend.  The Demons were able to kick six goals either side of the three quarter time break to get within six points but the Sharks steadied and won by five goals.

Swans were impressive in their first preseason match against Peel Thunder, defeating them by 32-points but lost by three-points against West Perth on the weekend.

New recruits at Perth Toby Gianatti, Liam McKenna, Rhys Ironmonger, Jacob Payne and Cal Walley are a chance to play their first games for Perth while former Swan District’s players Brent Wolfenden and Brent Latch are also likely to come under consideration.

Swan Districts will be without ruckman Nathan Blakely and Todd Banfield who are both injured.

The game will also be the first time newly appointed captain and current Butcher medallist Dene White leads the team out and it will also be his 100th appearance for the club.

The colts kick off at 9am with the reserves starting at 11:30am and the league game getting underway at 2:15pm.