TOPIC:

By the time the boys run out on Saturday it will have been 330 days since the club last played for premiership points. The last time was August 24 2019 at Claremont Oval which ended up being a 100+ point thumping. So its been the longest pre- season in history.
2020 has been a bizarre year all round and the WAFL competition will be in the same category with only 8 games for each team.

What are my expectations of Swans this year? Not a lot really. A positive way to look at it is that they can only go up from 2019 and as BH has said we won't finish 10th like we did last year!.

Looking at an optimistic point of view, IF Swans can keep their top 6 - 8 players on the park for all or most of the season, they are capable of competing with most teams in the competition. The exceptions are Subiaco obviously and they could struggle keeping up with Claremont and the Doggies as well, especially as those games will be away. I will be hoping that they can really have a crack at winning 3 of our 4 home games starting with this week against West Perth. They are always tough to beat and we will have to be at our best to compete.

Did you want to have a shot at picking the Round 1 side Mike?
I assume George is an out, also a couple of other boys that didnt play on the weekend were doing exercises with Ted our new Sports Science Manager during the breaks of the practice match on Saturday.

They will probably go with most of the guys who fronted last weekend. Didn't see enough of the reserves to make any judgements on any of the players there. Some who may come into contention are the new guy Costigan, Raynor, Riley, O'Sullivan and Deng. May give an opportunity to a Colts guy like Zane Trew. They may decide to bring Doc in to do some ruck work which would increase the flexibility to use Gault down forward. One guy I didnt see on either list was Nathan Ireland who I assume was injured?
George will be a big loss for us if he doesnt play.

Yes Mike he was one of those injured (I assume) boys doing some exercises with Ted in the breaks.
Hopefully the rain holds off on Saturday for the belated season kick off!

Weather forecast for bounce-down looking a bit iffy. Hopefully the showers don't pass directly over the Wafl grounds but goes around?

Saturday 18 July

Summary
Min 7
Max 19
Shower or two.
Possible rainfall: 1 to 2 mm
Chance of any rain: 70%

Perth area

Partly cloudy. High (70%) chance of showers, most likely over coastal suburbs. Light winds.

West Perth have named a full strength side whilst we have a few boys out, most notably George.

George is a massive out for us. I still think that it will be a decent contest though. 2 strong midfields and both teams have options up forward. I am hoping that home ground advantage will get us across the line

for those whom have not seen this as yet:

www.sportfm.com.au/post/support-wafl-footy-hodyl

Another good contest between these two clubs. West Perth narrowly skipping away at the latter stages of the final term. Swans low scoring first half did not help and need to be scoring more than 1 goal a half.
The stats look to be fairly even, although the difference being West Perth with twelve more Ins 50's. That being the difference in this match.

ahhhh pipped at the post - good signs that the Basso boys are on the way back up the ladder though