TOPIC:

To be honest outside of the Dawson era 2008-10 our last 35 seasons have been underwhelming or underachieving.
We will have the odd ok year and then drop back down the ladder the next, it has been a sad indictment on our club for far too long.
Much like in 2023 how do you start the season with 9 of your best 25 players missing injured? 

Where is Lachlan Riley?

Beasley Hutton wrote:

To be honest outside of the Dawson era 2008-10 our last 35 seasons have been underwhelming or underachieving.
We will have the odd ok year and then drop back down the ladder the next, it has been a sad indictment on our club for far too long.
Much like in 2023 how do you start the season with 9 of your best 25 players missing injured? 

SD have been fairly strong last 2-3 seasons, had the wood over a lacklustre SF side on my more recent visits up to Basso, but yep that probably goes against the overall trend.

Could get a bit ugly down at Fremantle this Saturday. Aiden Clarke has finished his suspension so he will be back. Apart from that maybe Chipper , Ehlers, Caporn or Roche from the winning reserves side

Frothy wrote:

Where is Lachlan Riley?

Riley left the club at the end of 2023 along with Mitchell Bain. My understanding is that both of them played in the South West League last year. Not sure why they walked but both of them would have been useful in the current team

Bain is playing for South Bunbury in the sou west footy league this season I'm told. Not sure of the other fellow.

westaussieguy wrote:

Bain is playing for South Bunbury in the sou west footy league this season I'm told. Not sure of the other fellow.

Apparently Lachlan Riley has moved to Victoria WAG. He has been signed by Aberfeldie Football Club in the Eastern Districts Football league

Aberfeldie is the same footy club, EF 2023 premiership player Jackson McDonald, has gone back home to play for in 2025. Without stirring the pot - McDonald was the player that kicked that after the siren goal, to break many a SD fans heart last year.....courtesy of that  defence clearing bullet like pass from SD No: 1 .....think it was the last league game McDonald played for the year for EF.....did win a reserves flag though for EF that year.

Thanks for reminding us of that Freezin. That was a massive choke by Swans, from memory 22 points up with about 10 mins to go but credit to the EF boys for not giving it in. Jehb O'Donohue was the guy who kicked that ball out of the pack. 
Spoiled our 90th birthday party but it did trigger a positive reaction by the players who went to Claremont Oval the next week and scored a gutsy win over the Tigers which was their first at that ground in a decade. This was the first of a 9 game winning streak which put Swans into premiership contention. Hoping that the players might draw a similar line in the sand at Freo this Saturday. The difference is that they were playing well this time last year despite the loss to the Sharks. This year we have kicked 14 goals in 2 games which is not a good return.