SWFL Season Preview 2017

It is going to be a big year for SWFL in 2017 especially with the introduction of SWFL W, as many like to call the New Senior Women’s Competition that will be played under the SWFL banner.

The SWFL in its wisdom or some may say lack of has decided to kick start the SWFL 2017 season off on the Easter Weekend commencing on Saturday April 15 with games on Sunday and Monday which gives everyone a chance to see a local game somewhere near you, bound to be nearby.

Women’s Senior Competition:

There are many that have raised eyebrows with this concept, but from the SWFL perspective the time was right to venture into Women’s football emphasised with the AFL W inaugural year running also in 2017. It made sense for the SWFL to grab this opportunity to ‘ride on” the coat tails of the National Competition which in itself proved to be an enormous success with the Grand Final between Crows and Lions showed some great skills, good endurance with many second efforts and most importantly Total Commitment.

There have been many doubts about the SWFL W competition providing anything watchable, I think the Women’s Pre-Season Carnival would have debunked that thought especially for those that watched the last game between fierce rivals Bunbury v South Bunbury – it became a mini Grand Final with the winner going through undefeated and taking the inaugural Brooke Fiore Hair and Tanning Cup. In a tight struggles it was the South Bunbury Tiger Girls that got that privilege in what turned out to be a fantastic day – given there were hidings, we saw quite a few clangers, miss- kicks, mistime leaps, losing their feet, overrunning the ball and all of that but it was still entertaining, and may I say at times humorous but no one could question the Girls endeavour to compete.

The Women’s Competition will see six teams compete over 18 rounds to play 10 games each, which means that there will be several weeks were the Girls will not be playing nonetheless the SWFL can only see the upside to have invited these Girls in some cases Women in other, to compete in the only true Australian Game. Dual Gender was always going to happen and what the AFL has embraced is to reflect Modern Society within Australian Rules Football – it is now a world without boundaries, and seen the removal of Glass ceilings so it is exciting that the AFL and the SWFL to a lesser extent are creating a path way to the top echelon of Female Australian Football (WAWFL and AFL W) for want of a better description.

The Pre-season saw that South Bunbury and Bunbury will be powerhouses in the Women’s competition at least initially, with Players such as Ebony Bilcich (South Bunbury) and Trisha Lake (Bunbury) they are going to be prominent right up into late September, having said that many teams were missing key players so the competition will become a lot stronger as the real season commences.

As a side line it was interesting to read family names of past SWFL players being listed on Team Sheets e.g. Gutheridge  (Busselton), Larsen, Taylor (Bunbury , Bilcich, Buswell (South Bunbury), Jetta’s – with Lewis Jetta (Eagles) being present to watch his sister play, I am not sure what all the relationships are but I am sure there are some that are the Daughters / Grand Daughters of past champions that have decided that it is no longer the Canteen Kitchen anymore, but out into the on-field action.

I am sure that after the 2017 inaugural season that the SWFL will see more foundation clubs of the League nominate teams for 2018. I am sure the word is out amongst the girls get involved. The SWFL will give this competition prime exposure with Women’s Games being played before Men’s League Game.

SWFL Competition:

With all the excitement generated by the Women’s competition one could be forgiven that a Men’s competition that has been around for more than a century actually exists in 2017.

Having said that 2017 does look to be a balanced and may I say competitive competition, in that there has not been a major influx of big name players into local Clubs, which may be a result of two things:

One the impact of Player Points System that has been in effect since 2014 – this has seen more local Juniors playing at League level which can only be a good thing for South West Football and South West Community – this process has seen the competition progressively become more equitable – there is more work to be done but overall games have become a lot closer in scores which does hold the supporters attention a lot longer in each contest.

Secondly the WACFL has introduced a Paid Player Scheme – in other words a Salary Cap that will apply in 2017.

The full impact of this ruling is yet to be seen but the intent behind the ruling is to ensure that Football Clubs remain financially viable & sustainable for future generations.

Some Clubs have already stated that they have had to release some player due to this implementation of this ruling. It is known that Country South Australia & Country Victoria both have a Paid Player Scheme in place for those States.

There is always the question on how this Policy will be policed & that players will be paid by various means some within the Rules and dare I say some outside of, will this be the risk that some clubs will take? The penalties that apply are heavy especially with loss of points that could see a club drop out of finals contention – at this stage this is all speculative.

Preview:

It is always difficult and also fraught with danger to look too far into a season before the first ball is even bounced, but I will say that the top five (5) from last season will take some shifting, the Premiers – South Bunbury Tigers have lost some significant man power in Tom Harper, Dylan Harper, Chris Andrew, Shaun Crane, Anthony Tsilakis, Guy Piggott , all the same they still hold their core group and with Brynn Francis back to work in tandem with Kohlmann the tigers still have a formidable scoring power forward of the centre.

Collie Eagles had a Grand Final in 2016 that they would prefer to forget, they have added considerably to their line up with perhaps the recruit of the year in Joel Houghton a power forward who kicked 6 goals against SWFL in the 2016 Landmark Final – he will firstly straighten the Eagles going forward & secondly allow Matt Michael to become the Eagles Mr Fixit in either defence or attack – add in Teke Vernon, Ruckman Debenham, injury free Malatesta & Eagles supporters will be getting excited.

Bunbury won the Pre-Season and this normally has been a good barometer for the season proper especially with Matt Martin (right) 11 goals giving notice. They have been re-enforced with Aiden Clarke back from Swan Districts, Della Franca will again suit up, a find is a plyer Ryan Frost from Ord River apparently, the Bulldogs will be in the thick of action.

HBL will also be confident adding James Hawksley to their list along with Thornton they will be potent in attack. The losses in Kazakoff and Jay Walton is yet to be realised, although Beever and Smith have stayed put.

Harvey Bulls have picked up the outstanding Brendon Jones along with Big Man Llane Spaandermann but the loss of Reece Blechynden will be telling.

From outside the top 5 maybe Eaton Boomers look most capable to challenge they have picked up Jay Walton from HBL and he certainly will assist their goal kicking, Rohan Lily is back from Imperials and will be handy – the others in AMR, Donnybrook, Busselton and Carey Park look to have the work ahead of them but in saying that the Dons were probably the most impressive in the pre-season when they took South Bunbury apart in their abbreviated game.

CSES Game: 

The SWFL has been allocated a WAFL game to be played between East Perth v South Fremantle in Busselton on July 22, 2017.

Both these teams have a big following in the South West & will draw a big crowd to Bovell Park. It will be interesting to see how many West Coast Eagles players will make this trip, I am sure their presence will be watched with interest. I am speculating if Big Nic Nat may make the trip, I am not ruling out where he will be at by July 22.

The WAFL and SWFL are planning for a big day out at Bovell Park  as both clubs will be striving to consolidate a Finals position.

The SWFL is looking forward to 2017 as an interesting year with a number of innovations coming to fruition, generally for the betterment of the competition and that is all that we can ask.