TAYLOR, Yarran, Jetta, Walters set to play important roles
WAFL club Swan Districts are affectionately known as the 'Black Ducks', the name most likely taken from similarities to the club's nickname and WA's native bird and State emblem seen around the nearby Swan River.
But today the club's 'other' Black Ducks, a strong contingent of Aboriginal footballers, loom as central to the club's finals campaign.
All Swans' grades -- League, reserves and Colts -- will take to the field today, the first time that's happened since 1994.
It is expected at least two of those sides could win through to next week or beyond.
The club's best chance looks like coming from its minor premier Colts side, of which seven players were named in the WAFL Colts Team of the Year this week. The defending premiers will play Perth in the second semi-final.
League players Chris Yarran and former Docker Garth Taylor look set to have a big say in Swans' chances to claim a preliminary final berth.
Swan Districts finished fourth at the end of the home-and-away round and take on an injury-hit South Fremantle, led by skipper Toby McGrath, at Fremantle Oval.
Yarran looks likely to have won selection in today's team after overcoming injury that's sidelined him for a few weeks.
His goal sense will be crucial to the outcome. The young Nyoongar has sharked 31 majors this season with a season-high seven against Peel Thunder earlier this year.
Taylor, a former AFL-listed player at Fremantle, is averaging around 17 possessions per game and looms as key in defence.
The club's League side last won a premiership in 1990 and have won just two finals, lost nine and claimed three wooden spoons since.
The club's reserves take on Claremont in the first semi-final.
2008 Colts of the Year
SIX young Indigenous WAFL players have won selection in the league's Colts Team of the Year, and four of them will be in action as finals footy gets underway in Perth today.
Swan Districts' Michael Walters (ruck) and Neville Jetta (half-forward), West Perth's Stephen Hill (defender), Claremont's Alroy Gilligan (half-forward) and Warren Benjamin (ruck), and Peel Thunder's John Bennell (forward) were this week named in the honorary side.
According to the WAFL, the team 'serves as an opportunity to recognise those players ... who have displayed a consistent level of high performance throughout the WAFL Colts season'.
DARREN MONCRIEFF
AboriginalFootball@westnet.com.au
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Last Modified on 06/09/2008 02:24