Swan Districts coach Adam Pickering reveals WAFL club had around half of playing group training due to COVID

Swan Districts’ Adam Pickering was relieved to end the toughest week of his coaching tenure with a breakthrough victory over Perth at Mineral Resources Park on Saturday night. The Swans rallied from 28 points down in the third quarter to post their first win of the season by five points, 12.6 (78) to 10.13 (73). Pickering revealed he only had about half of his squad on the training track during the week as COVID spread throughout the playing group. He couldn’t be prouder of the fight shown when his team were “on the canvas” and said it was nice to be on the right side of a single-digit result after going down to East Perth (four points) and East Fremantle (nine) in the first two rounds. “It’s been a pretty tough week for the club and the boys, to be honest,” Pickering said. “We had 35 on the track on Monday night out of 70 and 38 on Wednesday night, just guys in an out of COVID and no coaching staff. “It’s been a pretty full on week and probably my toughest as coach, especially being 0-2 going into the match with expectations to play finals and push the top teams and you’re thrown curveballs like that. “It’s just an outpouring of emotion at the moment for me. I’m just so proud of those guys after we were on the canvas at quarter-time and not looking great again with three guys coming back off COVID.” Chris Jones’ move forward late in the first half proved a masterstroke from the Swans’ coaches box, with the co-captain booting 3.2 to spark a revival. “Nathan Ireland was playing forward and back-up ruck and hadn’t had a great half and neither had Jonesy as a key defender so we thought we’d flip them and see if that sparked something and it did,” Pickering said. Demons defender Matt Taylor said the club was extremely disappointed with the result, suggesting ill-discipline in high-pressure moments down back cost them the game. “I thought we, probably overall, were the better side but we didn’t come away (with the win),” Taylor said. “We gave away silly free kicks… probably five or six that resulted in direct goals and you can’t win a game of footy doing that.” Taylor said the Demons played consistent, high pressure and reliable footy – what he called their “brand” – early but that the side needed to get better when the pressure was on them. “That’s all we ask for and I thought, for the most part, we did that but it’s probably just those free kicks that cost us the game. We just need to get better under pressure,” Taylor said. Corey Byrne was arguably the best player on the ground with a game-high 34 disposals, eight tackles and seven inside-50s for the Demons. “(He) was outstanding,” Taylor said. “We actually spoke about him (in the changerooms after the game). “He really did the grunt work tonight. He was in and under, getting the ball going our way. He was exceptional.”