THE opener for the 2025 WAFL season didn’t go as planned for Swan Districts, with a tough loss against the West Perth Falcons.

Swans senior coach Andrew Pruyn said it was a disappointing way to enter the new season.

“We ran into a red-hot West Perth who gave us a real reality check,’’ he said.

“In this competition you only need to be a little bit off your best and you will be exposed, which is what happened to us.

“I thought we had some good contributors on the day with veteran Tony Notte being as reliable as ever, Ben Hewett, Evan Smith, Leigh Kohlmann and Jesse Turner all playing their role but we had far too many others below their best.

Captain Jesse Turner had  44 possessions while Leigh Kohlmann had four goals to his name.

Ben Hewett was lively in attack kicking two goals to go with 16 possessions and five tackles.

Josh Cipro had 27 disposals, Jye Chalcraft 23, Jehb O’Donohue 20, Tony Notte 20, Jarvis Pina 19, Connor Blakely 19 and Nathan Blakely 18 along with 18 hit outs.

Kicking into the breeze in the first quarter was always going to be a challenge for the Swans and the Falcons did take advantage with the game’s first two goals before the home team got on the board.

The Falcons went on to kick another four goals before quarter-time to be leading by 31 points and they also managed the first goal of the second term but then Swans worked back into the contest.

West Perth managed to take advantage of the breeze again in the third quarter by kicking six goals to just the one from Swans.

By the third quarter the Swans had work to do, being 47 points down.

Three of the last four goals were kicked by the Falcons, which secured their lead against the Swans and led to their 48-point win.

Pruyn said the Swans were determined to bounce back at their game against last year’s grand finalist’s East Perth this weekend who boast a formidable front half.

He said they won’t be an easy beat but he wanted to show what Swan Districts were capable of.

“I am confident our boys will respond from last week’s performance and put in a good showing.”