We continue our countdown to the biggest event in the Club’s history - the 25 year Anniversary Dinner. Follow the highs and lows of each year the Swans have been in Sydney every day on sydneyswans.com.au leading up to the event. Here is 1995...

Between the 1994 and 1995 football seasons, the Sydney recruiters were busy indeed, and managed to acquire the services of two of the biggest names in football.

Paul Roos - former Fitzroy Captain, veteran of 269 games and five-time Best and Fairest winner - had made his debut in 1982, and quickly established himself as one of the premier key position players in the League.

Tony Lockett played 183 games for St Kilda, having made his debut in 1983. He won the Brownlow Medal in 1987, was a Coleman Medalist, and was a major drawcard wherever he played.

Both of these men joined the Sydney Swans for the 1995 season, and each of them was to have an immeasurable impact on the Club in years to come.

The addition of Roos and Lockett was an enormous on-field boost, as they joined the more established senior players including Paul Kelly, Mark Bayes, Andrew Dunkley, Daryn Cresswell, Dale Lewis and Troy Luff, and the young group of up-and-coming Swans such as Michael O’Loughlin, Brad Seymour and Daniel McPherson.

The team’s form was patchy during 1995 – three losses to open the season were followed by a win over the struggling Fitzroy. In round five, the Swans proved they were going to be competitive during the remainder of the season when they produced an eleven goal last quarter to overcome a three-quarter-time deficit of seventeen points to beat Adelaide 20.24 (144) to 12.15 (87).

Another on-field highlight of the year came in round eight, which was Ron Barassi’s 500^th game as a senior coach. A Friday night game at the SCG saw the Swans hand eventual Premiers Carlton a 72-point thrashing. It was one of only two defeats Carlton suffered during the entire season.

Round 19 saw Tony Lockett almost single-handedly demolish Fitzroy at the Western Oval, He finished with 16 goals for the day – a tally which could have been higher had he not left the ground, mistakenly believing due to a communication error that he had been called to the bench. By the time he kicked his 100^th goal for the season and his 1000^th career goal at the SCG in round 21, he had firmly established himself as a favourite with the Sydney crowd, and a vital component of the Sydney team.

At the end of the season, the Swans were 12^th on the ladder, having won 8 games and lost 14, only two wins short of playing in the finals. Of the games lost, six were by less than three goals, three games were lost by less than one goal.

It was the Monday before the Grand Final when the Sydney Swans had most cause to celebrate, as Captain Paul Kelly polled 21 votes to win the Brownlow Medal. The reaction of the red and white faithful was best summed up by Tony Lockett in an interview from the Sydney Brownlow Medal function….. “You bloody little ripper, mate!”