Stuart Maxfield was always considered by Richmond people a player who should never have been let go. At 23 he was an 89-gamer who had just played in the 1995 preliminary final and was going into the prime of his career.

But let go he was, and much to the delight of the Sydney Swans the tearaway blonde left-footer was snapped up by the club as an uncontracted player in the Pre-Season Draft ahead of the ’96 season.

Going on 10 years later, in Round 6 2005, Maxfield played his 200^th game for the Swans. And his last.

It was a triumphant moment and a tragic moment all at the same time. Not how it should have ended for a man respected and admired so much by all at the Swans.

Maxfield’s brilliant career was cut short by knee problems. In his third season as Sydney Swans skipper, he finished on the interchange bench in a 45-point loss to West Coast at Subiaco in Perth that left the Swans 12^th on the 16-team ladder with a 2-4 win/loss record.

He resigned as captain five days later for personal reasons, and five months later, unable to get his knee right, endured the bitter/sweet sensation of watching the same Swans side beat the same West Coast side by four points in the grand final at the MCG to break a 72-year premiership drought.

At the club championship dinner a few days later Maxfield, who had played in the 1996 grand final in his first season in Sydney, announced his retirement. At 33, his body had had enough. It had given him 289 games – 200 for the Swans – and could give no more. Had he played his entire career in red and white the same number of games would have him fifth on the games list behind only the four 300-gamers: Adam Goodes, Jude Bolton, Jarrad McVeigh and Michael O’Loughlin.

Simply, Maxfield deserved better than the exit he got. After all, he could have been captain of the premiership side holding aloft the premiership cup with coach Paul Roos.

Barry Hall, Brett Kirk and Leo Barry had shared the role on a rotation basis thereafter, with Hall on duty on grand final day.

There have been few players in AFL history more loved and respected at their second club – so highly that coach Roos had compared Maxfield to Paul Kelly and the legendary Bob Skilton in discussing the great Swans captains. Along with countless others, Roos spoke often of the massive role Maxfield had in changing the culture of the Sydney playing group.

Maxfield was the 19^th Swans player to reach 200 games but only the second behind Rod Carter to do so after beginning his career elsewhere. Now, 17 years on, he is one of four ‘imports’ in a 200-game club of 33, alongside Carter, Ted Richards and Josh Kennedy.

But how did Maxfield get to Sydney?

According to Wayne Campbell, later to captain Richmond and now football boss at the Gold Coast Suns, it was something that should never have happened.

“He (Maxfield) was out of contract at the time and for whatever reason it just didn’t get done. (Coach) John Northey left about the same time and maybe the club was distracted, or maybe they took Stuey for granted.

“He’d been a really good player, especially during the finals that year. It was one that should have got done,” Campbell recalled many years later speaking on SEN radio in Melbourne.

Originally from the Oakleigh juniors in Melbourne, Maxfield was an Under 16s premiership player with Glen Waverley Rovers and in 1989 won the APS (Associated Public Schools) flag with Caulfield Grammar.

“He was a private school boy who loved a scrap … and a great teammate,” said Campbell, summing up beautifully the man who wore #11 for the Swans more often than anyone else, and after a long and valued stint in coaching and player development, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011.

Maxfield’s 200^th and last game in Round 6, 2005 headlines the ‘Remember When’ piece for this week, which recalls some of the Round 6 highlights of the Swans’ 40 years in Sydney.

Overall, the club has had a 17-2-21 win-draw-loss record in Round 6 during this period, including 10-1-7 at home. Josh Kennedy’s 42 possessions against Richmond at Metricon Stadium in 2021 is the club’s best in Round 6 during this period, while Tony Lockett’s eight goals in a draw against Essendon at the SCG in 1996 is the biggest Round 6 haul.

Other Round 6 highlights have been:

1988 – AN UNLIKELY HERO, AND A WIN FOR TOMMY

Legendary coach Tom Hafey, recruited by Sydney from Geelong for the 1986 season, took charge  of his 506^th AFL game and his last at Geelong’s Kardinia Park in Round 6, 1988. And, without knowing it at the time, he marked the occasion with a heart-stopping three-point win.

It had been a tough start for the team from the Harbour City. Owners Powerplay had off-loaded players against the express wishes of the veteran coach, most notably pin-up boy Warwick Capper to Brisbane, John Ironmonger to Fitzroy and Paul Hawke to Collingwood. That after skipper Mark Browning had retired.

The Swans had started 1-4 and desperately needed a win over the Cats, who sat sixth on the ladder, one win outside the top five. When the Swans led by 22 points at three-quarter time all looked rosy.

But the Cats came hard. And when Michael Turner goaled after pulling down a strong mark in the square they cut the lead to five points. Just 49 seconds to play. A Paul Couch floater registered another point for Geelong and with 22 seconds it was four points.

Geelong fullback Tim Darcy, pushing up to join 36 players inside the Cats forward 50m zone, marked the kick-in and chipped quickly to an unmarked Robert Scott in the pocket. Time expired before his kick. In his 20^th game at 19 Scott had been a star. Already with 24 possessions and two goals, he had the game on his boot.

He moved in. “Distance is not a problem,” said Channel Seven’s Sandy Roberts. “The kick is on its way … it’s a beauty … no, it’s hit the post. The Swans have won.”

It was 17.12 (114) to 16.15 (111). The Swans hero, not realising it when he kicked his team’s 17^th goal and the clincher three minutes earlier, was a 33-year-old veteran at his fourth club playing just his sixth game back after four years out of the game. And the fourth-last game of a 163-game career that spanned four clubs.

Craig Davis, who had been a development coach and team runner after moving to Sydney, had made a surprise comeback to help ailing player stocks. He wore jumper #60 – just the second player to do so for the club after Steven Hedley played one game in 1983.

He kicked four goals in his Swans debut in Round 1 and followed up with tallies of 1-3-2-3 in the next four weeks. Against Geelong he’d had four kicks for one goal until he bobbed up in just the right place at just the right time.

When Gerard Healy won a contested ball on the wing he found Bernard Toohey by hand. The ex-Cat went long where Geelong defender Steve Hocking looked to be prime position. But the ball spilled through his hands and Davis pounced, snapping accurately on his right foot.

Davis would play only three more games and kick only two more goals – both in Round 14 against Richmond in his last game. But among the 360 he kicked in a glorious career his match-winner for the Swans against the Cats was one to remember in a special Sydney win.

Healy, who went to console young Scott immediately after his final kick before exiting the ground, took three Brownlow Medal votes for 23 possessions and a goal. Geelong’s Mark Bairstow, with 42 possessions, received two votes, and Sydney’s David Murphy one vote for 22 possessions.

1993 – ONE FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS

It wasn’t exactly a Swans highlight, but it was a day for the history books. Brett Scott coached the Swans for the second and last time when they visited Princes Park to take on North Melbourne in Round 6, 1993.

Coming off a 93-point loss to Fitzroy in Scott’s first game after he had answered an SOS to coach the team following Gary Buckenara’s dismissal, the Swans faced a North side that sat on top of the ladder and ran into a most unlikely destroyer.

In just his second game, coming off seven goals on debut the week before, 22-year-old Alice Springs junior Adrian McAdam kicked 10 goals for North. And not just 10 goals – 10 goals and six behinds.

In addition, a 22-year-old John Longmire kicked nine goals in his 96^th game as the Kangaroos won 35.19 (229) to 16.9 (105) to set two records that still stand today – North’s highest score and Sydney’s highest score against.

It was a tough Swans debut for Tony Begovich, making an AFL comeback after playing nine games with West Coast in 1990, and just as tough for Dale Lewis, who kicked five goals, the second biggest haul of his 182-game career, and lost by 20 goals.

McAdam kicked six the following week, nine in Round 6 and six in Round 10. He’d kicked 60 in 12 games before he was held goalless twice in a row, and with 68 goals in 17 games he finished seventh overall in League goal-kicking.

Yet 19 games later he was finished. He kicked 22 goals in 18 games in 1994 and two goals in his only outing in 1995. And despite joining Collingwood in ’96 he was delisted without playing a game.

1996 – LOCKETT KICKS EIGHT

When is a draw like a win? When you’ve had half as many scoring shots as the opposition and trail by 29 points with 10 minutes to play perhaps? That was precisely the predicament that faced the Swans in a Friday blockbuster against Essendon on a muddy SCG in Round 6, 2000.

It was 9.5 (59) to 12.16 (76) after a contentious behind was awarded to the Bombers when a boundary umpire over-ruled an ‘out on the full’ call from the goal umpire on a Mark Mercuri snap.

Tony Lockett had kicked six for the home side, with the Bombers looking like winners, he found a different way to inspire his side. He pushed the 20-year-old Essendon fullback over the fence and into the crowd as the pair ran towards the boundary.

It would be a free kick and probably a report these days, but not 22 years ago. It was a throw-in. Swans first-gamer Stefan Carey won a free-kick and chipped short to Greg Stafford at centre half forward. When the big ruckman spiralled home a 55m torpedo with a heavy ball Bruce McAvaney declared in commentary “there’s a pulse”.

Shannon Grant, in his 16^th game for the Swans, found Lockett for his seventh, and moments later did the same thing again for eight. The big fella had eight of the Swans’ 11 and with six minutes to play the margin was back to 11 points.

Grant sent the Swans into the scoring zone again and picked out Derek Kickett. When the 33-year-old ex-Bomber kicked truly it was five points with four minutes left.

Mark Fraser, later to become an AFL field umpire, had a running shot from 25m straight in front for Essendon but pulled it left. Six points to the Bombers. Then back to five when Kickett missed a snap by millimetres.

The Swans looked to be in the box seat when Brad Seymour found Justin Crawford and he speared a pass to Carey in the pocket. Not a difficult shot, but the umpire to brought the ball all the way to the wing to pay a mark to Stafford.

Sydney went forward again. Peter Filandia, another ex-Bomber, speared a pass to a leading Lockett. It fell just short but Lockett half-volleyed it brilliantly and fired a handpass to Crawford. From 30m on the run he made no mistake. Swans in front with 71 seconds to play.

Essendon won the centre clearance and when James Hird floated in from the side to make inside 50 Sydney hearts sunk. But from 40m he pulled it left. Scores were level, and there they stayed before McAvaney closed proceedings with a simple “it’s like a win to the Swans”. It was.

Hird, with a game-high 30 possessions and one goal (and three behinds), received three Brownlow Medal votes. Lockett, with 8-2 from 12 kicks, got two votes and the impressive Grant the first of 77 career votes.

2018:  A FAMOUS VICTORY

It was one of the great rollercoaster rides as Sydney met Geelong at Kardinia Park in Round 6, 2018. And, as Eddie McGuire said in commentary on the final siren, it was “a famous victory for the Swans”.

Up by 15 points at the first change and down by 12 points at the second change, the Swans trailed by 22 points at three-quarter time. It was 5.10 (40) to 9.8 (62) in a pressure-cooker struggle of the highest order.

But in 32 minutes thereafter the Swans more than doubled their score to win 12.14 (86) to 10.9 (69).

The onslaught started when Robbie Fox, finding himself in a rare stint forward, took a hanger for the first goal of the final term. Or as McGuire said .. “a flying fox”.

Zak Jones cut the margin to nine points before Corey Gregson snapped what would be Geelong’s only major of the final term. And then the visitors went bang, bang, bang with three goals in six minutes through Wil Hayward, Fox (again) in his sixth game and then Ben Ronke with his first goal in his first game.

The Swans led by five points as the clocked ticked down. Both sides could still win until Isaac Heeney centred the ball to the hot spot 25m from goal and watched as Ollie Florent waited under it. He marked it cleanly a split second before he was cleaned up by Zach Tuohy. A 50m penalty put him on the goal line and he put Sydney 10 points up.

If there was any chance for the Cats, Hayward kicked his third to snuff it out before Tom Papley hit the post with the last kick of the game. The Swans had added 7.4 to 1.1 in a barnstorming final term to win 12.14 (86) to 10.9 (69).

Josh Kennedy was the leading possession-winner on the ground with 33 to pick up three Brownlow Medal votes, while Tim Kelly, in his sixth game with Geelong, earned two votes and Callum Sinclair one vote for Sydney for his 18 possessions and 39 hit-outs.

2020 – DID THAT REALLY HAPPEN?

In the years to come Swans fans will look at the match details for the Swans’ Round 6 clash of 2020 against Richmond and suggest there was an error. And not just one. Plenty!

But there wasn’t. They really did play the Tigers at the Gabba in Brisbane in Round 6 on 12 July (which 12 months earlier had been Round 17) in front of an official crowd of 3606. And they really did hold them to one goal from the 10-minute mark of the first quarter and lose.

It was early days in the new Covid world after the competition had been put on hold for 81 days following Round 1. The entire round of matches was played in Queensland and New South Wales, with four games on the Gold Coast, two in Brisbane, two at Sydney Showgrounds and one at the SCG. And given Round 6 was technically a Tigers home game it was among those sent north.

Richmond kicked three goals in 10 minutes and led 3.3 to 1.3 at quarter-time. It was 3.5 to 2.3 at halftime and 4.7 to 2.4 early in the third when the Tigers kicked their last. But try as they did, the Swans couldn’t pull them back.

The 2017-19 premiers won 4.10 (34) to 3.8 (26) to equal the lowest winning score in club history set in 1908. It was certainly a debut that Swans pair Chad Warner and Dylan Stephens will never forget.