In 423 weeks from 8 May 1998 to 24 June 2006 no less than 632 players made their AFL debut. There were 37 different AFL coaches, including four who coached two clubs, six different premiers, seven different wooden-spooners and all 16 clubs played finals.

There were two Prime Ministers of Australia, three Governors General and 15 different State Premiers. The Australian population increased by about 14.4% to 20.7million, a litre of petrol jumped from 70 cents to $1.22 and a loaf of bread from $1.35 to $2.40.

During this time the world sporting spotlight zoomed in on Sydney for the 2000 Olympic Games, where athlete Cathy Freeman and swimmers Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett and Susie O’Neill led an Australian haul of 16 gold medals, before the nation’s athletes went one better at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, winning 17 gold in a performance led by Thorpe, fellow swimmer Jodie Henry, cyclists Anna Meares and Ryan Bayley, rowers Drew Ginn and James Tomkins, and the men’s hockey team.

It was an era in which Australia had four different Test cricket captains – Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting – and Lleyton Hewitt was twice a Grand Slam tennis champion, winning the 2001 US Open and the 2002 Wimbledon title. Geoff Ogilvy won the 2006 USA PGA golf title and Mark Webber was flying the Australian flag on the Formula 1 motor racing circuit.

Through it all there was one constant. Jared Crouch.

Crouch played an astonishing 194 AFL games in a row from debut to write a chapter in AFL history that will almost certainly never be replicated.

A diminutive back pocket drafted from SANFL club Norwood by the Sydney Swans with pick #8 in the 1995 AFL Draft, Crouch would share in the drought-breaking 2005 premiership and go on to play 223 AFL games.

Only eight players from the Class of ’95 would play more games: pick #47 and AFL games record-holder Brent Harvey (432), #48 Darren Milburn (292), #19 and ex-Sydney premiership captain Barry Hall (289), father/son picks Ben Cousins (270) and Joel Bowden (265), #25 Daniel Chick (252), #10 Simon Prestigiacomo (233) and #56 and short-term Swans signing Daniel Bradshaw (231).

But none would get anywhere near Crouch’s 194 consecutive games from debut, which was included on the Sydney Swans Heritage List at the Hall of Fame function on Thursday night.

Next best among what is now 12,944 AFL players since 1897 is the 130 games in a row from debut of North Melbourne’s Sam Gibson (2012-17). And in 127 years only six others have topped 100 games in a row from debut: Melbourne’s Dick Taylor played 127 from 1922-29, Fremantle’s David Mundy played 124 from 2005-10, Western Bulldogs’ Stephen Wallis played 113 from 1983-88, Brisbane’s Jack Redden played 112 (2009-14), Melbourne’s Shane Woewodin played 107 (1997-2001) and Collingwood’s Harry Collier played an even 100 (1926-31).

Remarkably, only five players all-time have topped the Crouch streak at any stage in their career. This is a list headed by Melbourne’s Jim Stynes (244) and Adem Yze (226), Sydney’s Adam Goodes (204), Richmond’s Jack Titus (202) and Sydney’s Brett Kirk (200).

Only Crouch can tell you how often he played with an injury, and possibly shouldn’t have played at all, but for 194 games in a row he didn’t tell anyone. Always a team-first man, he just did the job. 

It all began in Round 7, 1998 when Sydney coach Rodney Eade, coming off a 19-point SCG loss to Melbourne and on a five-day break with travel, made six changes for a Friday night clash with Collingwood at the MCG.

The 34-year-old bones of Paul Roos were not up to the short turnaround, while Brent Green, Leo Barry, Mark Orchard, Troy Cook and Simon Arnott were also missing when Crouch ran out for his first game alongside a 32-year-old Tony Lockett, returning from a one-week lay-off, with fellow inclusions Craig O’Brien, Brad Seymour, Paul Licuria and Mark Kinnear.

Making their AFL debut on the same weekend were Fremantle’s Brendan Feddema, Carlton’s Trent Hoppner and Richmond’s Andrew Kellaway. While Kellaway went on to play 172 games in a fine career, Feddema played three games and Hoppner just one.

The Swans, equal top of the AFL ladder with the Bulldogs and Melbourne despite their loss to the Demons, trailed by 12 points to the fifth-placed Magpies at quarter-time before big ‘Plugger’ slipped into gear. The visitors added 6.1 to 1.3 in the second term to lead by 16 points at halftime and ran away with it 18.7 (115) to 12.7 (79).

Lockett had 11 kicks and kicked 10-1 to pick up three Brownlow Medal votes, while a 21-year-old Michael O’Loughlin kicked three goals, Stuart Maxfield had a team-high 23 possessions for two votes, and John Stevens had 17 possessions for one vote. Crouch had 12 possessions and two tackles.

Inheriting the #28 jumper not worn at AFL level since Daryn Cresswell in 1994 while Crouch earned his stripes, the then 20-year-old joined the Swans all-time playing list as player #1286.

Remarkably, he would wear the same #28 jumper as the next 49 Sydney players joined the ranks.

It was a list which included some famous names wearing the red and white Harbour City jumper for the first time. Three spots behind Crouch on the all-time list came #1289 Adam Goodes, followed by Nic Fosdike (1294), Jude Bolton (1297) and Brett Kirk (1299).

Following the turn of the century there was Jason Ball (1301), Ryan O’Keefe (1304), Paul Williams (1307), Tadhg Kennelly (1308), Barry Hall (1310), Amon Buchanan (1315), Luke Ablett (1316), Craig Bolton (1318), Nick Davis (1319), Adam Schneider (1320), Lewis Roberts-Thomson (1323), Paul Bevan (1324), Jarrad McVeigh (1325), Darren Jolly (1328), Sean Dempster (1329), Nick Malceski (1333) and Ted Richards (1335) in Round 1, 2006.

That’s 21 names who played alongside Crouch in their first Sydney game. Eighteen were premiership teammates in 2005, and McVeigh, Malceski and Richards played alongside Crouch in the 2006 Grand Final. Only Michael O’Loughlin (#1262), Leo Barry (#1266) and Ben Mathews (#1281) of the ’05 flag team had joined the famous honour roll before Crouch.

During the streak from 1999-2005 he finished top 10 in the Bob Skilton Medal seven years in a row – 6^th-7^th-7^th-4^th-10^th-7^th-10^th. And before the streak was over Crouch had played in the last Swans game for no less than 55 teammates.

To say 194 games in a row quickly is to sell short a phenomenal achievement. More definitively, Crouch played 18 games in a row from debut to finish out his 1998 debut season, played every game in the next seven years and then the first 12 games of 2006.

He played often with bumps and bruises that are part of everyday life for AFL footballers, but not until the 2004 International Rules series in Ireland under coach Garry Lyon and captain James Hird, his second after he’d played in the same series in Australia in 2003, did he suffer a serious injury. He broke his shoulder but got himself up for Round 1 five months later.

His run continued until Round 13, 2006 when he was a late withdrawal from the SCG game against Fremantle. The lockeroom would have been an eerie place, especially for Dempster, who wore #26, and Roberts-Thomson, who wore #30. The little fella between them was missing.

His 194-game streak took in 12 grounds across the five mainlands states plus the ACT. He played 105 in Sydney, split between 89 at the SCG and 16 at the Olympic Stadium.  And he travelled interstate 89 times, playing 57 times in Victoria (25 at the MCG, 19 at Marvel Stadium, four at Geelong, six at the old Princes Park at Carlton and three at Waverley), 11 in WA (10 at Subiaco, one at the WACA), 10 at Football Park in Adelaide, seven at the Gabba in Brisbane and four in Canberra. He enjoyed 106 wins, one draw and 87 losses. 

Not surprisingly, Crouch’s remarkable run of durability eventually caught up with him. While adding 29 games in three and a half years after his first injury-enforced rest, he missed 53 games.

But his last game at the SCG in Round 22, 2009 aged 31 was a moment to remember despite an eight-point loss to Brisbane. Also hanging up the boots were O’Loughlin, Barry and Ablett, with whom Crouch had played his entire career.