Saturday night September 7, 1996. At about 10:15pm, after 5,277 days and 319 games, the Swans finally gave Sydneysiders what they always wanted … a finals win.

It had been a long, tough journey from the days of South Melbourne at Lake Oval, where the club had played from the 1870s until the 1982 relocation to Sydney, but when Daryn Cresswell took probably the best mark of his career, to kick definitely the most important goal of his career, it was done.

The Swans had beaten Hawthorn 13.12 (90) to 12.12 (84) in the 1996 qualifying final in front of a wildly parochial SCG crowd of 37,010.

It was an unbelievable contest and, especially given the historical significance, it is the headline story as the ‘Remember When’ series of the Swans’ 40 years in Sydney rolls into week one of the finals.

It was the AFL’s Centenary Year. Sydney won the minor premiership with 16 wins and a draw from 22 games and under the McIntyre final eight system were drawn to meet 8^th-placed Hawthorn at the SCG.

The Swans had beaten the Hawks twice in the home-and-away season – by 12 points at the SCG in Round 5 and by 23 points at Waverley in Round 20.

First-year coach Rodney Eade made one change to the side which had beaten fourth-placed West Coast by 35 points at the SCG in Round 22, with Wade Chapman, who had played his first game in 10 weeks to close out the home-and-away season, was replaced by Justin Crawford, who had been in and out of the side in the back half of the campaign.

It was the Swans’ first finals appearance since 1987, with Mark Bayes’ four losing finals in 1986-87 the sum of the team’s finals experience in red and white. Imports Paul Roos, Derek Kickett, Kevin Dyson, Craig O’Brien and Stuart Maxfield boasted a combined 22 finals for other clubs.

With Kickett playing his 150^th AFL game, the Swans led by seven points at quarter time and were nine points down at halftime and three points down at three-quarter time.

Jason Mooney out-bodied his opponent to mark in the goal square and kick his third to put the home side back in front early in the final term before captain Paul Kelly landed a long running goal to make the lead nine points.

After Tony Woods pulled one back for the Hawks Maxfield kicked an impossible running shot from the boundary only to see Woods convert a similarly tough opportunity.

Shannon Grant hit a leading O’Brien on the chest for the former Essendon and St Kilda goalsneak to kick his fifth, but the Hawks refused to go away. And when ex-Swan Darren Kappler, in his first season in brown and gold, pounced on a loose ball and ran into an open goal it was Sydney by one.

With 4min07sec on the clock scores were level. Both sides had their chances, and it was down to 1min20sec before Maxfield ignited the winning forward thrust.

Running through the middle of the ground, he found an unattended Roos. The former Fitzroy skipper and Swans coach-in-waiting ran to just outside 50m and kicked long to the square. Cresswell climbed over the back of Hawthorn defender Nick Holland to pull down a screamer. With 50 seconds to play he made no mistake from 15m straight in front. Sydney by six.

From the centre bounce Kelly found Crawford at centre half forward. The Swans went into ‘run down the clock’ mode. Crawford went sideways to Brad Seymour who went to Cresswell, and as the siren sounded the ball was in the hands of Grant as celebrations began on and off the ground.

O’Brien (5) and Mooney (3) were the multiple goal-kickers, while Maxfield and Dale Lewis, with 21 possessions each, topped the stats sheet as the Swans defied a 260-299 overall possession count and an 8-18 free kick count to win.

In 40 years in Sydney the Swans have played 23 times in the first week of finals for an 11-12 record. Eliminated only four times in week one, they’ve had a 7-2 record at home, have gone 4-4 at the opposition’s home ground, and 0-6 at neutral venues.

1998 – An Unlikely Hero

Greg Stafford had kicked 19 goals in 77 games for the Swans. In a side that included two of the club’s great goal-kickers in Tony Lockett and Michael O’Loughlin he wasn’t exactly at the top of the list of likely goal-kicking match-winners in his 78^th game. Especially if it was a 47m kick in the rain.

But as it turned out, with 8min 15sec on the clock of the 1998 qualifying final against St Kilda at the SCG, it all came down to the lanky left-footed ruckman.

Sydney had finished third on the home-and-away ladder with a 14-8 record, a game ahead of sixth-placed St Kilda, after a Round 22 win over Collingwood had settled things for coach Rodney Eade after confidence-sapping losses in Rounds 20-21.

Stafford sat out the final home-and-away game, which had been the 246^th and last game for subsequent Team of the Century choice Mark Bayes, but he returned with veteran Paul Roos and Peter Filandia for the clash with a Saints side which included two future Swans: a 21-year-old Barry Hall and a 24-year-old Peter Everitt.

Sydney led at each change by seven points, 22 points and three points, but with 13 minutes to play in a slog fest found themselves seven points down after Everitt had goaled for the Saints.

St Kilda had kicked 7.5 to 2.7 in the second half and with Robert Harvey in superb touch on his way to what would be back-to-back Brownlow Medals they had all the momentum.

When Troy Luff, playing his 99^th game for Sydney, missed a kick-able snap from 30m it was five points the difference before Matthew Nicks, so influential in the closing stages, sent a neat pass towards O’Loughlin on the 50m arc.

Saints defender David Sierakowski was whistled for a push to give O’Loughlin a long go-ahead shot. Instead, he chipped it short to Stafford, who, according to the commentators, had been left unattended by Hall. It was closer but it wasn’t O’Loughlin, who had already kicked four goals, or Lockett, who had been held to one goal after kicking five the week before.

A long blood rule delay built the tension but undaunted Stafford calmly fired it right through the middle. Sydney led by a point after what turned out to be the last goal of the game.

Nicks had three crucial touches late before Nicky Winmar had a hurried snap from a crowded pocket that could have won the game for St Kilda. He pushed it just wide.

Lockett literally threw his opponent Shane Wakelin over the boundary in a monster tackle as the Swans locked it down on the boundary until the final siren. An impromptu rendition of the club out on the ground in the rain told how much it meant to the players.

Dale Lewis (32), Daryn Cresswell (30) and Daniel McPherson (24) were the only Swans to top 20 possessions, while O’Loughlin (4) and Lewis (2) were the only multiple goal-kickers.

2006 – The Rivalry Continues

The biggest rivalry in the AFL through the early and mid-2000s was between the Swans and the West Coast Eagles. From 2002 to the end of the 2006 home-and-away season they’d met nine times, with the Swans enjoying a 5-4 advantage.

Eight games between the clubs played either in Sydney or Perth had been won by the home side, with Sydney’s four-point win in the 2005 grand final at the MCG the ‘tie breaker’.

West Coast had finished top of the 2006 ladder at 17-5, with Sydney fourth at 14-8 ahead of Collingwood and St Kilda on percentage.

So, under an AFL finals system introduced in 2000 which abandoned the old 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5 fixture of the first week of the finals, it was 1 v 4. So as the Swans headed west to meet the old rivals in the 2006 qualifying final they needed to beat the home team hoodoo.

If there was anything else to take from the form guide it was that the game would be tight. After all, their last four meetings had been decided by a total of 11 points – Eagles by four and Swans by four in the 2005 finals, and West Coast by two and Sydney by one in the 2006 home-and-away season.  

It didn’t disappoint. The home side kicked the first two goals before the Swans got the next five, including three to Mick O’Loughlin, and led by 15 points at halftime.

Adam Schneider made it 22 points but the Eagles kicked five goals in 11 minutes, broken only by Barry Hall’s third. The home side led 9.8 to 9.5 until Hall’s fourth gave the Swans a three-point edge at three-quarter time. Another epic finish beckoned.

West Coast goaled to take back the lead not once and not twice but three times. First it was Ben Cousins before Schneider answered for Sydney. Then a Chris Judd major was answered when Hall kicked his fifth. And finally Steven Armstrong snapped truly for the home side.

It was West Coast by four points and then five. Could the Swans come again? Yes they could, and brilliantly so after Luke Ablett ignited a bold possession chain that went the length of the ground.

Ablett went by hand to Amon Buchanan, who beat one tackle and eluded another before finding Tadgh Kennelly by hand. The Irishman chipped short and wide to Nick Davis, who went wider still to Adam Goodes. The veteran went back with a long handball that found Nic Fosdike on the bounce before Fosdike fed a running Nick Malceski.

Still 20m inside the centre square, Malceski kicked long to a one-on-one contest 25m from goal where West Coast’s Drew Banfield was desperately trying to keep tabs on Sydney’s Ryan O’Keefe. Banfield spoiled backwards, looking for the goal line, but charging forward O’Loughlin beat the Eagles’ Brett Jones to the ball, gathered in the goalsquare and thumped it through for his fourth.

An inspired O’Loughlin ran to the fence and exchanged pleasantries at close range with a host of Eagles fans in a famous shot which has been shown countless times on television.

There were still five minutes to play, but neither side scored again. Sydney had beaten the hoodoo. It was 13.7 (85) to 12.12 (84) in another epic in which Hall and O’Loughlin took 10 marks inside 50 between them and kicked nine goals, while Kennelly (22 possessions), Goodes (20) and Brett Kirk (20) topped the possession count.

Five games in a row between the sides had been decided by a combined 12 points, with another nail-biter to come when they met again three weeks later at the MCG in the grand final. Sadly, West Coast prevailed by a point.

2008: A Milestone Win for Hall

Barry Hall became just the fourth Swans import to play 150 games in red and white in the 2008 elimination final against North Melbourne at the Olympic Stadium, and after an anxious first half celebrated in style.

The Swans had finished 6^th on the home-and-away ladder, climbing two spots with a 61-point Round 22 win over Brisbane, and hosted 7^th-placed North Melbourne, who had lost their last two games.

Strengthened by the inclusion of Adam Goodes and Ryan O’Keefe, they found themselves down 3.6 to 6.4 late in the second quarter after ex-Swan Shannon Grant had kicked two quick goals in his 301^st game.

Jarred Moore pulled one goal back to make the deficit 10 points at halftime, and in the second half it was a different Swans side. They unleashed a brutal 8.1 to 3.1 third term to grab the advantage.

Up 14 points at the final change, the Swans kicked the first five goals of the fourth quarter through Hall, Kieren Jack, Moore, Ted Richards and Goodes to blow the lead out to 42 points, and eventually win 17.8 (110) to 11.9 (75).

Hall, Goodes and Jack kicked three apiece, Moore and O’Keefe two, as Amon Buchanan, Jarrad McVeigh and Brett Kirk led the possession count.

2012: A Big Win Interstate  

The Swans sat on top of the 2012 AFL ladder from Round 15 to Round 21, but three losses in their last four home-and-away games saw them finish third a game behind Hawthorn and Adelaide. So, instead of a home final to begin their September campaign they were off to Adelaide.

Only once had the club played a final in the City of Churches – when they beat Port Adelaide by 12 points in a 2003 qualifying final at Football Park – but when they returned nine years later only Jude Bolton, Adam Goodes and Lewis Roberts-Thomson were still in the side.

Coach John Longmire, in his second season in charge, had lost Heath Grundy to suspension but welcomed the return of regulars Nick Smith and Sam Reid. He omitted Shane Biggs and Tommy Walsh and made an inclusion that would have significant ramifications three weeks later.

Mitch Morton, a former West Coast and Richmond player, was in his first season in Sydney. He’d played exclusively in the NEAFL until Rounds 21-22, and after nine possessions and one goal in his two outings had been dropped for Round 23. Longmire took a punt. He went with the run of the 25-year-old.

A hostile sell-out crowd of 44,849 greeted the Swans at Football Park, but by the time they led 6.2 to 1.6 20 minutes into the second term the sting had gone out of them.

Morton kicked his first goal in the second  quarter, and when he added another late in the third to put the visitors 24 points up he’d done his job. And with Ben McGlynn’s hamstring injury the only downer to come out of the 11.5 (71) to 5.12 (42) win Morton had locked up a spot.

Goodes kicked three, Morton and Lewis Jetta two, and Josh Kennedy and O’Keefe dominated in the midfield with a combined 72 possessions (39 contested), 15 tackles and 19 clearances. And a Kennedy goal to close it out. One of the very good interstate finals wins.

2017 – A Good Omen

The qualifying final win in Adelaide in 2012 had been Jude Bolton’s 299^th game and had come after the Swans had marked Adam Goodes’ 299^th game with an elimination final win over St Kilda in 2011.

So when the Swans found themselves playing in the 2017 elimination final in Jarrad McVeigh’s 299^th game they had a good omen on board. And it didn’t disappoint.

Having won their last four home-and-away games Sydney finished 6^th on the ladder at 14-8, behind Port Adelaide on percentage but two wins clear of Essendon and West Coast. They would open their finals campaign at the SCG against the Bombers, who were 12 months on from the 2016 supplements scandal.

Coach John Longmire lost Kurt Tippett and Lewis Melican to injury, but welcomed the return from injury of Dan Hannebery, Tom Papley and Sam Naismith. He had a tough selection decision to make.

Will Hayward, effectively part of the return on the Tom Mitchell trade to Hawthorn, had played 17 games in his first season and in the 81-point Round 23 win over Carlton had kicked three goals to win the last nomination for the Rising Star Award. But he’d had only three kicks, and it was the 18-year-old forward, the youngest member of the side, who missed out.

Hayward, who has never been dropped since, watched as the Swans piled on 10.3 to 2.1 in the second quarter on their way to a 19.7 (121) to 8.8 (56) romp against the Bombers.

Lance Franklin kicked four goals – all the second term when the game was won – while Dean Towers and Callum Sinclair kicked three apiece and Josh Kennedy two goals to go with a team-high 29 possessions. McVeigh had 21 possessions as he prepared for his 300^th game the following week.