Ryan Clarke has experienced it 11 times, Dylan Stephens and Ben Ronke 10 times, Nick Blakey and James Bell nine times, Sam Wicks and Braeden Campbell seven times, Logan McDonald and Hayden McLean six times and Joel Amartey five times. But Robbie Fox is the club leader at 12 times.

So, what is it?

‘It’ is the sweet satisfaction of being included in the Swans AFL side after time out of it. Either due to injury, suspension or the dreaded selection ‘axe’.

An unavoidable part of life for most AFL players who in their early years cannot command an automatic spot in the top side every week, ‘it’ revolves around the anxious weekly wait on selection to learn of the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’.

In six years and 65 games at the Swans Fox has played Round 1 only once – in 2018. So, it’s been an ongoing challenge to win a place in the side.

Oddly, after his Round 1 selection in 2018 that year it was his toughest. He was in and out of the side four times after his unforgettable first selection as a 23-year-old rookie in 2017, and he has been through ‘it’ twice in each of the last four years.

His Round 8 ‘it’ last year was especially sweet after he’d been delisted at the end of the 2020 season as part of ongoing list management.

Omitted most recently from the side in Round 14 this year, Fox enjoyed his most recent ‘it’ when recalled for the Round 15 clash with St Kilda. He hasn’t missed since.

And now, after this week signing a two-year contract extension – the first multi-year deal of his career – Fox is hoping he can at last lock down a regular spot.

Selection is certainly not a worry ahead of the preliminary final after arguably the best performance of his 65-game career against Melbourne last Friday night.

He played 95% game time for 18 possessions and six intercept possessions. Most significantly he spent much of the game on dangerman Kysaiah Pickett, who had four possessions and one goal.

A magnificent defensive triple play from Fox in the closing moments in the fourth quarter was one of the most replayed clips from the game – and it had Fox Footy commentator Nathan Buckley in raptures.

Down by 19 points deep in the last quarter, Melbourne launched a quick transition when Ben Brown kicked inside 50 to an open Charlie Spargo.

Pressure from Fox meant Spargo’s handball fell short of Jake Melksham and got to him on the bounce. Fox sprinted after Melksham and, just before Melksham got boot to ball, he bumped him off his line to stop a near-certain goal.

The ball then spilled free to Spargo close to the big sticks — but his snap attempt was smothered by Fox in a third gobsmacking defensive effort. It was game over. Melbourne did not kick another goal.

Coach John Longmire was glowing in his praise of the Fox effort. “From where I was sitting, I thought ‘this is going to take a pretty good effort to be able to stop this’, because they were out goal-side and they were everywhere.

“The urgency to get back, it was a great piece of play. They just got back hard and did the job and defended the goal line – you can‘t ask much more than that.”

Buckley said in commentary: “Fox, who’s been in and out of the side in the two or three years and he’s ground his way as a rookie player, you talk about his elite use, but it’s his elite effort and absolute commitment to the contest that has got him a game and made him a guaranteed player in this side.”

Fox was part of an extraordinary Swans pressure effort that saw the team significantly exceed the AFL average pressure rating of 180, the average tackle count (50) and average forward 50 tackles (10). Against the defending premiers the Swans pressure rating was 200 and they laid 82 tackles – 25 in the forward 50. In the final quarter alone, they made 28 tackles.

Such was the Sydney pressure that Melbourne had 168 uncontested possessions and 167 contested possessions – virtually a one-for-one split in a statistic that normally goes at about 70-30 to uncontested possession.

It was unquestionably the best moment of Fox’s AFL career, which had its origins with the Burnie Dockers on the north-west coast of Tasmania.

But in his early days football was secondary. Fox was primarily a 187cm basketballer, representing Tasmania at Under 20 level, and it wasn’t until he moved to Melbourne to study education at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2015 that football became his priority.

Now a qualified school teacher, Fox joined VFL club Coburg and played two years under ex-North Melbourne star Peter German. After establishing himself as one of the VFL’s best rebounding defenders, Fox won the beep test (14.7) and 20m sprint (3.06 seconds) at the State Combine and was taken by the Swans at pick #34 in the 2016 AFL Rookie Draft.

It was a star-studded Rookie Draft, with Geelong’s 2022 All-Australian Tyson Stengle going to Richmond at #6 ahead of Fox’s Swans teammate Peter Ladhams, who went #9 to Port Adelaide. St Kilda’s Rowan Marshall was pick #10, North’s Cam Zurhaar #11, Geelong’s Jack Henry #16, Sydney’s Ben Ronke #17, Geelong’s Zac Guthrie #33 and Brisbane’s Oscar McInerney #37.

For a player who had waited so long to get drafted on 28 November 2016 his next step was amazingly quick. Fox debuted 124 days later on 31 March 2017. It was Round 2. And he’d broken into a side that two games earlier was playing in a grand final.

Fox, 16 days short of his 24^th birthday, was the Swans’ fourth-oldest AFL debutant this century. Only Mike Pyke (25 years 40 days in 2009) and Tommy Walsh (24 years 83 days in 2012) had been older since 2000, while Nic Newman was 24 years 75 days when he shared his debut with Fox and Will Hayward.