In a series new to 2019, we revisit moments in history involving the Sydney Swans’ round-by-round opposition.

History, nostalgia and memories form a special part of what makes Australian rules football great, and we hope the Footy Flashbacks series reignites some of your fondest Swans moments.

In the latest edition, we wind back time to the day young ruckman James Meiklejohn made his AFL debut in a 2003 Swans win for the ages.

James Meiklejohn made just six senior appearances during his two years as a rookie-listed ruckman with the Sydney Swans, but he made his debut in what would prove to be a game of great significance for the future of the club.

Melbourne led by 20 points at three-quarter time in the Swans' 2003 Anzac Day game against the Demons, and recently appointed coach Paul Roos was faced with the possibility of a fourth consecutive defeat.

Sydney had opened its season with a win but would lose its next three games to tumble out of the top eight, and when Roos strode toward his team during the final change of the Round 5 encounter, the game looked to be all but buried.

The Sydney Swans charge through the banner.

The third term appeared to have sucked the life out of the Swans, with Melbourne scoring five goals to the home side’s one to establish its commanding lead.

Perhaps just as crushing as the Swans’ arrears was their mounting injury toll.

Defensive pillars Craig Bolton and Andrew Schauble had both suffered injuries before three-quarter time, while captain Stuart Maxfield and ruckman Jason Ball were battling on in defiance of their own injury troubles, leaving debutant Meiklejohn as the only fit player on the bench.

Bolton had left the field of play on a stretcher after his head had collided with Maxfield’s hip in a collision nothing short of sickening.

In Roos’ second autobiography, Here It Is: Coaching, Leadership and Life, the then-15-game coach labelled the final-break situation “dire”, admitting “my fledgling coaching career was flashing before my eyes”.

But he kept his cool as his men gathered around, the ball thundered into the turf to get the final term underway, Adam Goodes leapt for the heavens to win the tap, and Jared Crouch thumped the footy long.

And just over 30 minutes later – after the Swans had dominated in a 10-goal-to-three final quarter – the 24,286-strong crowd was raucous in applause for a 24-point win.

Adam Goodes searches for a target.

“It had clicked,” Roos’ autobiography reads.

“They had worked hard, above and beyond their normal limits.

“The task wasn’t about to get any easier, facing top teams Collingwood and then Brisbane, but the win had given the players much-needed validation. They had evidence that our game plan and our emphasis on 22 players contributing every week was the right way forward. It was the catalyst to say, ‘This might just work’." 

Meiklejohn laced up the boots for just five games in 2003, and he’d add only one more in 2004, but the importance of that near-faultless quarter to Sydney’s ensuing success continues to resonate with the day’s debutant.

“It was one of those games that really showed the depth of character the team had. That was part of the new mantra we had at the Bloods, and that game set up the club for a really successful period from that point on,” Meiklejohn told Swans Media.

“Everyone really dug deep, everyone committed to the values we had set in the pre-season and everything clicked. It was a very important game for us in the context of where we went going forward.

“There was a lot of work put in during the pre-season about self-belief and believing in your teammates – and in the last quarter against Melbourne we needed to draw from that because it was all on the line. We had struggled over the first four rounds of the season to find our feet, but it all clicked in that last quarter. We were on the ropes, but we bounced back and ran away with the game pretty convincingly. 

“We were 1-3 so we had a really important team meeting on the Monday where every player was asked to select their team from 1-22. That all went back to the coaching group and they made a decision from that. And then playing on a Friday night on Anzac Day was absolutely amazing, and especially to fight back like we did in the last quarter.”

Roos had laid out a kamikaze plan at three-quarter time.

“Look, guys, we’re not going anywhere at the moment. Let’s have a go. If we’re going to lose, let’s get belted, go down swinging,” Roos’ autobiography reads.

“Just play the way we want to play, have faith and trust in what we’re trying to do.”

Paul Roos addresses his charges.

O’Loughlin was on fire in the fourth stanza of the game, setting up the first goal and booting two of his own in a performance that earned Meiklejohn’s praise. 

O’Loughlin laid a bone-rattling chase-down tackle on Melbourne’s Travis Johnstone in the opening exchanges of the quarter, Brett Kirk swooped on the footy, the umpire called advantage and a pinpoint Kirk kick found Nick Davis, who nailed the ensuing set shot from the left-forward pocket.

But O’Loughlin wouldn’t stop there, slamming home the Sherrin from outside 50 in immediate response to a Melbourne major, before Ball reduced the deficit again.

Towering Demon Darren Jolly, who’d become a Swan just two years later, then threaded a goal himself, Melbourne locking one hand on the inaugural Ron Barassi Cup.

But the Swans would then assert their authority over their treasured SCG turf.

The prodigiously talented Adam Schneider – who would claim the AFL’s Round 5 Rising Star nomination after the stunning win over the Demons – ignited the surge with a goal on the run from outside 50.

And O’Loughlin continued to inspire, leaving Melbourne’s Luke Williams in his wake to take a high-leaping chest mark and put Sydney ahead by a point midway through the quarter.

The Swans had clawed their way back from the 20-point final-change deficit to lead for the first time since early in the third term.

But the game was still in the balance, and the Swans remained on a mission.

Ball threaded a goal from the left-hand boundary within a minute of O’Loughlin’s go-ahead kick, and a courageous Paul Williams mark would then pave the way for another six-pointer.

Melbourne’s Scott Thompson trimmed the deficit to just seven points and the Demons would land a follow-up blow, a pulverising Chris Heffernan tackle driving Nic Fosdike toward the core of the earth. 

But the scorers would chalk up three further goals and every one of them belonged to the Swans.

All 24,286 sets of eyes narrowed in on a stoppage in Sydney’s left-forward pocket, a Davis handball found Maxfield and the left-footer snapped and goaled, commentator Robert Walls dubbing the goal “the sweetest kick of Stuart Maxfield’s career”.

The Swans continued to blaze ahead as a free-running Schneider kicked in-field from the right wing to find a wide-open Jude Bolton, who would hand his side an 18-point buffer as Roos slapped his water bottle on the desk in triumph.

The footy gods were clearly looking over the SCG as Schneider, who had unselfishly off-loaded to Bolton instead of shooting for goal from outside 50, then slotted the final major of the game just moments later, die-hard fan Kenny Williams now warming up his vocal chords for a rousing rendition of the club song.

As Meiklejohn joined his teammates in the circle, “Kenny was dancing around in the middle like he does”.

James Meiklejohn played six AFL games for the Sydney Swans across 2003 and 2004.

Meiklejohn, who had signed with Sydney with pick 71 via the 2003 Rookie Draft, said he had idolised Goodes and O’Loughlin as a kid and was still in awe as a teammate.

As Meiklejohn soaked up the elation of the unforgettable win on debut, his admiration for the star duo was sky-high – and it’s easy to see why. 

Goodes carried almost the entirety of the ruck duties in the final quarter, rounded out the game with 18 possessions and snared a goal on his way to three Brownlow Medal votes.

And O’Loughlin finished as one of three Swans with three goals beside their names, joining Davis and Schneider at the top of Sydney’s goal-kicking column. 

“I used to pinch myself when I’d run out with Mick and ‘Goodesy’,” Meiklejohn said.

“I had idolised them growing up and even when I was there training with them every day I was still idolising them, so it was always a surreal experience to be able to run out with them on game day." 

Meiklejohn, who didn’t enter the game until late in the second quarter, watched most of his debut match from the bench – and he said he particularly admired O’Loughlin.

“Mick’s energy was unbelievable,” Meiklejohn said.

“He just had this way of getting the boys up and about, whether it was through a really special goal or a massive effort. His energy was one of the main drivers behind us getting up in the end.”

Michael O'Loughlin (left) celebrates one of his three goals with his teammates.

Roos took charge of the Swans as interim coach following the departure of Rodney Eade after Round 12, 2002.

He was soon appointed as Eade’s long-term successor on an initial three-year deal, and he’d coach the Swans until the end of 2010 for a total of 202 games.

Captain Paul Kelly retired at the completion of the 2002 season, opening the door for Maxfield to become the Swans’ fifth post-relocation skipper, and on a pre-season camp in Coffs Harbour the Bloods culture was established.

At the core of Sydney’s cultural overhaul was the need for every player to perform his role with optimal intensity for the betterment of the team – and Meiklejohn said it shone through as the Swans stormed home to beat the Demons.

“It was never about kicks and handballs with ‘Roosy’; it was always about the one-percenters: the tackles, the chases, the smothers and all of that sort of stuff. Being down in the dumps at three-quarter time, he really zeroed in on that approach,” Meiklejohn said.

“It revolved around no one needing talent to perform the one-percenters; it was all about the intensity and effort you bring. So the main thing he honed in on at the last break was that if the intensity and effort lifted, the wheels would turn and the game would come our way.

“And that’s exactly what made everything click in the fourth quarter. Every time they’d get the footy we’d have two or three guys right there to pressurise – and that’s what turned the game.”

Walls continued to set the scene with another perfect summation in the shadows of the final siren.

“They looked down and out, particularly in that third quarter,” Walls said.

“They were just about gone.”

Ball, who gathered 22 disposals and two goals in a crucial performance, told the Sydney Morning Herald post-match the win would serve as a blueprint down the track. 

“To come from behind like that will give us a lot of confidence in the weeks ahead,” Ball said.

“We knew we could play like that; we just had to do it. It’s an important win to prove to ourselves the type of football we can play when we put in. It’s an important win in terms of where this young side is and where we want to get to."

The SCG looking immaculate on the night of the Sydney Swans' 2003 Anzac Day clash.

The Swans’ duel with the Demons in Round 5, 2003 marked the first of five consecutive Ron Barassi Cup games, a tribute to Ron Barassi Senior, who was killed in Tobruk in World War II.

Ron Junior, who played 254 games for Melbourne and Carlton in the years spanning 1953-1969, and was a legendary coach before leading the Swans between 1993 and 1995, was at the SCG to present the Barassi Cup.

Meiklejohn’s parents were in the stands themselves, with Rob and Margaret watching on with pride from the Chairman’s Club as their son lived out his childhood dream. 

One quirk surrounding the Canberran’s debut was he squared off with childhood hero Jeff White, upon whom Meiklejohn had modelled his game. 

The 18-year-old, 197-centimetre, 93-kilogram giant didn’t touch the footy during his first injection into the game, but his chance would arrive in the third term.

“I was down in the back pocket and before the game ‘Roosy’ had said to me, ‘Look, when you get the ball for the first time just kick it as far as you can’,” Meiklejohn said.

“So I did that from the back pocket and it got up to around the centre of the wing.”

Although Meiklejohn recorded just two disposals and two hit-outs on debut, Roos lauded his game as “terrific”.

The AFL/NSW Rams product had contributed to the game which had sewn the seed for Sydney’s 2005 premiership victory over the West Coast Eagles.

And although Meiklejohn was no longer a Swan as the red and white broke the 72-year premiership drought, he was in full voice as his former teammates held the cup aloft.

Meiklejohn, who at the time was playing for Port Adelaide in the SANFL, watched the game with his new teammates before tackling one last training session ahead of a preliminary final against Woodville-West Torrens the following day.

In 2019, the 34-year-old calls Melbourne home and is working as a construction manager for John Lyng Commercial Building.

It was many moons ago the young Swan took to the SCG for his first game in red and white, but he’ll forever savour the day – and not only because he debuted.

For the final quarter of Sydney’s clash with Melbourne in Round 5, 2003 will forever be remembered as the day the Swans believed.