Luke Parker will play his fifth AFL premiership decider on Saturday to join three Swans ‘mega greats’ at the top of the club’s grand final list – and he’ll be hoping to join four others atop the premiership honour roll.
In 127 years only the Team of the Century trio of Vic Belcher, Herbie Matthews and Laurie Nash have played five times in ‘the big one’ for the Swans. And only Adam Goodes, Jude Bolton, Ryan O’Keefe and Lewis Roberts-Thomson have won two premierships.
Parker will dream of both as Sydney prepare to meet Brisbane in the 2024 Toyota AFL Grand Final at the MCG on Saturday – the first all-interstate grand final since 2006 and the 23rd since the inception of the national competition in 1987 with at least one non-Victorian side.
The Swans, going into their eighth grand final in that time, lead the grand final appearances by non-Victorian sides from West Coast (7), Brisbane (6), Adelaide (3), Port Adelaide (2), Fremantle (1) and GWS (1).
Parker, having played his 32nd game as a 19-year-old starting substitute in the 2012 grand final win over Hawthorn, has been a member of losing grand final sides in 2014, 2016 and 2022 against Hawthorn, Western Bulldogs and Geelong.
And having played in Round 1 every year from 2012-23 the now 31-year-old will reach the peak of the Swans September superstars at the end of a season which, in an astonishing personal turnaround, didn’t start for him until Round 18.
A broken arm, a stint in the VFL and a lengthy VFL suspension combined in the frustration of frustrations but in nine games since his return in Round 18, including three as the sub, the former captain had 127 possessions and kicked 11 goals to cement his place in the side.
Parker’s third final of the season will take his career finals tally to 26 and see him join Bolton in third spot on the Swans all-time finals list behind only Goodes and McVeigh (28).
Parker will play his fifth grand final as potentially Joel Amartey, Lewis Melican, Logan McDonald and Matt Roberts play their first. And Brodie Grundy and James Jordan play their first grand final for Sydney after Grundy played in Collingwood’s 2018 grand final loss and Jordan played in Melbourne’s 2021 win – albeit spending the entire game on the bench as the unused sub.
Dane Rampe and Jake Lloyd will play their fourth grand final, and Isaac Heeney and Tom Papley their third.
Captain Callum Mills, whose fitness will be a major grand final week talking point after he missed the preliminary final win over Port Adelaide with a hamstring, is also in line for his third grand final.
McDonald, too, has unwittingly found himself in the injury spotlight after he missed the club’s first light training session on Sunday with an ankle problem suffered in last Friday night’s preliminary final win over Port Adelaide.
Regardless of the outcome on Saturday there will be at least 21 and possibly 22 first-time premiership players, with only Parker and Jordan in the Sydney side and Josh Dunkley in the Brisbane side having tasted the ultimate AFL success.
Rampe, who skippered the Swans in the preliminary final in Mills’ absence, will play his 23rd final on Saturday to claim outright fifth on the Swans finals list behind Goodes, McVeigh, Bolton and Parker, having this season gone past Nick Smith (20), Ted Richards (21), Josh Kennedy (22), Kieren Jack (22) and Dan Hannebery (22).
And Papley, having kicked five goals in the two finals this year to take his career finals goals tally to 26, finds himself having gone past Ryan O’Keefe (25) into seventh position on the Swans list, and within striking distance of Laurie Nash (27) and Lance Franklin (28). This would leave him behind only Barry Hall (39), Bob Pratt (37), Michael O’Loughlin (37) and Adam Goodes (33).
Rampe will play in Saturday’s grand final aged 34 years 125 days to become the fourth-oldest grand final player in Swans history.
Team of the Century coach Jack Bissett, who squeezed four grand finals into his 90 games with South Melbourne from 1932-36 and was captain-coach from 1933-36, played his third grand final at 35 years 34 days in 1935, and his fourth at 36 years 32 days in 1936.
Lance Franklin was 35 years 237 days old when he played his third Swans grand final and his sixth overall in 2022, and Laurie Nash, who played with Bissett in the 1933-34-35-36 grand finals, was 35 years 150 days in his fifth when he made a comeback in 1945 after having stepped away from the game in 1937.
Others to play for the Swans in a grand final beyond the age of 32 have been 34-year-olds Dinny Kelleher (1936) and Goodes (2014), 33-year-olds Paul Roos and Derek Kickett (1996), and 32-year-olds Bill Fraser (1899), Harry Lampe (1907), Bert Franks (1912), Jason Ball (2005), Jude Bolton (2012) and Rhyce Shaw (2014).
Matt Roberts will be the youngest member of the Swans grand final side on Saturday at 21 years 59 days but will be more than three years older than the all-time youngest.
That distinction is held by Ron Clegg, who was 17 years 316 days old in his 15th game in the 1945 Bloodbath Grand Final.
Jack Scobie was 18 years 10 days when he played his 19th game in the 1909 grand final, while nine other Swans have played in a grand final at 19.
Charlie James was the first of these in 1899, when he played just his fifth game in a one -point grand final loss to Fitzroy, which, after the Fitzroy/Brisbane merger to form the Brisbane Lions in 1997, was a forerunner of sorts to this year’s decider.
Then came Vic Belcher (1907), Tom Grimshaw (1909), Herbie Matthews (1933), Owen Evans (1936), Shannon Grant and Michael O’Loughlin (1996), Parker (2012) and Mills (2016).
Roberts, who will play his 30th game on Saturday if selected, will also be the least experienced member of the 2024 grand final side.
The least experienced grand final player in club history was New Zealand-born two-gamer Bob Bryce, who played the third of three sectional games and the grand final loss to Fitzroy in 1899. He played a total of five games with South in 1899-1900 and 13 games with Collingwood in 1901-02, including their 1901 grand final loss to Essendon.
Second on this list is Charlie James in his fifth game in 1899, followed by Dinny Kelleher (7 games in 1933), Harry Wilson (8 games in 1907), Wilbur Harris (8 games in 1934), Maurie Johnson and Charlie Pettiona (8 games in 1936), Alex Kerr (9 games in 1907), Tom Bollard (9 games in 1914), Jack Danckert (9 games in 1945), Artie Henley (10 games in 1899), Horrie Drane (10 games in 1907) and Jock McKenzie (10 games in 1933).
Lewis Mellican’s 84-game wait for his first grand final will the longest since Blakey played in the 2022 grand final in his 78th game, while the longest wait in club history is Mark Bayes’ 221 games before he played in the 1996 grand final. Jared Crouch was 182 games, Leo Barry 171, Goodes 161 and Ben Mathews 159.
Florent will play his 119th consecutive game in the grand final to move past Josh Kennedy (118) and into sixth position on the all-time club list behind only Adam Goodes (204), Brett Kirk (200), Jared Crouch (194), Jude Bolton (145) and Ryan O’Keefe (120).
John Longmire will coach his fifth grand final to join modern day luminaries Leigh Matthews, Alastair Clarkson and Malcolm Blight on a list headed by the legendary Jock McHale, who coached Collingwood to 16 grand finals in his 38-year stint as coach from 1912-49.
Dick Reynolds (12), Frank Hughes (11), Tom Hafey (10), Allan Jeans (9), Ron Barassi (9), Mick Malthouse (8), Norm Smith (8), Kevin Sheedy (7), David Parkin (6), Phonse Kyne (6) and John Worrall (6) are also ahead of him.
