It wasn’t the way it was meant to end. A 69-point Sydney Swans loss in front of a wildly parochial opposition crowd that was so fixated they barely noticed. But end it did. At least for the first time.

It was 20 years ago today, on 5 September 1999. The Swans had lost the qualifying final to Essendon at the MCG and, having announced four weeks earlier that he would retire at season’s end, the great Tony Lockett bid farewell to football.

Surrounded by well-wishers in the Swans dressing rooms, with his career of 278 games and 1357 goals officially sent to the record books, he was heard to say “I’m going to a 7-Eleven to get an Eskimo Pie”.

It was typical “Plugger”. The big man quickly moved on to life after football.

It was a sad exit for one of the all-time greats in an era in which retirements and farewells were not done with anything like the same fuss and fanfare they enjoy in the modern era.

Having announced his pending retirement, Lockett had said goodbye to the adoring Swans faithful three weeks earlier, holding the ball aloft as he left the ground after kicking eight goals in a 118-point win over the Adelaide Crows, in what proved to be his last game at the SCG.

In the fortnight following the Swans beat Fremantle in Perth in Round 21 to guarantee a finals appearance, before losing badly to Hawthorn at Waverley in Round 22.

It was a huge moment in itself. The 732^nd and last AFL game ever played at Waverley Park.

An AFL venue since 1970 and where Lockett ranked second in all-time goals behind only Hawthorn’s Jason Dunstall, Waverley was primed for one final onslaught from the St Kilda-turned-Sydney star as Sydney looked to jump to seventh and avoid minor premiers Essendon in week one of the finals.

The champion full forward had twice kicked 10 goals at the ground which hosted the 1991 AFL grand final, and in front of a massive crowd of 72,130 the script writers were preparing for another epic game.

It wasn’t to be. Lockett kicked four goals but the hefty loss meant Sydney finished eighth and were sentenced to a sudden-death clash the following week with the Bombers.

Essendon were still bleeding after being denied a 1996 grand final berth by a famous after-the-siren behind from Lockett in the preliminary final. It was always going to be a big challenge against a young Essendon side which was building nicely, and the following year would win the first 20 games of the season en route to a premiership.

It proved too big – even for the exit of the great man.

Lockett kicked five goals but his teammates could manage only two – both to Peter Filandia – and Sydney went down 7.12 (54) to 18.15 (123).

While it was a moment the Swans faithful had dreaded it was also one they will never forget.

And as much as it may seem like only a few years ago to the most avid and loyal Lockett fans, it was in fact a long, long time ago. So long ago that Brett Kirk was playing his fifth game, Jude Bolton his ninth, and Adam Goodes his 20^th.

Lockett, who had joined the Swans in 1996 after 12 years with St Kilda, had enjoyed a wonderfully consistent run in his 17^th and supposedly last season in the AFL.

In Round 10 against Collingwood at the SCG he had broken the long-standing AFL goal-kicking record of 1299 held since 1937 by Collingwood’s Gordon Coventry.

At 33 he had kicked 82 goals to finish second on the home-and-away goal-kicking ladder, six goals behind West Coast 25-year-old Scott Cummings and five ahead of Essendon 21-year-old Matthew Lloyd.

It was 111 games since he had last been held goalless in his 167^th game, and with Dunstall, his long-time rival, now 12 months into his retirement, the time seemed right for Lockett, too, to hang up the boots. So he did.

It was a surprise to most that two-and-a-half years later, aged 35, Lockett made a short-lived comeback. He shed a lot of weight and turned out in Round 1 against Brisbane at the SCG wearing  jumper #46.

But after one goal and a thigh injury in Round 1 it was Round 10 before he played again.  And that was after two games in the Reserves to prove his fitness.

He kicked one goal in Round 10 against Collingwood at Docklands, was rested in Round 11, and in Round 12, 98 days after his 36^th birthday, he kicked one goal against Geelong at the SCG.

He’d stretched his AFL record goal tally to 1360 from 281 games, but with the Swans out of finals contention and enjoying a week off courtesy of a split round, Lockett decided in consultation with the club that it was best if he retired. Again.

So, officially, his last game was on 15 June 2002. And officially it was 24 June 2002 that he retired for the second and last time. But it was the enduring image of 5 September 1999, 20 years ago today, that Swans fans remember best.