A leaping Leo Barry launched for the heavens with his hands above his ahead and returned with the first Sydney Swans premiership in 72 years.
As the dying seconds of the 2005 Grand Final ticked by, the Swans clinging to a four-point lead, a searching Dean Cox kick sent soaring inside 50 carried the premiership dreams of the West Coast Eagles faithful.
But Barry would deliver for the Swans, tearing 30 metres across the MCG turf and cannoning into a pack, eyes shut “in sheer freight” as he welcomed the Sherrin with both hands.
The star defender tucked the footy under his right arm, he walked back and the siren sounded.
As the Swans prepare to Live the Moment in an elimination final at the SCG on Saturday afternoon, Barry says taking a mark was the only thing on his mind as he sealed the 2005 flag for Sydney.
“Roosy (coach Paul Roos) always told us if you think you’re a chance of marking go for it, so I always tried to do that anyway,” Barry said.
“Attack is sometimes the best defence, so I didn’t really have any other thought than to mark it.
“No one knew when the siren would go and when Cox kicked it in I was just kicking back and admiring my kick. But I was stuck in the pocket in sheer freight of what might happen, I didn’t know who was around or how much longer was left in the game and I was lucky enough to have a clean jump at it and took a nice, crisp mark.”
The ear-splitting chants of almost 92,000 fans flooded the MCG as Barry steadied.
Seconds later, mayhem erupted.
“The crowd was so loud when I was walking back for my kick that we didn’t even hear the siren,” Barry said.
“I was just going back to take my kick and hopefully kick it down the line again, but this time not to Dean Cox, and the siren went. It wasn’t until Tadhg Kennelly jumped on my back that I actually realised the siren had gone and we had obviously won the Premiership.”
Barry played 17 finals matches in a career spanning 237 games between 1995 and 2009.
His iconic 2005 Grand Final mark broke the longest premiership drought in VFL/AFL history, with Sydney’s 72-year dry spell outlasting those of St Kilda (68 years, 1897-1966) and the Western Bulldogs (62 years, 1954-2016).
Sydney jumped ship from South Melbourne in 1982 and made its first post-relocation grand final appearance in 1996, falling to North Melbourne in a 43-point defeat at the MCG.
But Barry said rewriting history in 2005 made for incredible memories.
“Winning a premiership makes your footy career that little bit more fulfilling,” Barry said.
“Being involved in Sydney’s first premiership in 72 years was quite an amazing feat to be a part of. It probably really wasn’t until after we had won it and the celebrations we had that the significance of the achievement of that 22 sunk in. It was an amazing day and I still look back fondly on it today.”
A number of Swans will get their first tastes of finals football in Saturday’s elimination final against the Giants.
Will Hayward, Oliver Florent, Ben Ronke, Tom McCartin and Dan Robinson are all set to play finals football for the first time.
Barry was 20 when he laced up the boots for his first finals appearance, Sydney’s 1997 qualifying final against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG.
McCartin is 18 and the youngest player in the AFL, Hayward 19, Florent and Ronke 20 and Robinson 24.
Barry said they should relish the experience.
“Finals are the reason you want to play footy,” Barry said.
“Playing your first final in particular you definitely do notice the pace of the game and the noise of the crowd, but they’re the main reasons you play through the whole season.
“I’ve got no doubt that those young guys, as they’ve demonstrated all year, are well and truly up to that level. They’ve been excellent contributors this year and they should be pretty excited.”
Barry says the Swans’ Live the Moment finals theme takes him back to 2005.
Four regular-season games were decided by six points or less and things would only become more unnerving as September rolled around.
Sydney fell to a four-point defeat to West Coast in a qualifying final, pipped Geelong by three points in a semi-final and, after ending St Kilda’s season in a 31-point win in a preliminary final, edged the Eagles to clinch the 2005 flag.
“Live the Moment signifies our whole 2005 campaign,” Barry said.
“We had some really close finals where there was really only one kick in the game in three or four of them.
“You’ve got to live the moment week by week and enjoy it as best you can and stay in the moment. That never-say-die attitude of the Swans always keeps us in the game and you’re always a chance.”
