The Sydney Swans pulled off one of the all-time great recruiting coups in 1995 when they snared Tony ‘Plugger’ Lockett from St Kilda.

After 183 games over 11 years for the Saints the goal-kicking megastar was lured north in what was a double win for the club on and off the field.

He was a match-winning focal point up forward, and a huge crowd-pulling figure critical to the club’s visibility in the tough Harbour City market.

Coming off a 1994 wooden-spoon in which they won only four games, the Swans also added Fitzroy champion Paul Roos to their playing list for what would be coach Ron Barassi’s final year at the helm.

This was a relationship that would also have enormous flow-on benefits in 2005, when Roos coached the club to its first premiership in 74 years.

But ’95 was all about Lockett, and the beginning of a golden era for the man who would go on to become the game’s greatest goal-kicker.

Swans CEO Ron Joseph headed the ‘Get Plugger’ mission after Collingwood and Richmond had also shown interest.

Joseph virtually lived on Lockett’s doorstep in Cranbourne, east of Melbourne.

“Plugger’s preference always was to stay in Melbourne but we chased him at 100 miles an hour. It was relentless. I even went to his home on one rushed trip in a pair of slippers,” said Joseph.

After the 1987 Brownlow Medallist had finally committed to Sydney there was still the challenge of completing a suitable trade for the then 28-year-old. And that wasn’t easy, either.

In the end the Swans swapped selection No. 5 in the 1994 National Draft and Robert Neill, a Canberra product who had played 21 games for the club in 1992-94.

The Saints used selection five to snare Joel Smith, who played 58 games for the club over three years before a move to Hawthorn. Neill played 23 games for St Kilda, including the 1997 grand final.

Anthony Howard ‘Tony’ Lockett was born 9 March 1966 in Ballarat and nicknamed ‘Plugger’ after his father Howard, a 500-game country footballer who himself had inherited the nickname from his father, picked up this tag because he used to ‘plug around’ in the garden.

Lockett played 98 games for the Swans and kicked 462 goals to rank fifth on the club’s all-time list behind Bob Pratt, Michael O’Loughlin, Barry Hall and Adam Goodes despite his late arrival.

In his first season in red and white the powerhouse Lockett, officially listed at 191cm and a hulking 118kg, kicked 110 goals, won the club best and fairest in a year in which teammate and captain Paul Kelly won the Brownlow Medal, and was named in the All-Australian team.

Also, he won the EJ Whitten Medal in 1995, kicking seven goals for Victoria against South Australia.

Lockett, who returned to the Swans as a part-time kicking coach in 2017, was just the second South Melbourne / Sydney Swans player to kick a ton after the legendary Pratt, who had topped triple figures three times in 1933, ‘34 and ‘35.

He would go on to replicate Pratt’s achievement, also kicking 100 goals for the Swans in 1996 and 1998, and was the Swans leading goal-kicker five years in a row in 1995, ‘96, ‘97, ‘98 and ‘99 after taking the same honour at St Kilda 10 times in 1984, ‘85, ‘86, ‘87, ‘89, ‘90, ‘91, ‘92, ‘93 and ‘94.

He won the Coleman Medal as the League’s leading goal-kicker in 1996 and 1998 after doing likewise at St Kilda in 1987 and ‘91, and was All-Australian in 1996 and 1998. He was All-Australian at St Kilda in 1987 and ’91.

To top it all off, he was named at full forward in both the Sydney and St Kilda Team of the Century, and after being inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame in 2006 was elevated to Legend status in 2015.

Lockett’s career wearing the #4 jumper with the Swans was littered with memorable days.

Among them was an 11-goal haul 21 years ago today against the Brisbane Bears at the SCG on 26 May 1996. He kicked 11-1 in what was Roos’ 298^th AFL game and the 301^st game for Brisbane captain Roger Merrett.

The Swans went into the game seventh on the ladder with four wins and a draw from the first eight games against a Bears side that was 7-1 and was sitting on top of the ladder for the first time in the club’s history.

The Bears were top on the ladder but were humbled by the Swans 21.6 (132) to 10.14 (74) in a year in which the Swans would ultimately finish minor premiers with a 16-1-5 record before losing to North Melbourne in the grand final.

Shannon Grant, in his 19^th game, had his only 30-possession game in Swans colors as Lockett collected the three Brownlow Medal votes. Andrew Dunkley (22 possessions) received two votes and Adam Heuskes (26 possessions) received one vote. It was his first Brownlow vote.