Scintillating Swans: The Ultimate Season
Round 5 – Our Time
Sydney v Collingwood – Preliminary Final 2012

“We’d won more premierships than games against Collingwood for the previous seven years.” – Mike Pyke.

With a place in the top two and a qualifying final in Sydney up for grabs, two losses in our last three matches of 2012 saw that opportunity slip, with the result being a trip to Adelaide to commence another finals campaign.

Premiership winning ruckman Mike Pyke recalls a critical pre-finals moment. “This game was huge. We had a great pump-up the night before with John (Longmire) where he took us through a previous finals win in Adelaide in 2003 and we relived that with a lot of the senior guys like Goodesy, Bolts and Ryan O’Keefe talking us through that game where there was so much going against us. We had our backs against the wall and ended up getting a famous win. That gave us belief that we could go out and do it.” The next day saw another famous Bloods win.

Two weeks later, arch-nemesis Collingwood arrived in town for a preliminary final. Almost sixty-thousand arrived at ANZ Stadium for the match that would also be club champion Jude Bolton’s 300^th in red and white. Martin Blake, uncle of Jude and author of 'Rise of the Swans' recalls the night fondly. “That night lives long in our hearts. The whole family made the trip from Melbourne to celebrate with Jude, including my 80-something father Harold Blake, Jude’s grandfather, who served as a kind of mentor over his career, to his parents Rosalie (my sister) and John, to various cousins, uncles and aunties.” he adds.

Over time, the whole family had become Bloods. “We’d lost him interstate long ago, of course, but we embraced the Swans like a bunch of Sydney-siders. Dad became mildly famous for his barging through past security into the rooms after certain games – almost steamrolling various celebrities and once almost levelling Nicole Kidman – to assume his spot on the floor next to Jude for a debriefing.” Blake quips.

Unbeknownst to many however, this match represented extreme significance for Bolton and his family. “We'd have probably been there anyway, since it was such a huge game, being a knockout final, but you have to remember that at that point, Jude was 32 years old and unsigned for the following season. In short, that night had the potential to be his last-ever game in the worst-case scenario of a defeat by Collingwood.” Blake adds.

For Chairman Andrew Pridham, that scenario had not entered his mind. This despite the Magpies having won the past eleven clashes and the past seven on this ground. “We’d won the qualifying final in Adelaide with a really strong win and I was supremely confident because we’d played so well against the Crows and we’d had a week off. They were red-hot favourites because they used to always beat us at ANZ Stadium, but coming in to the game I just thought we were in really good shape.” He also added, “A mate of mine called me before the game and he was as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof. I was heading out there in the car for our big lunch and I said ‘no, just relax. This is our time, we’ll win this one’.”

Mike Pyke’s confidence grew quickly once the match began. “My overwhelming memory of this match is just how much more energy we had than Collingwood and how important that extra break was for us. They were incredible runners at the time with quick substitutions they were really burst-type players. I remember by the time of the start of the second quarter it just felt like we were running over the top of them. It really felt like they didn’t have second efforts and they just couldn’t go with us.” he recalls.

An extreme example of this, in a truly iconic moment, was the instant Lewis Jetta entered his very own one hundred metre sprint at the Olympic Stadium, to reach an open goal. Pyke remembers the moment as just another in a string of his teammate’s highlights. “I think Lewis Jetta’s goal, which doesn’t necessarily stand out for me in this game, was just the stuff that Jets did. I think when you’re playing alongside those kind of guys you just say well that’s Jets. That’s what he does.” He then jokes, “I was also thinking to myself, Jets – don’t miss this kick. He had a history of doing that too!” He did not miss and our Swans had made the early running.

Pridham’s pre-match assuredness was validated as our Bloods reigned supreme. “Jetta was on fire, giving us a preview of what was to happen the following week with some of his runs, LRT kicked probably his best goal of his career and he was on fire. It was just one of those special games.” he recalls. When quizzed on whether beating the Magpies added to the enjoyment, Pridham ponders, “Oh, only a lot! There’s never a bad win against Collingwood. There are some clubs you just love beating.”

Pyke remembers enjoying the latter parts of the match, knowing that he was heading to his first AFL Grand Final. “It just felt like from the third quarter on that there was no way we were going to lose this game and then you could enjoy it towards the end which was pretty nice. It’s quite a special feeling I think, when you’re on the field knowing that you’re going to get there. It was fantastic. A great win.” he reminisces.

For the club, and for the Chairman, it was fitting reward for a favourite son. “He’s as tough as nails, he’d give a hundred and ten percent, always put his body on the line. He’s always a very upbeat character,” Pridham says of Bolton, “he’s well-liked and well-respected and his on-field partnership with Goodesy and Ryan O’Keefe having played so many games together, makes him part of a very special group. He’s special.”

Blake recalls a similar feeling of joy for his nephew. With the game in our grasp, Bolton lined up for a set shot - “It was never in doubt! Those images of Jude kicking the goal, then leapfrogging his way back towards the middle of the Olympic stadium, swamped by his teammates, were some of the best of his whole career.” He continues, “We all knew that Jude was respected at the club (and outside) for his uncommon courage and indeed for his ability as a player over a long period of time, the archetypal Bloods’ player. But in those moments at Homebush, it was a reminder for all of us that as much as we loved Jude, we were far from alone in that.”

“That’s a nice feeling for a family. I was especially pleased for Dad, who extracted so much from Jude’s 15-year career thanks to his grandson engaging with him so patiently and so often on the phone, or in person.” Blake said. The Bolton clan reveled in the glory of such a memorable win. “From memory we adjourned to the Clovelly Hotel for brunch the next day, excited that the Swans were in another Grand Final. There was a big crew of us, and Jude dropped in, as he always did. The flag was to come less than a week later. They were heady times. For all of us.”

Heady times indeed. Our time.