In the lead-up to the Swans round 8 home match against Melbourne, which will celebrate the Club’s 30 years in Sydney, sydneyswans.com.au is collating the 30 Defining Moments of the Swans in Sydney in chronological order.

The 30 Defining Moments have been selected by Sydney Swans Chairman, Richard Colless, Deputy Chairman, Andrew McMaster, and Swans Hall of Fame inductee and former Club captain, coach, and director, Rick Quade.

#28 - Michael O’Loughlin, Leo Barry and Jared Crouch’s final game, 2009

It was a game that marked the end of an era for the Sydney Swans when 2005 premiership stars Michael O’Loughlin, Leo Barry and Jared Crouch played their last match for the club in round 22, 2009 at the SCG against the Brisbane Lions.

The illustrious trio combined for 763 Swans' games and were key pillars in the Swans’ successes from the mid-nineties through to their joint retirement game.

As seen in yesterday’s Moment #27, O’Loughlin finished his decorated career as the Swans' games record holder on 303 matches, kicking 521 goals along the way after coming to the club as a teenager from South Australian club Central District in 1995.

Barry also joined the club in 1995 as a New South Wales zone selection from Deniliquin, and played his first senior match on the SCG in September that year against Collingwood. ‘Leapin’ Leo’ as he became known, earned All-Australian selection in 2004 and 2005, and co-captained the Swans from 2006 to 2008. It was his iconic mark in the dying seconds of the 2005 Grand Final - highlighted in Moment #23 - that Barry will be remembered most for, but his former team mate and coach Paul Roos praised him for contributing so much more than that.

“He is truly one of the great gentlemen and family men of the game,” Roos said in 2009.

“As a player he simply should not have been able to do the things he did. Leo was a 185cm, 88kg full-back and played on some of the biggest, fastest and best full-forwards of all time, and constantly beat them.

“This he did with his fantastic athleticism but most importantly, an incredible self-belief and desire to be the best player he could possibly be."

Crouch joined the club a year after O’Loughlin and Barry via a first-round draft pick (number eight overall) and made his debut against Collingwood in 1998. Remarkably, Crouch didn’t miss a match for 194 games after his debut - an AFL record for consecutive matches played from debut - and was a constant in the Swans' side from round 7, 1998 until round 13, 2006. He also finished in the top 10 of the Club Champion award in each of his first six seasons and between 1998 and 2008 he played in nine finals series.

Crouch was a fine ‘run with’ player, especially against dangerous small forwards and midfielders, and was an integral part of the 2005 premiership team, being presented with the Paul Roos Award for best player in that year’s finals series.

"From the first moment Crouchy walked into the club I could see he had a single-minded attitude to simply be the best player he could possibly be and he would do everything in his power to achieve that goal," Roos said ahead of Crouch’s final game.

"It was this attitude that enabled him to play on and beat some of the best midfielders of the modern era and to be one of the most important players in our 2005 premiership year.”

Unfortunately, the trio’s final game didn’t have a fairy tale ending as the Swans fought hard but couldn’t get over the top of the finals-bound Lions, who went on to win by eight points.

There was plenty of emotion after the game as Barry, O’Loughlin and Crouch took in a lap of honour around the SCG before being chaired off the ground by team mates, and down the Paul Kelly race for one last time.

"I feel emotionless, it's the first time in my life I am speechless," O'Loughlin said after the match.

"I've spent half my life here and the crowd has given me so much .

"I've never experienced anything like that and I never will again, we walked away winners I think."

Last year, Barry and O’Loughlin were inducted into the Swans Hall of Fame, while, just like in their playing days, Crouch wasn’t too far behind, receiving his accolade at this year’s Guernsey Presentation and Hall of Fame Dinner.