In front of 41,317 fans, which was the biggest crowd since 1997, the Swans led at every change to notch their eighth consecutive win and a major scalp against the competition’s leading side.
The match also marked a special milestone for Jack, who reached his 150th career match, which earned him life membership at the club.
Speaking to SwansTV from the winners’ rooms, the 27-year-old said he couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate his milestone than a hard-fought home-ground victory over one of the AFL’s toughest competitors.
“I think I’m still getting over it,” Jack told SwansTV post-match.
“It was a great feeling when the siren went because it was a tough game and it was four quarters of hard running and hard inside work.
“We knew Port were on top of the ladder so we were so rapt to get away with a win.
“It was the icing on the cake to get the win for my 150th.”
While the Swans led at every change, the result was never guaranteed, with both sides playing a high-intensity brand of football for four quarters.
With a 15-point lead at three-quarter time, and with the knowledge of Port Adelaide’s capacity to run out games, Jack said the message heading into the final change was simple.
“(The message) was just to continue to run,” he said.
“We knew that Port Adelaide really backed their ability to run in the last quarter, and we knew that, but we’ve got some really good runners on our side too.
“We just thought if we could continue to combine that with being hard over the football we could get the result.”
There were a number of important cameos that contributed to the Swans’ win, including a three-goal haul to Adam Goodes in the second quarter and two exceptional kicks from Lance Franklin in the final term.
Jack described Franklin’s efforts when the game was on the line in the final quarter as ‘exceptional’.
“We had a couple of really special things from ‘Buddy’ in the last quarter,” he said.
“It was great to see Bud get on the end of a few of them.
“He kicked one of them in the last quarter when I was sitting on the bench and I was just in awe of it and some of the things he was doing out there.”
Jack said another factor that played an important role in the four-point victory was the Sydney home crowd, which was the fourth biggest at the SCG in club history.
“It was unbelievable,” he said.
“You looked around the ground, especially with the new stand there, and you couldn’t see a spare seat at all.
“They were loud, they were passionate and we needed every bit of it in the last quarter.
“Thanks to all the Swans fans out there for turning up and I know the boys were really appreciative of it.”
