In the latest in his Classic Matches series, Jim Main looks at a remarkable victory over Adelaide from 1994.

Sydney Swans v Adelaide
Round 18, July 22, 1994
Football Park

The Sydney Swans were struggling going into their match against the Adelaide Crows at Football Park in round 18, 1994.

They might have enjoyed a bye the previous week, but had gone down by 25 points to the Brisbane Bears at the SCG in round 16 and went into the match against the Crows with only two wins for the season.

On the other hand, The Crows had defeated top side West Coast by four points at Football Park in round 17 and were still well in the hunt for a finals berth with seven wins and a draw when about to face the Swans.

Adelaide therefore was a red-hot favourite to defeat Sydney – until the Crows dropped a bombshell at selection on the Thursday night.

The Crows dumped champion full-forward Tony Modra for disciplinary reasons after he had failed to attend training on the Wednesday night.

Modra, who had kicked 60 goals to that stage of the season, was not injured and the Crows even went public about its disciplinary reasons.
They did not know it at the time, but the one-match ban played right into the Swans’ hands.

Adelaide fans buzzed with indignation about the club-imposed suspension and there were suggestions in the local media that the Crows would not have taken this action if they had not been playing the bottom side.

According to the Crows, Modra had copped his punishment on the chin and the matter was over.

The Swans had other ideas as they felt they had been insulted. Would Modra have been dumped for a match against one of the top sides?

The Swans therefore had tremendous motivation for the match against a team notoriously difficult to defeat on its home ground of Football Park (now AAMI Stadium), especially in front of the 43,788 fans who expected an easy victory over the Swans.

Swan coach Rob Barassi fanned the flames of indignation and asked his players to hurl the insult back at the Crows.

He also asked them for an extra effort in memory of 16-year-old supporter Daniel Fuller, who had died of muscular dystrophy a few days before the match.

The unheralded Swans attacked the ball with tremendous ferocity, but the Crows managed to stay just a few points ahead until just before half-time.

Then, after taking a four-point lead into the main break, the Swans increased that lead to 10 points by the final break.

Ironically, Modra’s replacement at full-forward, a young and enthusiastic Mark Ricciuto, kept the Crows in touch with several outstanding goals.

However, the Swans were able to exploit Ricciuto’s absence from his usual half-back position and were able to breach the Crow defence for four goals over the final quarter to win by 12 points.

It was one of the shock results of the season, but Crow coach Graham Cornes refused to concede that the Modra suspension had backfired. “You cannot qualify the effect that Modra’s absence had,” he said.

On the other hand, Barassi said: “We weren’t unhappy to see Modra out ... but that’s Adelaide’s problem.”

Ricciuto kicked five of Adelaide’s 10 goals, while Simon Minton-Connell and Derek Kickett kicked four each for the Swans.

The Swans’ only other win to the end of the season was by eight points over Carlton at the SCG in round 21.

They finished the season on the bottom of the ladder but, of course, made the Grand Final just two years later.

SYDNEY SWANS     3.5     6.6     9.8       13.9 (87)
ADELAIDE               4.5     5.8     7.10     10.15 (75)

•  Simon Minton-Connell gave the Swans’ wonderful service in his 46 games with the club from 1992-94 and topped the club goalkicking with 68 in that otherwise dismal season of 1994.