The promised influx of on-field talent arrived at the Club in preparation for the 1986 season.
Melbourne’s Gerard Healy, Essendon Premiership player Merv Neagle, Footscray’s Jim Edmond, and Greg Williams, David Bolton and Bernard Toohey from Geelong were among the new recruits who joined the established members of the team training under new coach Tom Hafey and recently appointed Captain Dennis Carroll. There was no denying the quality of the new look Sydney Swans.
And they did not disappoint, convincingly winning the first six games of the season to sit atop the ladder – the Club’s best start to a season for fifty years.
On the field, the team remained consistent, and ended the year in second position on the ladder, having won 16 games. For the first time since the move to Sydney, the Swans participated in finals football.
The first final was against third-placed Carlton, a game in which the Swans started well, but which Carlton eventually won by 16 points.
A sudden death semi-final against Fitzroy was next on the agenda, and despite the Swans leading by 12 points at three-quarter time, Fitzroy lifted during the last term and won by five points, ending the Sydney team’s season.
Despite successive finals losses, on-field signs were good, and there was even more cause for celebration when Greg Williams polled 17 Brownlow votes to share the Medal with Hawthorn’s Roberto DiPierdomenico.
Additionally, Warwick Capper had almost reached 100 goals for the season, falling short by just eight, and in one game against Richmond he kicked 10 – the first time a Swan had done that for more than thirty years.
Crowds flocked to the SCG, lured by the high quality football on display as much as the marketing hype - the Swanettes, the extravagant pre-match entertainment and glamorous façade the Club was creating for itself, courtesy of its new owners.
Things finally seemed to be looking good for the Sydney team.
Behind the scenes, however, life was as tumultuous as ever. Potential breaches of the salary cap had prevented Maurice Rioli, one of the Club’s major off-season signings, from ever actually joining the team, and several high profile senior players agreed to take pay cuts in order to alleviate the Club’s financial pressures.
Compounding that, on the very evening he had acquired the Club, Dr Edelsten admitted to Powerplay that he did not have the ready cash required to fund his purchase. Consequently further investment was needed, and a portion of Powerplay shares were bought by West Australian company Westeq, an entity which also lent the Club $1 million to fund operations.
Geoffrey Edelsten resigned as Chairman of the Swans in July, just under a year after his much feted arrival, and in October his shares in the Club were bought by Powerplay.
But your average Swans supporter and footy fan probably didn’t know or care about Club financials and politics – they were just looking forward to the 1987 season. Because after the joys of 1986, anything seemed possible….
