WHEN the Sydney Swans last defeated Adelaide at AAMI Stadium in round 16, 2001, the likes of Paul Kelly, Stuart Maxfield, Daryn Cresswell and Wayne Schwass were still running around in red and white.
Also in the team that recorded a 49-point win over the Crows was a 20-year-old Ryan O'Keefe, playing just his 12th senior game.
With just four kicks and two marks to his name for the day, it's little wonder that he can remember little about the occasion.
Now the reigning club champion, O'Keefe hopes his new teammates' ignorance of the Swans' five-game, nine-year losing streak at the venue works to their advantage on Sunday afternoon.
"There are a lot of new players who probably don't know that stat and I'm not going to tell them," he said with a laugh.
"It's a new year for us and we've made a few changes; we've got a lot of new players and we've tweaked a few things so we're excited.
Also in the team that recorded a 49-point win over the Crows was a 20-year-old Ryan O'Keefe, playing just his 12th senior game.
With just four kicks and two marks to his name for the day, it's little wonder that he can remember little about the occasion.
Now the reigning club champion, O'Keefe hopes his new teammates' ignorance of the Swans' five-game, nine-year losing streak at the venue works to their advantage on Sunday afternoon.
"There are a lot of new players who probably don't know that stat and I'm not going to tell them," he said with a laugh.
"It's a new year for us and we've made a few changes; we've got a lot of new players and we've tweaked a few things so we're excited.
"Last week was a good benchmark to see where we are and this week will be the same."
The Swans fielded six new players against the Saints in round one but any element of surprise was lost after the two teams met during the NAB Cup.
In contrast, Adelaide is yet to face the Swans with the likes of Lewis Jetta, Daniel Bradshaw and Mark Seaby, but O'Keefe had no doubt the Crows would have done their homework.
"They would have watched the St Kilda game and ... the NAB Cup games, so you can sort of see generally how teams are going to play.
"I don't think there's a huge amount of surprise. They'll try to get back to how they want to play and we'll try to play how we want to play, and we'll see which best team wins."
Swans coach Paul Roos said there was no obvious reason for his side's 1-11 record against the Crows since that 2001 match, other than the fact that both sides had been very competitive over that time.
"They've had McLeod and Goodwin and Edwards and they've gone through the period with Goodes and Jude Bolton and Craig Bolton and Brett Kirk," he said.
"They've had some good teams representing their footy club at the same time that we've had some good teams."
Despite a raft of positives from the narrow loss to St Kilda, Roos flagged the possibility of changes for the Adelaide game.
One of the contenders is second-year midfielder Dan Hannebery, who dominated a reserves trial game last weekend with more than 40 possessions.
"There are a couple of young guys we want to keep on promoting and they played really well. Obviously we've got to reward that," Roos said.
"We're not unhappy with the way we played and if someone did miss out, they'd probably be a bit stiff. But it's just trying to keep the young guys putting pressure on the senior players and that makes it healthy for the Club."
Games at the SCG are electricfying. See the Swans take on Richmond next Saturday night. Grab your tickets now at www.ticketek.com.au. Please note first bounce for our Round 3 fixture Sydney Swans v Richmond is 7.10pm. Gates open at 3.45pm.
