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.

#8 - Tony Lockett kicks 16 goals v Fitzroy, 1995

After drafting key forwards from other clubs with relatively limited success in 1993 (Richard Osborne) and 1994 (Dermott Brereton), 1995 saw the Swans trade for one of the greatest full-forwards the game has ever seen, Tony Lockett.

In 183 games with St Kilda prior to moving Sydney, Lockett had kicked 898 goals and won a Brownlow Medal, and his recruitment north to Sydney was a major coup for the Ron Barassi-led Swans.

The move allowed Lockett to enjoy the relative anonymity that didn’t come with living in the football hub of Melbourne, while the Swans benefited not only from Lockett’s immense skill, but also his profile and marketability.

Lockett made his Swans debut in the round 4 win over Fitzroy at the SCG, where he led the Swans goalkicking with seven majors. But it was the round 19 return fixture against Fitzroy where Lockett really starred for the Swans, landing the greatest goalkicking return of his celebrated career.

In his 199th game, Lockett and the Swans travelled to the Western Oval to face the Lions in windy conditions that weren’t conducive to accuracy in front of goal.

But Lockett drew on all his experience to put on a goalkicking clinic for the ages in front of a crowd of just over 7,000, the bulk of which would move from one end of the field to the other depending on which end Lockett was kicking towards.

Lockett finished the game with an incredible 16 goals straight from 18 kicks as the Swans romped home to win by 126-points. The feat was made all the more remarkable given that the full-forward mistook a message from the runner to ‘cool it’ after a tangle with Fitzroy’s Mark Zanotti and took himself to the bench for several minutes during the second quarter.

The 16-goal haul fell just two goals short of the league record of 18 held by Melbourne’s Fred Fanning since 1947. However, Lockett’s effort did break Bob Pratt’s club record of 15 goals which the Bloods legend kicked against Essendon in round 3, 1934, and was the most goals ever kicked by an individual in 665 games at the Western Oval.

Lockett took his season tally from 74 goals leading into the game to 90, and went on to bring up his ton in round 21 against Fremantle. Lockett went on to finish the 1995 season with 110 goals and won the Swans Club Champion award in his first season at the club. He was also named in the forward pocket of the 1995 All Australian team.