Thirty-seven years ago today Australian football took a massive stride forward in the endless battle to develop the code in the northern markets.

It was 28 March 1982 when the Sydney Swans played their first game as a permanent SCG tenant, defeating Melbourne in front of 15,764 fans. 

It was the same club that had played 85 years and 1570 games while based predominantly at Lake Oval in Melbourne from 1897-1981, and still wore the famous red and white.

They were  still known as the Swans and carried the same proud history and tradition as South Melbourne. But, despite resistance from sections of the Melbourne media, for the first time they were officially known as Sydney. The Sydney Swans.

The historic moment was a heavyweight battle between Sydney and Melbourne from 1pm on a Saturday balmy afternoon in Round 1. Amid much hype and hope within football circles, the Swans prevailed by 29 points.

South Melbourne had finished seventh on the 12-team ladder in 1981 under coach Ian Stewart, with an 8-14 win/loss record.

Six of their wins had come against Melbourne, Footscray and St Kilda, who filled the three bottom spots on the ladder with a combined 8-58 record, but they did beat the fancied Collingwood.

Significantly, that 18-point win over the eventual grand finalists came in Round 17 in one of two AFL exhibition games played at the SCG that year. After the first game between Geelong and Melbourne in Round 6 had attracted a crowd of 11,077 the Swans and the Magpies pulled 22,238.

Facing tough financial times in Melbourne, and the options of fold, merge or move, the Swans in consultation with the AFL made the decision to play their 11 home games at the SCG in 1982.

And so the code’s footprint in the Harbour City was born.

It was the Swans’ first game under new coach Ricky Quade. A favourite son of the club, Quade had played 164 games with South Melbourne from 1970-80, was Club Champion in 1976 and captain from 1977-79.

His first team included seven players who had not played in the final game at Lake Oval in Round 22 1981, when South were beaten in an emotional farewell by North Melbourne.

Those who weren’t at the SCG included Brownlow Medallist Graham Teasdale, a 121-game Swan from 1975-81 after six games at Richmond in 1973, who had moved to Collingwood, where he played 14 games in 1982-83, and Peter Melesso, whose only Swans game was the Lake Oval farewell. He later played seven games at St Kilda from 1983-85 and six games with West Coast from 1989-90.

Peter Morrison, a 91-game Swan whose only game in 1981 was Round 22, had retired, while Bernie Conlen, Mark Fraser and Kevin Goss were finished with the AFL.

Ian Roberts, a 23-year-old 24-gamer as the Swans bid farewell to Lake Oval, missed the club’s first official game at the SCG but went on to play 157 games for the club before his retirement in 1991.

There were no big-name recruits – the seven new faces in the side had all played with South in 1981. They were Bernie Evans, Tony Morwood, Anthony Daniher, Wayne Carroll, Max James, David Rhys-Jones and Stephen Allender.

The Sydney Swans team for the club’s first official home game at the SCG was (in alphabetical order): David Ackerly, Stephen Allender, Mark Browning, Dennis Carroll, Wayne Carroll, Rod Carter, Anthony Daniher, Bernie Evans, Silvio Foschini, Colin Hounsell, Max James, Max Kruse, Paul Morwood, Tony Morwood, David Rhys-Jones, John Roberts, Barry Round, Brett Scott, Greg Smith and Stephen Wright.

Quade, in his first game as coach, found himself giving away 368 games of coaching experience to Melbourne counterpart Ron Barassi, who would take charge of the Sydney Swans 11 years later.

Ironically, too, two of four first-gamers in the Melbourne side – Adrian Battiston and David Cordner – would also later play for the Swans.

Captain of the Swans in their first official game at the SCG was Barry Round, who in 1981 had shared the Brownlow Medal with good mate Bernie Quinlan from Fitzroy.

In his 259^th game overall and his 124^th game in red and white, Round was one of only three 100-gamers in the Swans side. The others were Mark Browning, in his 123^rd game, and Rod Carter, in his 117^th game.

Round was a dominant figure with 23 possessions and 21 hit-outs, while Browning had a game-high and career-best 35 possessions as the Sydney Swans led by 28 points at halftime after a seven-goal second quarter. They kicked eight goals in the third quarter and won 20.17 (137) to 16.12 (108). John Roberts (4) and Evans (3) topped the goal-kicking.

The fly-in, fly-out Swans, still living in Melbourne and training at Lake Oval, went 5-3 through the first eight rounds before four consecutive losses. They won the next five to get back into the finals race, but lost their last three and finished seventh. David Ackerly was judged club champion, and Round finished equal sixth in the Brownlow Medal.