They are two of the most famous names in the Swans storied history - Tony Lockett and Paul Roos – and their arrivals at the SCG had a common link.
In episode 4 of The Bloods, presented by QBE, prominent AFL administrator Ron Joseph talks through the U-turn that would ultimately land the biggest fish in football following several failed attempts.
“The process went right through to draft day, the day that we turned the car around in front of the Springvale Cemetery and went back to his house in Cranbourne, was the day the draft papers had to be lodged,” Joseph explains of the Swans bid to sign Tony Lockett.
“I said to him, look Tony, Sydney is the only club that has been fair dinkum. You’ve been talking to Collingwood. Collingwood and Richmond aren’t going to take you. They’re frightened of getting you. We haven’t batted an eye-lid.
“I think i said, you can have $100,000 if you kick 70 goals a year over the life of the contract, something like that. And he signed it. And that would have been at about 10.30am. We couldn’t mess around. We had to get the papers into the AFL because the lodgement closed at 12 o’clock,” Joseph recounts.
Lockett would join the Swans at the end of 1994, with another of Joseph’s prized recruits, Paul Roos, following shortly after.
A legend at Fitzroy, Roos feared for the future of the embattled Victorian club and agreed with Joseph to join the Swans, on the proviso the club could land Plugger.
The two would play a pivotal role in the Swans emergence from a four-win season in 1994, to Grand Finalists in a famous 1996 season.
For all of Lockett’s goal kicking heroics throughout that 1996 season – he booted 121 goals - it is a single point that is etched into the folklore of the football club, and the hearts and minds of all Swans faithful.
Plugger’s Point - as it has become known - was inducted into the club’s Heritage List in 2013
“Plugger kicks it, I can see it’s going through, I’m the first one to Plugger and I jump on him. The rest jump on him. And we’re on the ground and everyone is piled up on us. I said, ‘we’ve done it Plugger, we’re into the Grand Final,” recalls Michael O’Loughlin of the moments proceeding Lockett’s kick.
“It was pandemonium,” he says.
The 1996 season takes centre stage in episode 4 of The Bloods, presented by QBE, and is now available for download.
Along with Ron Joseph and Michael O’Loughlin, the episode also features interviews with Paul Kelly and former senior coach Rodney Eade.
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