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Sydney's night to remember
7:44:54 PM Fri 22 August, 2003
AFL Record
Few players have left their mark on the game like Sydney?s Paul Kelly. His talent, courage and leadership made him an absolute icon. Now he has released a book ? his story in every sense ? that sums up a true great both on and off the field. The AFL Record presents this excerpt that explains how the Swans made the 1996 Grand Final.
Essendon at finals time is as hard a proposition as you will find in the game, and they came up for the preliminary final with high expectations, having beaten us by three goals in round 21.
The match was a sell-out and the papers were full of it. The atmosphere around the club all week was unbelievable. We are usually a smiling, happy bunch, but the anticipation of the match to come, and the possible ultimate reward, had everybody bubbling over with excitement. We went through our rehab and our training routines with great enthusiasm, but the general idea was to try to keep everything as normal as possible.
The spirit of the Swans of old seemed to envelop us as well, and we knew that many former players and supporters were in Sydney for the match. The atmosphere in the streets was enough to make me feel proud of being part of this big event in Sydney?s sporting history.
People seemed to be getting ready to party, and they were hanging up their party decorations and flags, all red and white and all over Sydney. I had never before experienced such excitement around the city, and I was only to experience it again, in a far less personal way, in the lead-up to the Olympic Games in 2000.
It was a tight game, and it felt as if we were behind the eight-ball all night. The Bombers got away, four goals to our one in the first quarter, and it looked like we were going to get done, but we kept them goalless in the second quarter and were two goals up by halftime. Yet we were only just hanging on. By three-quarter time we were leading by a solitary point, 8.7 (55) to 8.6 (54).
The game itself lived up to all expectations, with players throwing everything at it, trying to break their opponents. It was very hard football, with particularly low scoring on the highest scoring ground in the competition.
Rocket had nothing to tell us at three-quarter time but to keep at it, to not give up, to go out and win. We banded together in the centre, summoning the collective will to get us over the line.
It seemed that, with time running out in the last quarter and both teams like battering rams in defence, we weren?t going to make it.
Essendon were 10.9 (69), holding on against the Swans 8.9 (57). The time of the breakout is exact: the last 2 minutes and 47 seconds had the crowds constantly on their feet. It was probably the most stirring passage of football I have been involved in.
And I was involved at the beginning of this last chapter. There was a quick kick out of the backline and I marked it. I looked down the ground and saw nothing on offer, then looked past the centre and saw Stuey Maxfield tearing down the other side of the ground, unmarked and going hard.
I transferred the ball across to him and he gathered it on the run, assessing the options upfront. He saw Dale Lewis clear and kicked the ball forward. Lewy is a solid mark, and he took one now, ahead of the pack. He is one of the best kicks around, and he put this straight through the middle, leaving us six points down.
We got forward again and Plugger was gathering the ball from a very long lead, turning like a battleship and kicking into the middle. Up went a big pack, and down came Daryn Cresswell with the ball. He had got off the ground for the second time in two weeks, and had taken an inspirational mark.
A crash in the contest had winded him, and he was cramping in the hamstring area. He hobbled back to take his kick from 48 metres. He put it straight through, a match-winning goal for the second week in a row. But that?s what you expect from Cressa.
With the scores level and about a minute to go we seemed to be drowning in the huge roar of noise from the crowd, trying to work out a way to break through. Situations like this are so dependent on chance, on the bounce of the ball in a certain direction, on a clean grab or a hard tackle. But the harder you try the luckier you get, and all 36 players were ferocious for this last 60 seconds.
The ball seesawed back and forward between the defences, and then it was in space on the wing. I was behind Wade Chapman when the ball came to our half-forward line. He marked it, went back on his mark, then played on, as he was searching for something forward.
He saw Tony Lockett streaming out, a long lead that would put him outside the 50-metre arc. Chapman knew Lockett was the go-to man, the one you could rely on, and he weighted his kick perfectly for Plugger to mark in the little clearing he had created ? 55 metres out!
Plugger had had a groin injury for the latter part of the season, had missed the week before and had snared only one goal in a game of crowded defences, but now he was lining up for what he later described as the most important kick of his life. I thought it was a big ask from 55 metres, but I also knew he would kick his leg off to score a point and win the match.
I ran down and was standing on the right-hand side of the point post.
That?s all I wanted, for him to kick it far enough. The crowd was just going off, with incredible noise. It was something I had never experienced before. At some point the siren had sounded and this was the last moment of the match. He was his usual stony-faced self as he went back to take the kick.
He came in and booted it, and I saw it tumbling and turning on its way over my head ? not a perfect kick. Did it have the carry from that distance? Yes! The huge roar said it all, and we had a big rumble, jumping all over each other. That?s something you can?t describe unless you?ve been in it. We were in the grand final. It?s why you play footy.
At the bottom of this heap was the huge man who had been brought to Sydney to help us achieve the impossible, and he had done just that. We had Plugger?s point to thank for getting us into the grand final ? a first for the Swans since 1945.
It took ages to get us off the ground. People were all over each other, and the crowd control seemed to have lost control. Rocket was there, and he was as much a part of this team jubilation as any of us. The runners, trainers, club assistants; it was right over the top. The cheer squad floggers (streamers on sticks) were still waving about, and we heard later about people crying and hugging each other.
We started running off and Cressa and I bumped into each other and tumbled up the race. That was as close to exhaustion as I have ever been. But we roused ourselves pretty fast, singing the song, just high-spirited madness. Whatever happened a week later, years later, memories of that win and the celebration will never be extinguished.
There was another great moment later on that night. Out on the moonlit SCG turf, on the now-deserted playing field, a group of past South Melbourne and Sydney players made their way to the middle of the arena. They formed a circle and sang ?Cheer, Cheer, the Red and the White.?
They told a few yarns, shared a few memories, and raised their glasses to the Swans. These were some of the men who knew the pain and hardship the club and its individuals had undergone in relocating to Sydney ? men like Barry Round, Ricky Quade, Mark Browning, David Rhys-Jones, Bernie Evans, Shane, Paul and Tony Morwood, David Ackerly, Dennis Carroll and Stevie Wright.
This was as much their moment as ours. All those hard matches, the wins and the losses, hopes that rose up and then died again season after season, the great games and the bad ones, injury and struggle ? all these things could be seen in a new light in this time of success and hope for a grand final win!
? From SwanSong ? The Paul Kelly Story by Paul Kelly. Reprinted with the permission of ABC Books. Copyright Kelpro Pty Limited 2003. RRP $29.95. Available from ABC Shops, ABC Centres, good bookshops, online at www.abcshop.com.au or via phone orders to 1300 360 111.
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