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The stakes do not get higher than this. Two sides playing off for the right to be in that one day in September is huge. Make no mistake; Saturday night is for all the marbles.
And you know it. When your team makes it this deep into September, you don?t want it to stop. Especially not now. Four teams harbour hopes of being Champions but between now and next Saturday, three will leave the arena as the vanquished. That?s ultimately what the players are playing for ? the right not to taste defeat.
This is the last game of football for the season. The Grand Final is basically a whole lot of hype and pizzazz with a football game tacked on the end of one crazy week.
The players will not be able to go to the toilet next week without it being news.
Such being the case, more often than not, the build up and hysteria overshadows the game which results in massive blow outs when one side realises it has come so far but fallen just short of the final hurdle.
It?s just two guys racing to be at the summit of a mountain where one guy plants his flag and the other guy is by his ankles.
That is why the Preliminary Final is so fiercely contested. The two sides are playing to get into that elusive Grand Final. Something Shane Crawford and Chris Grant have never been in. The tough part is to get into the Grand Final. To get through the 22 rounds and win two to three finals to put you in the Grand Final is the hard if not impossible bit. So when you are just one game away ? so ridiculously close to being champions, no wonder this is a game where the stakes are high.
Another reason for the massive upping of the ante is that the double chances and weeks off are now over. It has nothing to do with the chicanery of the final eight system but rather football. Win this game and win the next one and its all yours and furthermore everyone else has to do the same. Apart from home ground advantage, everyone is in the same boat now.
The top eight system is skewed in favour of the top four making it this far ? by definition, for a top four side not to be in the third week of the finals, it has bowed out in straight sets.
The McIntyre Eight system has seen the Preliminary Final surge considerably in respect as opposed to the Final Five or Final Six. Firstly, you have had to have won at least one final to play in it. Secondly, there is no side with its feet up waiting for you in the grand final. All roads to success lead through the penultimate week and it duly been rewarded with some classic games.
The first year of its implementation in 1994 saw Gary Ablett kick a goal after the siren to send the Cats through.
1996 ? need anymore be said?
1997 ? Adelaide overcame a 31 half time deficit and benefited from a thrown apple and some favourable goal umpiring to see Rohan Smith forever hit the MCG turf as the Dogs went down by two points.
1999 ? Blues trump the Bombers by one point in one of the greatest ever finals.
Interestingly enough, eight preliminary finalists have been played by interstate sides and there have only been two victors ? Adelaide in 1997 and 1998.
Brisbane has never won a final which wasn?t a Grand Final away from the Gabba.
But most importantly, in the three years of this McIntyre system being used, the two teams which have won their qualifying final played in the Grand Final.
But the focus of this piece isn?t whether or not the Swans will win or not ? the self belief has been done to death and its assumed that as their self-belief is the greatest of the four remaining sides they will win.
The focus here is comparing Preliminary Final 2003 to Preliminary Final 1996.
What can you say about 1996? Never before and not since have the Swans taken 66 points from the home and away season. Suddenly this dormant club woke up and took everyone else by storm.
A club where the mantra used to be that winning one single game was equivalent to winning the Grand Final. Finals were for the other teams. Something you followed but never for a second actually considered that your side will be involved with. For that to happen the side would have to win roughly half their games. Have some good players. Play football well.
In the early 1990?s the Swans were an embarrassment. They were the bye where there was no bye. Brisbane for that matter were a similar basket case with Geelong racking up 37.17 (239) against the Bears in 1992. (And now these two are playing in a Preliminary Final!)
In 1993, the Swans conceded 35.19 (229) and 33.21 (219) in the space of three weeks.
So just three years later you could have felt that it was a bit of a ?flash in the pan? and the next year, everything would be back to ?normal?. Richmond in 1995 also took the league by storm and look at them.
But this was different. The Red and White spirit had been evoked from its slumber and was never going to lie down again.
In 1996, who believed in the Swans? They basically were playing to justify their existence. To the Sydney people, to the Melbourne public, to the AFL family, to everyone. This club was suddenly in a position it never thought possible.
Now Sydney had to adopt the team. As did the old South Melbourne segment of it. The past and present still wasn?t fused together and had to happen if the club was to move forward, hence a bridge to the past was constructed.
In 1996, there was no winning culture for the Swans especially not in finals. The pressure was on them in the finals to win or otherwise, the peanut gallery would be putting in its two cents worth saying how it was all a fluke. This was reflected in their first two finals. They should have blown both sides out of the water but were a bit hampered by stage fright. They played better free flowing football in the Grand Final until??.
Who knows what would have happened had the Swans won in 96. Maybe they would have celebrated long and hard and that would have been the end of it. Slipping back down to mediocrity to join the Tigers and Demons. In many ways, losing the Grand Final wasn?t disaster for the Swans but a long term blessing because it meant that still a lot of hard work had to be done to win the flag and people were prepared and willing to do it.
1996 was really the beginning of the club in Sydney in many regards. There was no Swanettes or ticket giveaways. It was just the side playing good football and winning games. Attracting people by their endeavour and great spirit. 1996 was the year which was needed to sever all links with the Edelstein era and move forward like the club wished it could have done so in 1983. Talk about an overnight success.
Now go forward in your time machine, seven years???..
The players have state of the art facilities which are the envy of many clubs. Great support staff and everything off field they could hope for.
Sydney has fully adopted the club. No longer is it rugby league and/or rugby union vs Swans but the Swans are another part of the sporting landscape in the Harbour City. Seven years of winning games and spreading the word has seen the drip by drip method work. Now you would have to say there is almost unanimous recognition of the Swans. Enhanced media coverage in print, radio and TV means that most people know how the side is faring even if they don?t follow it. And the kids of today know what is going on ? that is the clincher.
The club is Sydney?s team ? no questions asked. Only a few rabid NRL loonies would deny that.
Melbourne ? Only very loyal and die-hard South Melbourne fans would not be behind the Swans today. In seven years. the club has gone to remedy the overlooked part of the relocation. What was left behind is now the legacy of today and tomorrow. This is not a team which began in 1983 but in 1897 and it would hard to imagine the likes of Laurie Nash and Bob Pratt not giving it to Fos Williams and Haydn Bunton Senior up in heaven after the Qualifying Final win.
When Bob Skilton says the qualifying win was his proudest moment as a Swan, it?s very hard not to start to get emotional.
When Daryn Cresswell, cites the old South Melbourne and ?Bloods? fighting spirit you know everything has come full circle because not only has the past embraced the future, the present has embraced the past. Cresswell as a Team of the Century member knows about the history of this great club and knows it is his job to transmit that onto the next generation. Keep the chain going.
The players are the current custodians of the Red and White spirit. When you wear a number on your back, you are the continuing something which began in 1897. Lewis Roberts-Thomson has to maintain what Mark Bayes did. Similarly Ryan O?Keefe has to play in a manner which would do John Rantall proud.
In 2003, there was no pressure on the club. It wasn?t ?win the grand final or we will lose interest? which some may have said in 1996, even after the club had finished on top of the ladder for the first time in 51 years.
But it was amazing how the cards fell into place this time round. Collingwood defeating Essendon, Port Adelaide defeating Adelaide, Fremantle defeating West Coast and most importantly Sydney defeating Melbourne was what was needed in the last round for the Swans to finish fourth on the ladder. It all happened.
Collingwood defeated Brisbane and the Swans defeated the Power to have a home Preliminary Final and the week off.
When that many co-incidences happen, you have to feel that someone is shining on you.
Now seven years later everything feels right for that flag. The two Sydney/South Melbourne halves complement each other very nicely. The infrastructure is in place for long term success and not just ?one-offs?.
There will not be a fall to earth which possibly could have occurred in 1996 because now everything is set and everyone is ready for long term success.
To take an Olympic analogy, in years gone by the Swans have been the Kookaburras. They were so convinced that something may go wrong and stuff up, they were tense and not enjoying themselves and choked because they lacked 100% belief and conviction in themselves. Whatever could go wrong would and somehow they would lose ? again.
This time round, the Swans are the Hockeyroos. They believe in themselves and more importantly are enjoying their footy. It doesn?t matter who gets injured, what the umpires do or anything like that because the Swans will still prevail.
Ever since 1933, the club has been trying in vain for success. And there must be something about the years ending 3. In 1983, the club was in Sydney. In 1993, was their beginning of the resurrection. Starting from absolute rock bottom and like a new born baby, they began to roll on their back, then crawl and slowly walk.
Three years later, in 1996 was being a teenager and thinking that you know everything only to find out you have to mature somewhat before you can really walk on your own two feet.
And now in 2003, that time has come. The Swans are ready to taste success and end a 70 year hiatus.
The premiership cup has red and white streamers hanging off it now but they are invisible to everyone but the true believers. The players can see them. As can Paul Roos - can you?
And you know it. When your team makes it this deep into September, you don?t want it to stop. Especially not now. Four teams harbour hopes of being Champions but between now and next Saturday, three will leave the arena as the vanquished. That?s ultimately what the players are playing for ? the right not to taste defeat.
This is the last game of football for the season. The Grand Final is basically a whole lot of hype and pizzazz with a football game tacked on the end of one crazy week.
The players will not be able to go to the toilet next week without it being news.
Such being the case, more often than not, the build up and hysteria overshadows the game which results in massive blow outs when one side realises it has come so far but fallen just short of the final hurdle.
It?s just two guys racing to be at the summit of a mountain where one guy plants his flag and the other guy is by his ankles.
That is why the Preliminary Final is so fiercely contested. The two sides are playing to get into that elusive Grand Final. Something Shane Crawford and Chris Grant have never been in. The tough part is to get into the Grand Final. To get through the 22 rounds and win two to three finals to put you in the Grand Final is the hard if not impossible bit. So when you are just one game away ? so ridiculously close to being champions, no wonder this is a game where the stakes are high.
Another reason for the massive upping of the ante is that the double chances and weeks off are now over. It has nothing to do with the chicanery of the final eight system but rather football. Win this game and win the next one and its all yours and furthermore everyone else has to do the same. Apart from home ground advantage, everyone is in the same boat now.
The top eight system is skewed in favour of the top four making it this far ? by definition, for a top four side not to be in the third week of the finals, it has bowed out in straight sets.
The McIntyre Eight system has seen the Preliminary Final surge considerably in respect as opposed to the Final Five or Final Six. Firstly, you have had to have won at least one final to play in it. Secondly, there is no side with its feet up waiting for you in the grand final. All roads to success lead through the penultimate week and it duly been rewarded with some classic games.
The first year of its implementation in 1994 saw Gary Ablett kick a goal after the siren to send the Cats through.
1996 ? need anymore be said?
1997 ? Adelaide overcame a 31 half time deficit and benefited from a thrown apple and some favourable goal umpiring to see Rohan Smith forever hit the MCG turf as the Dogs went down by two points.
1999 ? Blues trump the Bombers by one point in one of the greatest ever finals.
Interestingly enough, eight preliminary finalists have been played by interstate sides and there have only been two victors ? Adelaide in 1997 and 1998.
Brisbane has never won a final which wasn?t a Grand Final away from the Gabba.
But most importantly, in the three years of this McIntyre system being used, the two teams which have won their qualifying final played in the Grand Final.
But the focus of this piece isn?t whether or not the Swans will win or not ? the self belief has been done to death and its assumed that as their self-belief is the greatest of the four remaining sides they will win.
The focus here is comparing Preliminary Final 2003 to Preliminary Final 1996.
What can you say about 1996? Never before and not since have the Swans taken 66 points from the home and away season. Suddenly this dormant club woke up and took everyone else by storm.
A club where the mantra used to be that winning one single game was equivalent to winning the Grand Final. Finals were for the other teams. Something you followed but never for a second actually considered that your side will be involved with. For that to happen the side would have to win roughly half their games. Have some good players. Play football well.
In the early 1990?s the Swans were an embarrassment. They were the bye where there was no bye. Brisbane for that matter were a similar basket case with Geelong racking up 37.17 (239) against the Bears in 1992. (And now these two are playing in a Preliminary Final!)
In 1993, the Swans conceded 35.19 (229) and 33.21 (219) in the space of three weeks.
So just three years later you could have felt that it was a bit of a ?flash in the pan? and the next year, everything would be back to ?normal?. Richmond in 1995 also took the league by storm and look at them.
But this was different. The Red and White spirit had been evoked from its slumber and was never going to lie down again.
In 1996, who believed in the Swans? They basically were playing to justify their existence. To the Sydney people, to the Melbourne public, to the AFL family, to everyone. This club was suddenly in a position it never thought possible.
Now Sydney had to adopt the team. As did the old South Melbourne segment of it. The past and present still wasn?t fused together and had to happen if the club was to move forward, hence a bridge to the past was constructed.
In 1996, there was no winning culture for the Swans especially not in finals. The pressure was on them in the finals to win or otherwise, the peanut gallery would be putting in its two cents worth saying how it was all a fluke. This was reflected in their first two finals. They should have blown both sides out of the water but were a bit hampered by stage fright. They played better free flowing football in the Grand Final until??.
Who knows what would have happened had the Swans won in 96. Maybe they would have celebrated long and hard and that would have been the end of it. Slipping back down to mediocrity to join the Tigers and Demons. In many ways, losing the Grand Final wasn?t disaster for the Swans but a long term blessing because it meant that still a lot of hard work had to be done to win the flag and people were prepared and willing to do it.
1996 was really the beginning of the club in Sydney in many regards. There was no Swanettes or ticket giveaways. It was just the side playing good football and winning games. Attracting people by their endeavour and great spirit. 1996 was the year which was needed to sever all links with the Edelstein era and move forward like the club wished it could have done so in 1983. Talk about an overnight success.
Now go forward in your time machine, seven years???..
The players have state of the art facilities which are the envy of many clubs. Great support staff and everything off field they could hope for.
Sydney has fully adopted the club. No longer is it rugby league and/or rugby union vs Swans but the Swans are another part of the sporting landscape in the Harbour City. Seven years of winning games and spreading the word has seen the drip by drip method work. Now you would have to say there is almost unanimous recognition of the Swans. Enhanced media coverage in print, radio and TV means that most people know how the side is faring even if they don?t follow it. And the kids of today know what is going on ? that is the clincher.
The club is Sydney?s team ? no questions asked. Only a few rabid NRL loonies would deny that.
Melbourne ? Only very loyal and die-hard South Melbourne fans would not be behind the Swans today. In seven years. the club has gone to remedy the overlooked part of the relocation. What was left behind is now the legacy of today and tomorrow. This is not a team which began in 1983 but in 1897 and it would hard to imagine the likes of Laurie Nash and Bob Pratt not giving it to Fos Williams and Haydn Bunton Senior up in heaven after the Qualifying Final win.
When Bob Skilton says the qualifying win was his proudest moment as a Swan, it?s very hard not to start to get emotional.
When Daryn Cresswell, cites the old South Melbourne and ?Bloods? fighting spirit you know everything has come full circle because not only has the past embraced the future, the present has embraced the past. Cresswell as a Team of the Century member knows about the history of this great club and knows it is his job to transmit that onto the next generation. Keep the chain going.
The players are the current custodians of the Red and White spirit. When you wear a number on your back, you are the continuing something which began in 1897. Lewis Roberts-Thomson has to maintain what Mark Bayes did. Similarly Ryan O?Keefe has to play in a manner which would do John Rantall proud.
In 2003, there was no pressure on the club. It wasn?t ?win the grand final or we will lose interest? which some may have said in 1996, even after the club had finished on top of the ladder for the first time in 51 years.
But it was amazing how the cards fell into place this time round. Collingwood defeating Essendon, Port Adelaide defeating Adelaide, Fremantle defeating West Coast and most importantly Sydney defeating Melbourne was what was needed in the last round for the Swans to finish fourth on the ladder. It all happened.
Collingwood defeated Brisbane and the Swans defeated the Power to have a home Preliminary Final and the week off.
When that many co-incidences happen, you have to feel that someone is shining on you.
Now seven years later everything feels right for that flag. The two Sydney/South Melbourne halves complement each other very nicely. The infrastructure is in place for long term success and not just ?one-offs?.
There will not be a fall to earth which possibly could have occurred in 1996 because now everything is set and everyone is ready for long term success.
To take an Olympic analogy, in years gone by the Swans have been the Kookaburras. They were so convinced that something may go wrong and stuff up, they were tense and not enjoying themselves and choked because they lacked 100% belief and conviction in themselves. Whatever could go wrong would and somehow they would lose ? again.
This time round, the Swans are the Hockeyroos. They believe in themselves and more importantly are enjoying their footy. It doesn?t matter who gets injured, what the umpires do or anything like that because the Swans will still prevail.
Ever since 1933, the club has been trying in vain for success. And there must be something about the years ending 3. In 1983, the club was in Sydney. In 1993, was their beginning of the resurrection. Starting from absolute rock bottom and like a new born baby, they began to roll on their back, then crawl and slowly walk.
Three years later, in 1996 was being a teenager and thinking that you know everything only to find out you have to mature somewhat before you can really walk on your own two feet.
And now in 2003, that time has come. The Swans are ready to taste success and end a 70 year hiatus.
The premiership cup has red and white streamers hanging off it now but they are invisible to everyone but the true believers. The players can see them. As can Paul Roos - can you?
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