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September 27, 2005
FINALLY!!!!!
For those who have been living under a rock for a week I have some very proud news to report - THE SWANS HAVE WON THE 2005 PREMIERSHIP. After supporting this club for so many years and having been brought up as a Swans fan in the late 80's, early 90's I thought this day would never come, but by heck it has and boy was it worth the wait.
While the match won't be remembered as a highscoring shootout that mnay fans like to see, it will be remembered for being one of the toughest Grand Final's for many a year and one where accountable teamwork won out over flashy football. But for me that isn't important, what is important is that the Swans finally have a premiership after 72 years and I was alive to see it (despite my tombstone post early in the season).
Basically there isn't much one can say about the match other than the fact it was a close match and the Swans won out , but I will say that Leo Barry's heavily contested mark in the West Coast forward line in the dying seconds will go down as one of the great Grand Final moments and will live with me forever.
The match itself saw the Swans trail the Eagles out of the blocks but managed to keep the Eagles to only two goals and allowed themselves to work themselves back into the match and kick two late goals thanks to Schneider and Hall to add to an early goal from Jolly. This allowed the Swans a 2 point quarter time lead and let the Eagles know that they would allow them room to move.
The second term saw us bounce out quickly with 3 goals to thanks to Goodes, O'Loughlin and Kennelly before the 16-minute mark, gaining a 21-point lead which turned out to be the biggest margin of the match. The rest of the quarter saw the Swans hold the Eagles down and saw them go into halftime with no goals in the second quarter and looking gone. But the Eagles had other ideas and turned the tables and held us scoreless in the third term while kicking five unanswered goal into the early stage of the last quarter. This included Luke Ablett's brain fade (all is forgiven Luke) and Adam Hunter's "touched" goal.
At that stage things looked gone for the Swans and the Eagles fans near me had started their premiership party. But a quick Barry Hall goal from outside 50 quickly ended them and put the Swans back into the hunt. Once that door was opened the Swans took off and started attacking like no tomorrow.
This is where things got crazy, Magic got the ball but missed normally easy shots at goal and when five points down an Amon Buchanan goal put the Swans in front for what turned out to be the last time and as we moved the lead out further and the Eagles started to attack looking for a winning goal the nerves started playing up, but never fear when things counts Leo Barry stood tall.
At the ground I saw the mark and relief went though my body as I knew we would be able to clear the ball once more, but all of a sudden the noise level picked up and seeing people dancing and crying I knew the siren had gone and the premiership was won.
The whole presentation and lap of honor was a blur but I managed to spend it with my friends and found out and hugged everyone I needed to hug. Found my Dad, who got me into this at Punt Road, watch the team being presented and then went off to Clarendon Street for a feed and a few drinks at Patony's (which saw us take turns at waving JF's 10ft flag at the passing traffic), then moving onto Bell's at about 1am (throwing cut up and docket rolls as we went) to watch the 2nd half on replay and drink out of the premiership cup.
After getting kicked out of there after the replay finished because we kept them open an hour pass their closing time, it was off too Crown where we managed to find a quiet bar which had these great chairs and rested our legs and enjoyed a few more quiet drinks until 4am when they closed the bar. After that it was off to Collingwood for 2 hours sleep via a feed at McDonald's and then the family day at Lake Oval. Since then I've just rested up and let the moment sink in.
But no matter how hard I try its hard to accept the Swans finally are premiers of the AFL and have finally won our 4th Premiership.
Thanks to the 22 players who gave their all and to Paul Roos for getting the mix right. We fans are always in your debt.
1909 - 1918 - 1933 - 2005
Sydney: 8.10 (58)
West Coast: 7.12 (54)
Goals: Hall 2 Buchanan, Goodes, Jolly, Kennelly, O'Loughlin, Schneider 1.
Best Swan on Ground: Lewis Roberts-Thomson/Amon Buchanan/Nic Fosdike/Leo Barry/Barry Hall/Craig Bolton.... I could go on and name the 22 players but I leave that for another post. To be honest they all played their part in particular the first three.
Posted by robbieando at September 27, 2005 01:36 PM
Comments
Yep, was great. Have just arrived back from Melbourne.
Is there ever a better moment for a footy fan? Been 23 years for me. My father and I were at the first SCG game in 1982.
We were on the top level of the Ponsford stand and had a great view of Leo's grab that won the game. Real heart in the mouth stuff.
The win was a vidication of Roo's coaching and the team's style of play. So much for the footy 'experts' who so mercilessly bagged their style of play.
It may not have been the purists dream game, but it wasn't the whitewash of so many recent GFs and was a much more entertaining game because of it.
So, congratulations to the team and thanks to the Swansblog author. See you next year.
Posted by: tony at September 27, 2005 04:49 PM
"Is there ever a better moment for a footy fan?"
Yeah, I'd say winning the premiership again.
Like you tony I've basically waited since 82 for this premiership and having gone though the hard times I never thought I would see the day. But the dream was alive as long as the club was and Saturday finally saw the reward.
As for SB.com, its been a pleasure to write for how ever many readers I have (site owner has the figures) and I'll be having some special features in the coming weeks and months as we soak in the premiership. I'll have a Phantom Draft (which I've done for RWO for the past three season), a report card and a few other added extras.
So I'll be back next year don't worry about that.
Posted by: robbieando at September 27, 2005 09:49 PM
From Blogger to Blogger. It was a long wait and well done on finally breaking through! Hopefully we don't have to wait as long as you did to break ours... =(
Posted by: Sammy D at September 29, 2005 09:14 PM
Don't worry, Sammy waiting makes it all worth while. I just hope we don't have to wait as long next time.
Posted by: robbieando at September 29, 2005 11:34 PM
Hey After 24 seasons of dissapointment and near misses, I finally got to see (live) my life long dream of my (our) beloved bloods take out the flag, Im from tassie, when i lived in melb i was part of the melb cheer squad group which im indebted to for thier friendship and support, i got to sit in ponsford stand bottom level just behind leos mark and all the stuff ups from both sides in the last quarter, and i owe my attendance to my employer who granted me the weekend off work to fulfill my (our) dream.
I hope other long suffering supporters from different clubs can experience the emotion and joy we did that day in the future.
Posted by: andrew at October 1, 2005 09:58 PM