Inside the year the Swans defied the AFL to win it all

Perth Now

6 hours ago

'Here it is' is one of the most famous phrases uttered after a AFL grand final, and two decades after the Swans broke a 72-year title drought, a new documentary relives all the key moments of that rollercoaster season with the players and coach who made it happen.
Shaking Down The Thunder is a four-part series premiering tonight exclusively on Channel Seven and 7plus, and features Sydney legends Adam Goodes, Michael O'Loughlin and Barry Hall, among a cast of former players — and of course, the man who held the cup aloft and delivered those famous words to the long-suffering Swans fans, Paul Roos.
The documentary charts the team's rise under coach Roos, the cementing of the Bloods culture as well as touching on the Swans' troubled history before moving from South Melbourne in 1982.
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Born in 1874, down-and-out, removed from South Melbourne into rugby league-mad Sydney, the battle through the 1980s, the near-miss in in the 1996 grand final and the constant fight for relevance instead of 'an AFL afterthought'.
'No one wanted to play for 'em, myself included,' O'Loughlin says.
There's the players' disdain, late in Rodney Eade's reign as coach and the near-miss at securing Roos to take over.
The piece of butcher paper still surviving from a pre-season camp in 2003, spelling out the reborn meaning of 'Bloods Culture' … and Jude Bolton's word-for-word recital of it to this day.
The great revelation here, that only insiders knew before, comes from Goodes and his teammates' rejection in the original vote for Roos' revolutionary leadership group.
A furious Goodes confronted his coach and took advice that changed footy — and Australian history.
'Leaders need to use their voice to challenge and support others,' he says.
Goodes won the Brownlow that year. Australian of the Year came later.
The 2005 grand final was the first of two epic deciders fought out between the great rivals of the era, Sydney and West Coast, with Barry Hall acquitted at the tribunal days before the match.
It was a moment nearly as memorable for Swans fans as the grand final win itself.
Hall, to this day, admits he probably should not have played after the Swans cited a unique loophole in the rulebook to get him off a striking charge.
The 2005 season nearly went off the rails after Sydney were thrashed by the Eagles – headlined by Chris Judd, Ben Cousins and Daniel Kerr - in Round Six and found themselves 10th on the ladder. Adam Goodes in Shaking Down The Thunder. Credit: Channel 7
They had been fancied as flag contenders after making the finals the two years previous.
To make matters worse, they were criticised in the lead-up to that game by then-AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou for playing ugly footy — a charge Roos was at first blindsided by, but later said helped galvanise the team as they made their run to the finals to finish third.
'There's a brand of football being played on the other side of the border, which is not particularly attractive, and unless the Swans change that style of play, they won't win many football matches,' Demetriou said.
'I, like others, would like the Sydney Swans to win more games because it's a very important market for us, but I don't like at all the way they are playing football.'
When a stunned Roos was first asked about the comments, he ended up providing an almost comical answer, mentioning the word 'comment' six times.
'I haven't heard the comments, so I can't comment on a comment that I haven't commented on. I will probably comment after I hear the comments,' he said at the time.
In the documentary, Roos said the criticism was a turning point.
'I knew I couldn't run the AFL, and I knew he couldn't coach the Sydney Swans,' he said.
'The CEO of the AFL thinks I can't coach and we can't play, but those comments have to wash over you as quickly as they possibly can.
'Because you can't carry them — and it was up to the players to decide for the next 10 to 12 weeks, do we want to play for each other? I am prepared to sacrifice my game so we can win?' Jason Ball Paul Roos celebrate victory after the 2005 AFL grand final. Credit: Ryan Pierse / Getty Images
After the 49-point loss to the Eagles, Roos thought their season might be over.
'The margin was so great. The West Coast game in Round Six was really significant. After that game, I realised they'd stopped playing for each other,' he tells the documentary.
'They were selfish. So I said, 'look, I think I'm wasting my time. We just want to play as individuals. We really don't want to play as a team.
'If that's the case, then just tell me, because I'm not here to waste my time. I'm not here to waste the club's time, but I'm not here to waste your time.
'So we needed to have some frank discussions around: do we want to just be a group of talented players who play for ourselves? If that's the case, we don't have enough talent to do what we want to do — and that's win a premiership.''
The Swans lost only three more games as they stormed into the top four.
They lost a controversial qualifying final to the Eagles before rallying from 17 points down at three-quarter time to beat Geelong — on the back of four final-quarter goals to Nick Davis — to make the preliminary final in the dying seconds of the semifinal.
Hall was then cited for punching Saints defender Matt Maguire in their preliminary final win.
One of several rotating captains that year, Hall's short jab looked set to end his grand final hopes.
'To say I wasn't nervous about it, I'd be lying. It was a fairly tense week,' he tells the documentary.
'We got cited and the club was worried about the attention in Melbourne, so luckily our No.1 ticket holder hired us a private jet.
'We had a limo waiting for us that goes to the back of the tribunal, went in the back door, and felt like a bit of a rock star to be honest.'
The Swans successfully argued that the incident occurred while the play was close enough for it to be judged in-play. Paul Roos and Swans captain Barry Hall hold the trophy aloft. Credit: Adam Pretty / Getty Images
The tribunal agreed, and the rest is history — with Hall kicking two goals and taking 10 marks in the four-point flag win, punctuated by Leo Barry's famous defensive mark to stop West Coast stealing the flag.
'I am not sure how it was in play, as a St Kilda player was running the other way and the ball was 150 metres away,' Hall jokes.
'We had a very good QC— he did his job and earned his money, well done.
'To get off the charge, come back, eat caviar on a private jet — I'm like, 'I should get reported every week, this is awesome.' I was relieved.'
Former Swan and 7AFL commentator Botlon summed up how the team and Swans fans felt after Hall was cleared.
'It's incredible that he got off and we were so thankful.'
Watch every episode of Shaking Down The Thunder on 7plus Sport from Wednesday 6pm AEST
Watch episode one on Channel 7 from 10pm AEST after The Front Bar (8.30pm) and Unfiltered (9.30pm)