Near the intersection of the 50m line and the boundary, he wheeled around quickly and picked out a leading Daryn Cresswell at centre-half forward. In his first season with the Swans, Maxfield picked out a fast-leading Lockett on the flank. He spun quickly and went by hand to a running Chapman, who half-volleyed it brilliantly and fired the slickest of handballs to Stuart Maxfield. Swans captain Paul Kelly cleared hurriedly on his left out of the centre and found Simon Garlick at half forward on the bounce. With 2mins20sec on the clock it was the Bombers by a goal. Essendon had survived only because Sydney beat Hawthorn and second-placed North beat seventh-placed Geelong but had thumped fourth-placed West Coast by 77 points in Perth to earn a crack at the Swans.Įssendon led by 19 points at quarter-time before Sydney took a 12-point lead to half-time and a one-point lead to three-quarter time. It was in the days of the old McIntyre Finals System in which it was 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5 in week one, with the two lowest-ranked losers eliminated. It was Lockett and Chapman in for Justin Crawford and Simon Arnott as the Swans faced a Bombers side which had finished sixth on the home-and-away ladder and lost a qualifying final to Brisbane by a point at the Gabba. Lockett, who had won the 1996 Coleman Medal with 114 goals in the home-and-away season, had missed the Swans’ six-point qualifying final win over Hawthorn at the SCG a fortnight earlier with a knee injury, and needed a late clearance to play in the preliminary final.Īlso cleared to resume was 20-year-old North Shore junior Wade Chapman, who had been ko’d in Round 22 as the Swans claimed the minor premiership in his comeback game from a 12-week absence with a broken leg. ![]() And as the Swans prepare for Saturday night’s 2022 SCG preliminary final against Collingwood the famous ‘Plugger Point’, which was added to the Swans Heritage List in 2013, is the headline story as this week’s finals flashback as we recount preliminary finals of the Sydney era. When he was elevated to Legend status in the AFL Hall of Fame in 2015, Lockett recounted the moment, suggesting he had “done nothing all night” and “with 20 seconds to go just happened to get a mark”.įor a ‘done nothing’ moment it was very, very special. The one-time South Melbourne Swans had qualified for their first grand final since 1945, and their first ever as a Sydney-based team, sending a sell-out SCG crowd of 41,731 into scenes of jubilation that will never be forgotten. The Swans beat Essendon by the big man’s point to close out the 1996 AFL preliminary final. He carried the journey comfortably, and although he pulled it left a fraction it didn’t matter. In his 40 th game in red and white, ‘Plugger’ moved in and kicked from 55 metres out. “Any score will do,” said Channel Seven’s Sandy Roberts in commentary: “The most important kick of his career”. Tony Lockett stood at the top of his mark as the siren sounded.
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