Former Swans coach Paul Roos says Nick Davis’ four goal performance in the last quarter of the 2005 semi-final is without doubt the best quarter of finals football ever played by anyone.

Tonight the monumental effort to spearhead the Swans into the 2005 preliminary final was one of four items added to the Swans Heritage List, along with the Sydney Cricket Ground, Bob Pratt’s 150 goals in a season, and the Sydney Swans guernsey.

Davis, the ex-Collingwood player who had grown up in Sydney, played the most extraordinary quarter of football in the fourth term of the semi final, kicking four goals to help the Swans to a famous three point victory which propelled the team to a preliminary final and ultimately the 2005 premiership.

It all came together on that night in September….

“It was a very special night,’’ Davis recalled last year when he took a short break from his duties as a coach at the QBE Sydney Swans Academy.

“It was a scrappy night and we were trying our best, things weren’t going our way,  but in the end I was able to kick four goals and we got over the line.’’

2012 Sydney Swans Heritage List additions:

Sydney Cricket Ground

In 1811, the Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, established a Common, about a mile and a half wide and extending from Oxford Street to where Randwick Racecourse is today. Part sand hills and part swamp, it was used as a rubbish dump. Part of the Common was granted to soldiers for use as a cricket ground.

The ground opened in February 1854 and in the 1870s, the NSW Cricket Association began to use it on a regular basis. In August 1881, the first inter-colonial football match of any kind was a game of Australian Football played between NSW and Victoria - pre-dating the first Test cricket match by six months - the first Test match held at the ground was in February 1882.

In July 1883, South Melbourne (which had been formed in 1874), then the strongest club in the country, came to Sydney to play a series of games at the ground. Three games were played over the course of a week, and South won them all.

In 1894 the ground finally received its modern name, the Sydney Cricket Ground, which over time has been shortened to the SCG.

In 1982 South Melbourne became the Sydney Swans, and the SCG became the Club’s home, with our first home game being against Melbourne in Round 1, 1982 when we defeated a Ron Barassi coached Melbourne - 20.17.137 to 16.12.108

Since then, our Club has played 313 home and away and finals games at the SCG, for 176 wins, 136 losses, and one draw - a success rate of nearly 60%.

Bob Pratt’s 150 Goals

Considered to be one of the greatest full forwards of all time, Bob Pratt made his debut for South Melbourne in 1930 at the age of 17. He played for the Club from 1930 to 1939.

Captivating the crowd with his spectacular high marking, he played 158 games for South, and kicked 681 goals, a Club record which still stands. He was also a member of the 1933 Premiership team.

Bob Pratt is one of only two men in the history of the game to have kicked 150 goals in a season (1934), was the Club’s leading goal kicker six times - in consecutive years from 1932 to 1936 and again in 1939 - and won the competition’s Leading Goalkicker medal in both 1934 and 1935.

He was named in the forward pocket in the Swans Team of the Century, is an Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend and a Bloods Legend of the Swans Hall of Fame.

Sydney Swans Guernsey

The South Melbourne Football Club was formed in 1874. In 1880 the Club adopted red and white as its colours.  

No professional football Club of any code, anywhere in the world, participating in a formal competition with a codified set of rules, has worn the red and white longer than our Club.

Our current Sydney Swans Guernsey was first worn 107 years after our red and white jumper was worn for the first time, and is the Guernsey that we have worn since 1987.

The Guernsey comprises a red yoke in the traditional style of the jumper favoured during most of the 20th Century, but fashioned into an outline of the Sydney Opera House.  On the back of the jumper are the letters SMFC, standing for South Melbourne Football Club, thus permanently linking the Club’s origins and rich history with its present and its future.

The Guernsey is generally worn with red shorts and red and white hooped socks. The logos of QBE, Citi and Volkswagen are proudly displayed on the jumper and shorts.

The Guernsey has been worn for 25 seasons and has made an appearance in three Grand Finals.

Nick Davis’ Four Last Quarter Goals

Nick Davis played 97 games and kicked 150 goals for the Sydney Swans between 2003 and 2008.

The versatile and talented forward and midfielder played a key role in our second semi -final against Geelong on September 9, 2005 at the SCG.

It was a dry day so it was a surprise to find that the ground was soggy. The sprinklers had been on for most of the day and it was very soft underfoot, resembling Kardinia Park rather than the SCG.

The game was a dour affair.  At three quarter time Geelong had established what seemed to be a match winning lead, with the score being Geelong 6.11.47 to Sydney 3.12.30.

In the last term Nick Davis kicked four goals including the spectacular match winning goal in the dying seconds. Our season could have ended that night, but instead we qualified to meet St Kilda in the Preliminary Final at the MCG a week later….which in turn took us to the 2005 Grand Final and our first Premiership in 72 years.