As our year as Number One Ticket Holders draws to an end we have to keep pinching ourselves to realise that we are off to the Grand Final, and our team is playing. We have been so lucky to attend 25 games this year – nearly the maximum possible for any team to play in a season.

We last wrote as our team embarked on its finals campaign and here we are two days from the last Saturday in September with, seemingly, everything intact.

Through the year we haven’t had the chance to attend many training sessions, but we have gone to the SCG for the open Tuesday training session in the past three weeks. It’s really a quite intimate experience as there are few other supporters there. We had the opportunity to talk with a number of players, some of the hard working admin staff, and some of the local AFL journalists. Kenny Williams was there dispensing Gatorade to players – and anyone else who feels like a drink!

The vibe from training is that we are a Club that knows what it wants from this season and which goes about its business in a quiet, very professional way. At the open training sessions, the players are working lightly, just maintaining their touch and skills – all the hard work was done months ago.  

On Tuesday, things had changed. We arrived at the Grand Final open training to find a 150-metre queue waiting for the gates to open. We did an interview for the media, telling them about the marvellous experiences we have had this year, and then watched training. The players looked so sharp.

When they had finished, a number of players spent about an hour with the fans – we reckon there were between 2000 and 3000 - signing Swans merchandise. Our grand-daughter was delighted to get nine autographs. A very relaxed and happy team, ready for whatever the weekend brings.

Each home game this year we have attended the Swans Chairman’s pre-match lunch/dinner function and these have been enormously enjoyable. We’ve met Swans supporters, sponsors and benefactors. We’ve also met Board members and executives from opposition Clubs, which is always interesting. Many have been genuinely interested with the way our Club chooses its Number One Ticket holders and the fact that it is a privilege rotated each year.  

Come the finals, the AFL takes over these pre-match functions. The Millennium Room at ANZ Stadium has been packed for the Fremantle qualifying and the North Melbourne preliminary finals. AFL CEO, Gillon McLachlan, spoke at both functions - praising the way our Club has performed on and off the field. There was understandable tension in the room, particularly before the sudden-death preliminary final … failure at this late stage was too hard to contemplate.

Both games gave us the desired results and we are now one step from the ultimate goal. The crowd at the North game was fantastic and kept on cheering long after the result of the game was apparent. Two long-standing records were broken – Swans highest finals score (breaking the record set against Fremantle in the 2006 preliminary final) and our biggest winning margin in a final (breaking the 1934 record against Geelong, also in a prelim).

We went down to the rooms after the North game, mingling with parents and other family members of the players. The players’ attitude was one of quiet satisfaction. This was coupled with the knowledge that all they had done to date was to give themselves the chance to reach the goal they set themselves at the start of the season.

The parents were more emotional, just elated and overjoyed for their sons. Having met many of the players’ parents and families this year, we have come to appreciate the amazing job they do in supporting their sons. It is not easy to watch from the sidelines as your child takes a hit or makes a mistake and yet they remain calm and positive and always supportive of the club and their sons. They deserve our thanks for entrusting their boys to our great club.

In between the matches at ANZ Stadium, we went to Blacktown to see our reserves team qualify for their Grand Final in a convincing win against the Northern Territory Thunder. The match was played in the rain but we were still able to see the talent coming through on our list, and also some marvellous talent from the QBE Sydney Swans Academy.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get to Brisbane for the Reserves heart-breaking two-point Grand Final loss, but followed it on the Swans’ website. Congratulations to Jared Crouch and his team who gave it everything, and Tom Mitchell for winning the Andrew Ireland Medal as the best player of the match.

The last month has been the Awards Season, starting with the Coleman Medal – congratulations Lance “Buddy” Franklin. This was followed with the Rising Star (outstanding to have two nominees in a season when we finish top), the MVP, the All Australian (more members than any other club), the Mark and Goal of the Year (surely Luke Parker would have won the Mark had his prelim Ffinal mark been eligible), the Brownlow (Swans had more votes than any other team) and the Coach of the Year, where our mentor again was adjudged the best coach in the AFL - congratulations John.  

Well done to all the winners and congratulations to all of our players who did so well. It’s all been great viewing … and, hopefully, the best is yet to come.   

We hope all the Swans family enjoy Saturday, wherever you are watching or listening – all around Australia and indeed the world.

CHEER, CHEER – GO SWANS

Your Number One Ticket Holders
Peter and Maree