"I wore it for 10 minutes, but people think I’ve worn a helmet my whole life."

Jude Bolton will always be remembered as a hard nut, a player who epitomised the Bloods culture, and the 2005 Premiership is no exception.

Then there’s that helmet.

After copping a hit to the head (what’s new?) in the final quarter of the 2005 Grand Final, Bolton ran to the bench with blood streaming from the cut.

Minutes go bye before Bolton, emerging from the bottom of a pack like usual, is captured wearing a helmet.

Swans fans would remember Brett Kirk wearing the same head gear in the preliminary final against St Kilda.

"I went into a pack and got kneed in the top of my head," Bolton said.

"We had bagged Kirky for wearing it the week before…it’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever see. You can’t hear out of it and that’s why Kirky cut the ears out of it."

Caught up in the emotion of the occasion, Bolton left that helmet on and will forever be immortalised in photos and footage receiving his medallion under the now famous guise.

And it has stuck with him all this time.

A friend once dusted it off and brought it out for a bucks party - “that was a surprise,” Bolton said.

It has stood the test of time, longer than Bolton can say about his jumper which has tragically gone missing. The famous #24 with the 2005 Grand Final patch is out there, somewhere unknown to the superstar Swan.

Well, as long as he's got that helmet.