The SCG has hosted 427 AFL games but only four times has it hosted a 300th game celebration. And only twice has the ‘guest of honour’ worn red and white of the Swans.

The first 300^th game party at the SCG was 38 years ago today, Sunday afternoon 21 August 1983 in the first season the Swans were based in Sydney.

The man of the moment was an adopted favorite son. Barry Round had played his first 183 games with Footscray from 1969-1975 before joining South Melbourne in 1976 and after the team played at the SCG on a fly-in basis in 1982 while still living in Melbourne he moved to the Harbour City in 1983.

The burly, big-hearted 193cm ruckman was captain at the time and quickly became a favorite with the SCG fans. A personable fella with a sense of humour and a charisma that made him a leader of men. What Aussies call ‘a good bloke’.

Sadly, the goodwill that existed for Round didn’t transform into a 300^th game win. The Swans, 10^th on the ladder at the time, were beaten by 41 points by 11^th-placed Richmond in Round 21 in front of a crowd of 11,475.

He had 25 possessions and 20 ruck hit-outs to rank among his team’s best as Colin Hounsell and Max Kruse topped the possession count with 28. Darryl Sutton kicked four goals and Craig Braddy three.

But it remains a very significant day in not just Swans history but AFL history.

Round was the 18^th player to reach 300 games in the one-time suburban football competition of Melbourne, which has grown into Australia’s biggest national sporting competition.

Ironically, he had made his AFL debut 14 years earlier on the day when the competition welcomed just the fourth member to the 300 Club in 1969.

It was a small and exclusive group. Collingwood’s Gordon Coventry had been first in 1937 followed by Richmond’s Jack Dyer in 1949 and Essendon’s Dick Reynolds in 1950 before the great Ted Whitten played his 300^th for Footscray against Fitzroy at Princes Park on Easter Monday 1969.

A 19-year-old Round was among five Footscray debutants who helped Whitten, or ‘Mr Football’ as he known, celebrate with a 56-point win. Round had 14 possessions and kicked two goals playing at centre half forward on Fitzroy star Norm Brown.

Round, wearing the #14 Footscray jumper, was a dog who could have been a tiger had things worked out a little differently.

Having grown up in the tiny Gippsland farming town of Nilma, he later played with Warrigal in the Latrobe Valley League and was identified by Richmond at an early age. He and his family attended the 1967 grand final as guests of the Tigers after legendary Richmond recruiting boss Graeme Richmond had visited the family home.

But before Round could get to Punt Road the then VFL introduced zoning. And while he insists “I didn’t really care where I went - I just wanted to play League football” when Warrigal was zoned to Footscray he didn’t have a choice. 

He played 135 games with Footscray from 1969-75 as a back-up ruckman to Gary Dempsey and a key position player at either end of the ground, but when Billy Goggin took over as coach ahead of the 1976 season the club had what Round labelled “a fire sale”. And he was ‘sold off’. Or as he put it he was ‘given the bullet’.

He trained with Geelong but decided the trek down the highway three nights a week for training was a bit much. “For someone who didn’t mind a sip I knew I was either going to lose my license or kill myself so that was out,” he recalled.

“I was a player without a club for a while and I ended up at South Melbourne. Ian Stewart had just taken over as coach and Craig Kimberley was the new president. The place just had a really good feel about it.”

He traded in the #14 jumper he’d worn at Footscray for the #25 which had been worn in 1975 by two players – Neville Stibbard in his last two games in Rounds 1-2 and big-name recruit Brian Roberts from Round 8 after he switched from Richmond.

Round, later named in the ruck in the Swans Team of the Century, won the Swans best & fairest in 1979, when he was fourth in the Brownlow Medal and replaced Ricky Quade as captain in 1980. He won the Brownlow with good mate and ex-Dogs teammate Bernie Quinlan and the B&F in 1981, and was equal sixth in the Brownlow in 1982 when Quade took over as coach.

All this before the move to Sydney. And while Round admits the move upset a lot of people he was a staunch club man. As captain he was on board from day one and became a key figure in the pioneering group that blazed a trail for the full national competition that followed.

Now 71 and living on the Gold Coast, Round reached his 300^th game in the penultimate round of 1993 a week after Quinlan had done likewise for Fitzroy against Footscray.

Swans Michael O’Loughlin, Adam Goodes and Jarrad McVeigh, also members of a 300-Club, each played their 300^th game at the MCG, while Jude Bolton reached this rare milestone at Stadium Australia.