In the lead-up to the Swans round 8 home match against Melbourne, which will celebrate the Club’s 30 years in Sydney, sydneyswans.com.au is collating the 30 Defining Moments of the Swans in Sydney in chronological order.

The 30 Defining Moments have been selected by Sydney Swans Chairman, Richard Colless, Deputy Chairman, Andrew McMaster, and Swans Hall of Fame inductee and former Club captain, coach, and director, Rick Quade.

#26 - Grand Final v West Coast, 2006

The Swans enjoyed the weekend off following the dramatic qualifying final win over the West Coast Eagles in Perth, and hosted Fremantle in the preliminary final at Stadium Australia.

Although the Swans went into the game as red-hot favourites, the Dockers put up a strong showing in their first ever preliminary final and made the hosts work hard for the eventual victory. The Swans went on to beat the Dockers by 35 points, with Barry Hall again leading the way with six goals and Jude Bolton, Brett Kirk and Ryan O’Keefe gathering plenty of the ball.

The day after, Adelaide hosted the Eagles in the other preliminary final with the minor premiers getting home by 10 points to set up another Grand Final showdown between Sydney and West Coast.

The match got off to a fiery start with Jarrad McVeigh and Eagle Ben Cousin tangling before the opening bounce, but West Coast settled the better of the two sides and kicked the first three goals of the game through Ashley Hansen, skipper Chris Judd and Cousins in the opening ten minutes.

The Swans finally got on the board minutes later when Ryan O’Keefe streamed down the Members' wing and found Michael O’Loughlin in the forward pocket, with the hero of the qualifying final just squeezing in his set shot for the reigning premiers’ first goal.

However, the Eagles hit back with five of the next seven goals to blow the margin out past 30 points. A goal to Nick Davis in the shadows of half-time brought the Swans back into the game with the difference at the main break down to 25 points.

Courageously the Swans fought back even further in the third quarter with back-to-back goals from Lewis Roberts-Thomson and Davis just before the three-quarter time siren bringing the team to within two straight kicks at the last change.

The final quarter couldn’t have started better for the Swans with McVeigh finding Hall at centre-half-forward from the first bounce. Hall dished off a handball to Adam Goodes who was running past at full pace, and the Swans’ number 37, who had claimed his second Brownlow Medal on the Monday before the Grand Final, kicked through an inspiring goal from just on 50 metres out. Goodes’ goal put the Swans to within five points of the Eagles.

Neither team could manage a goal over the next 13 minutes of game time in a fascinating struggle, before Swans goalsneak Adam Schneider latched on to a loose ball in the forward 50 to snap through his first goal of the match and put the Swans just one point behind with seven minutes of the season remaining.

Both sides traded goals and looked to be eventual winners over the remaining minutes, with O’Keefe and Nick Malceski kicking the Swans goals to cancel out efforts from Steven Armstrong and Hansen for the Eagles.

However, Malceski’s goal would prove to be the last of the match and the Swans could never breach that one point deficit, eventually going down to the Eagles by the lowest of margins.

“Who would have thought the sequel would be just as good as the original?” pondered Channel Ten’s Anthony Hudson seconds after the final siren, and while it might have been the case for the neutral observers, the loss was bitterly disappointing for the Swans.

"I think there's an overwhelming feeling of disappointment, obviously, because if you're not disappointed, then there is no point in trying to win it again,” Swans coach Paul Roos said after the game.

“If we were to be beaten by anyone in the 2006 premiership I honestly would have hoped it would have been the West Coast Eagles because I admire their coach, I admire their footy club, I admired the way they accepted defeat graciously last year, I admired the battles that we had with them and, while it's bitterly, bitterly disappointing to lose, we can take some consolation that it was a great team that beat us and it was only by one point.”

The leadership, in particular co-captain Brett Kirk who fearlessly attacked the football throughout, was outstanding and the catalyst for the second half comeback which fell just short.

"I couldn't be prouder of the team. The way they go about their football sometimes astonishes the coaching staff and this was another example. Where at some point it looked like it could have been a seven, eight, nine, 10 goals victory [to West Coast], guys like Kirky and our leadership group and everyone just stood up in the second half and contributed and I'm just so proud of the players and how they went about their game.

"I said to the players, don't walk around with your heads down, walk around with them up and celebrate what a fantastic season it's been.”