Sydney Swans young gun Nick Blakey hunts the footy on debut in Round 1, 2019.

There’s something extra special about a Round 1 AFL debut. Just ask Nick Blakey. Because it was this time last year the rising Sydney Swans star had his first taste of a career path that is set to engulf him for the next decade. And more.

Similarly, Oliver Florent made his AFL debut in Round 1, 2017, after Tom Papley, Callum Mills and George Hewett (2016), Isaac Heeney (2015), Dane Rampe (2013) and Harry Cunningham (2012) had enjoyed their introduction to league football in season-openers.

It is a game that doesn’t count any more than any subsequent games, and is pretty much consigned to history by the end of the season, but every year Round 1 holds a special captivation for all players young and old.

In 38 years since South Melbourne relocated to Sydney and interstate travel became a significant factor in league football, the Swans have opened the season at 14 different venues spread across each of the five state capitals on the mainland. 

In that time, the Swans have opened the season against every opposition club except Fremantle, Geelong and Gold Coast, and the now defunct Fitzroy, and have an overall 18-1-19 record. 

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Not surprisingly, Swans games record-holder Adam Goodes has played most Round 1 games in the red and white with 16 (including years in which the club had a Round 1 bye and played its first game of the season in Round 2). Goodes played 15 season-openers in a row from his 1999 debut, and after missing Round 1 through injury in 2014 closed out his career with one more in 2015.

Only nine players in VFL/AFL history have played more Round 1 games than Goodes: Dustin Fletcher (20), Robert Harvey (20), Ted Whitten Sr (19), Gary Ablett Jr (17), Dick Reynolds (17), Jack Dyer (17), Jack Titus (17), Kevin Murray (17) and Doug Hawkins (17).

As Ablett prepares to play his 19th this weekend to move into outright fourth position on this list, Shaun Burgoyne is scheduled to play his 17th Round 1 game.

On the Swans’ all-time list, Goodes is one season-opener ahead of Bob Skilton and Ron Clegg. 

Swans old-timers will cherish the memories of some of the great Round 1 games since 1982.

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Like the first Round 1 game at the SCG in 1982, when the Swans, under new coach Ricky Quade and skippered by Barry Round, beat Melbourne by 29 points. And in 1985, when John Northey made his senior coaching debut and Bernie Evans kicked nine goals in a thumping 110-point win over St Kilda as John Ironmonger, Jamie Duursma, Darren McAsey and Mark Russell made their AFL debuts.

Like in 1986 as Tom Hafey coached the club for the first time and Warwick Capper kicked eight goals in a 25-point win over North Melbourne in which six big-name recruits made their Swans debuts: Greg Williams, Gerard Healy, David Bolton, Jim Edmond, Merv Neagle and Bernard Toohey. And in 1987, when Capper kicked nine and Sydney beat Collingwood by a club-record 91 points at Victoria Park in Wayne Henwood’s debut.

Like in 1990, when Greg Williams had 43 possessions in a five-point win over Carlton at Princes Park in which Paul Kelly shared his AFL debut with Shane Fell, Brad Tunbridge and Jim West. It was at the time and still is a Swans Round 1 possession record post the 1982 relocation.

Like in 2011 when the Swans opened the season with a draw for the only time in club history. It was also John Longmire’s first game at the helm as scores finished at 11.18 (84) apiece against Melbourne at the MCG. Ryan O’Keefe had a game-high 31 possessions to earn three Brownlow Medal votes in Byron Summer’s first and last AFL game.

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In 2012, the Swans welcomed not just a new season but a new arch rival when, in Round 1, they beat GWS by 63 points at Stadium Australia, now known as ANZ Stadium, in the expansion club’s first game. Goodes played his 300th game and Cunningham his first as Josh Kennedy was best afield.

The only other 40-possession game in Round 1 post-1982 was at the SCG in 2016 when Luke Parker had 40 and Lance Franklin kicked four goals in an 80-point win over Collingwood as Mills, Papley and Hewett debuted.

Memorable more recently, too, was the Round 1 game of 2018, when Franklin kicked eight goals as the Swans’ crashed the West Coast Eagles’ first-game celebrations at the new Optus Stadium.

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