Once an ugly duckling, now the pride of two cities

“HERE it is!” bellowed Paul Roos from the Premiership podium, hoisting aloft a cup 72 years in the making.

It should have been a victory for Sydney, a victory for the national competition and in many ways, it was. Yet there was something eerie about the victors. It wasn’t so much Sydney who won the flag; it was the Swans.

Sydney are the present home of a relocated team, and they did the harbour city proud yesterday. But on a day where the celebration should have marked the coming of age of a non-football city, this was the resurrection of a forgotten child.

The metaphorical Phoenix who rose from the ashes was a Swan, born and raised between Clarendon Street and Albert Park in one of Melbourne’s most historical and culturally enriched places.

It’s been one hell of a wait for the old timers from Lakeside Oval; they lost their original name and lost their ground, but the spirit remained. Yesterday, the fire burned brighter than ever.

A Sydney victory is indeed a vindication for the belief that the game could flourish in the nation’s biggest city, but as often happens during such important days, nostalgia reigned.

History was remembered more fondly than usual by a team that has often been reticent to divulge into the days of years gone by. While Brisbane’s amalgamated mass was little more than a glorified takeover in the eyes of many, the Swans are a mere relocation. Same family, just a different house and a few new friends.

To the hoards of youngsters who trotted around the MCG with their faces decked out in red and white colours, the past meant little to them. By the end of the day, the football’s forgotten vernacular was bandied around like it had never left. It’s been a long time since the Bloods and South Melbourne had a presence like this.

Yesterday’s flag had a multi-purpose like no other; Sydney now has a flag to call its own, but equally as significantly, football’s oldest drought was broken. And to the mass of Swans fans who made such deafening noise at the MCG yesterday, there was no doubting their sentiments: South had a fourth flag to call its own.

While the romanticists will rejoice at the revival of the Bloods, the record books will not. The engravers will engrave ‘Premiers 2005 - Sydney’ on the honour board at AFL House, not South Melbourne.

Hopefully this flag can serve to mend the bridges that were destroyed and never replaced; when the Swans left in Dr Edelsten’s helicopter, they left behind a shattered legacy.

Nobody has really ever wanted to remember the South fans. They felt forgotten, alienated. The Swans, in their new guise, recognised this. They were a club with a soul, but couldn’t afford to find it at the expense of alienating the new audience.

Yesterday, thankfully, they managed to accommodate both fans for the first time in 25 years.

And while the old South faithful don’t want to be tortured into having the ‘this is still your club’ rhetoric jammed down their throats, they will want a share in this success. They have every right to.

And of those who were undecided about whether to throw their allegiance behind the new club – and rest assured, there’s still a vocal pocket of resistance – September 24th 2005 marked the day that Sydney needed to have.

Two goals down midway through the last quarter, the Swans needed to lean on their Melbourne based fans more than ever. And not for the first time, they delivered, and roared their side to victory.

It was the final piece of unification between two previously tense factions, and everyone knew it.

They just needed someone to say it. Fittingly it was Barry Hall – who, like his club, metamorphosed from a one time Melbourne caterpillar to a Sydney butterfly – that managed to sum up the feelings of the day.

“This one’s for the Bloods!”

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