Ex-Crow Mattner repays Swans' faith

MARTIN Mattner has no idea who he was chasing.

Martin Mattnew

MARTIN Mattner has no idea who he was chasing.

But the newest member of the AFL premiership club does know had Hawthorn forward Luke Breust slipped down the MCG's southern wing with less than two minutes to play, Sydney's shaky five-point lead - and the former Crow defender's football dream - would have slipped away.

"I can't remember who it was, but I just knew the ball was going out to that side," recalled Mattner of the play that locked the ball in the Sydney half for the last minute to set up Nick Malceski's game-sealing goal with 34 seconds to play.

"I just started going toward (Bruest) and the ball made a nice bounce so that I could tackle him and get the ball out-of-bounds.

"That was good for us."

Mattner, 30, left Adelaide at the end of 2007 when the Crows were far from convinced on his long-term future while former Swans coach Paul Roos could not believe Adelaide was not playing him. Five years later, Mattner is not only still in the AFL but he has a flag - and certainly no regret.

"At the time," said Mattner, who sought his trade to the Swans when he was two games short of the 100-game milestone with the Crows, "you don't know about the move, but now ... it's taken a while, but it's now happened with an amazing team, a great club".

"Definitely, it's definitely been worthwhile. It is amazing, unbelievable ... and it is going to take a while to sink in."

Mattner, who made the township of Ki Ki on the Murray famous when he became a Crow, left the Adelaide team to join a Swans unit that is renowned for being hard.

Not even the poor start to yesterday's Grand Final in which Hawthorn led by 19 points at quarter-time dented the spirit of the so-called "Bloods".

"We have a belief that comes from a group that has played together for a few years and the young guys come in to accept what the club wants and what is expected - a hard contest," said Mattner. "Today, that was an amazing effort.

"Hawthorn's a great team, and in a game that went to-and-fro we came out on top at the end."