By Vince Rugari
A good chunk of the 43,189 fans at the SCG on Saturday evening would have been just settling back into their seats after the half-time break, meat pie and mid-strength beer in hand, when Isaac Heeney made the executive decision that the Sydney Swans were going to win.
There was Plugga’s Point in 1996, the famous four-goal, fourth-quarter blitz by Nick Davis in 2005 – and now ‘Heeney’s Heist’, which can sit rightfully alongside those moments in the annals of Swans history as one of the greatest all-time individual performances in a final.
He finished with three goals from 30 disposals on the night in Sydney’s qualifying final victory over the Giants – 12 of them coming in the third quarter, the team’s resurgence sparked by one spectacular action at the very start of it which has gone viral around the world.
Heeney also kicked the last goal of the second quarter, after an excellent one-handed mark in the pocket, to reduce the Giants’ lead at the time to 21 points. Looking back, it was a hint of what was to come.
The third term began with back-to-back stoppages: first the centre bounce, then a ball-up immediately following it after Chad Warner was held up by James Peatling. At the second, Heeney is beaten to the ball by Giants star Josh Kelly, who then hurries a kick forward as he is tackled to the ground.
It bounces over two players and is collected by Swans captain Callum Mills, who throws the ball onto his left foot and snaps across his body to regain the territory they had just lost.
His kick only goes about 35 metres, from their defensive 50 arc to the Toyota logo on the member’s side wing, but it goes high up into the air – and while it floated up there, Heeney assessed it was gettable.
Having lost his footing while tackling Kelly in the previous stoppage, Heeney bounced back up quickest and sprinted past his flat-footed opponent to get under the ball and to the aerial contest between Swans forward Logan McDonald and Giants defender Jack Buckley, who were sizing up Mills’ kick.
But Heeney had the perfect sit, launching off the ground with his right foot and nestling his knee onto the left shoulder of Buckley, who is 193cm tall. He continues to rise, and by the time the ball is within his grasp, Heeney (183cm tall) is fully upright, floating above Buckley, his body almost fully extended.
He could only defy gravity for so long, though, tipping forward on his descent, bound for a head-first landing - until Buckley instinctively reaches for Heeney’s right hand, pulling him towards him.
In so doing, Buckley saved Heeney, who was parallel to the ground at one stage as he fell, from probable injury or concussion, allowing him to flip midair and land safely on his back.
Heeney’s kick, like so many of the ones that follow some of the game’s greatest marks, was ineffective. It found a pack marking contest which nobody could win, the ball then going out for a throw-in.
But what that moment did do was change the atmosphere at the SCG; with the Swans down by 21 points at that stage, suddenly the crowd became a factor, their voice helping their team gain momentum. A minute or so later, as Heeney continued to approach every contest with manic intensity, they had kicked the first goal of the quarter through Dane Rampe.
Heeney booted the next goal, wiping blood from his face from a broken nose as he went back to take his set shot from 35 metres out, directly in front. That made it a nine-point margin; his third and final goal, late in the final term, launched from inside the centre square into an empty goal square as the Swans surged from defence, levelled the scores.
Take his influence away, and it is hard to imagine how Sydney would have dragged themselves over the line.
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