By Malcolm Conn
Anyone who started following the Swans the year John Howard was elected Prime Minister and Macarena topped the music charts has enjoyed a period of success unmatched in the AFL.
That’s because 1996, the year the Swans unexpectedly made the grand final, kicked off a record run of finals appearances in modern football.
The Swans go into their last regular-season match of 2024 with an unassailable lead at the top of the ladder and heading for a 24th finals campaign in 29 years.
Their record is all the more remarkable given the club’s previous sustained lack of success. From the 1945 “bloodbath” grand final, to 1996 – 15 seasons after South Melbourne were shipped to Sydney – the Swans went 51 years without winning a finals match.
The Swans’ record of missing the finals just five times since 1996 is only rivalled by Geelong, who have missed the playoffs on eight occasions in that period. The GWS Giants have missed six times since playing their first AFL game in 2012 – a remarkable effort for a start-up club.
With average crowds of almost 40,000 this season, the SCG adores the Swans, as veteran defender Harry Cunningham has found many a time.
Harry Cunningham celebrates a goal.Credit: Getty
“They’ve been unbelievable, haven’t they,” Cunningham told this masthead. “They’ve been rocking up every week we play there, and been really loud and vocal and loving it at the moment.
“Hopefully, we’ve got a few more left in us there, and we get plenty there tomorrow [Saturday] night, and then going forward as well.”
The secret to the Swans’ sustained success is no secret at all, says Cunningham.
“Good people who want to work hard,” was his succinct summary.
John Longmire coached the Swans to their last premiership in 2012.Credit: Getty Images
The one frustration for Swans supporters is for all that September action is the Swans have only two flags to show for their efforts.
Across the same time frame, Geelong and Hawthorn have won four grand finals and Richmond and Brisbane three, while Collingwood, West Coast, North Melbourne and Adelaide have also won two.
Cunningham played just one game in 2012, the year the Swans won their last flag. He was there in 2014 when the Swans lost to Hawthorn, and was an emergency for the 2016 and 2022 losing grand finals.
For him, this season is “unfinished business.”
“I’ve never been able to experience winning a premiership. So that’s the ultimate goal, and it has been the goal since I was four or five years old. You wanted to play AFL and win a premiership.”
Cunningham had a precarious start to his career. Rejected by the Giants after attending their academy in his home town of Wagga Wagga, he was overlooked by other clubs in the 2012 draft.
The Swans brought him to Sydney to join with the club’s training squad for a fortnight, before taking him 93rd in the rookie draft.
“I’ve never felt comfortable,” Cunningham said of his place in the side despite having played 204 games. “My journey’s had a lot of ups and downs, whether through injuries or through form.
“You want to be able to play on edge, and you want to be able to improve all the time because you never know when it can be taken from you. I’ve had some tough times. You learn a lot about yourself to be able to get out of those spots and get back to where you want to be.”
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