The SUNS’ extraordinary first finals win over Fremantle last Saturday night will forever be remembered for the David Swallow moment. When the heart and soul man of the club kicked a 51m behind nine seconds from full-time in the greatest moment in club history.
Simply, it just doesn’t get any better than that.
If in 2060 the SUNS are celebrating 50 years in the AFL, recounting all the great moments, it would have taken a similarly heroic last-gasp performance for a grand final win to topple ‘The David Swallow Moment’.
Even then the traditionalists would say “yeah, but back in 2025 the club was just finding its feet .. it had waited for what seemed like forever just to play a final, and that one Swallow kick put the club on the map. It was like announcing the ‘arrival’ of the SUNS as a legitimate force.”
Yet as special as it was, it was one of countless moments that will live long in the memory of SUNS fans.
Like Damien Hardwick’s decision to play Swallow after he’d not played in a month due to a knee complaint. Like Mac Andrew’s ice-cool 35m drop punt to level the scores with 90 seconds to play after Bodhi Uwland had taken a magnificent intercept mark and weighted perfectly a pass into the leading lane of the defender turned goal-kicking hero.
Like the superman contribution of Noah Anderson and Matt Rowell, the ‘dynamic duo’ who only nine days earlier had become the first SUNS pair to share All-Australian selection. They combined for 68 possessions (25 contested possessions), 21 score involvements, 19 inside 50s, 10 clearances, nine tackles and 1391m gained in a finals ‘double act’ like very few.
There was Jarrod Witts’ tireless 21 possessions, game-high eight clearances and 44 hit-outs against the two-pronged Dockers ruck contingent of Luke Jackson and Sean Darcy, and Touk Miller’s 11 tackles – his best since 2021.
There was the combined 22 intercept possessions of Wil Powell (12) and Sam Collins (10) – more than a third of the entire team – and their shared 92.3% disposal efficiency.
There was Bailey Humphrey’s three goals in the second quarter after he hadn’t had a touch in the first quarter. And Ben King’s team-first contribution up the ground and a possession count more than 50% up on his season average when, for the first time this year, he went goalless.
There was a touching moment in the middle of the ground post-siren when Swallow chatted with retiring Fremantle champion Nat Fyfe who, like Swallow, was playing his 248th game. And his last. Two of the great warriors together on the field for the last time.
Everyone had their own special moments on the proudest of proud days in SUNS history.
But there was one other very special moment totally unrelated to the SUNS’ 11.14 (80) to 12.7 (79) win over the Dockers that will live just as long in the memory of those who saw it. And is ‘must see’ for those who missed it.
It was in the SUNS rooms when the Fox Footy trio of Kath Loughnan, Nathan Buckley and Jordan Lewis were interviewing Rowell shortly after a loud and proud rendition of the club song.
First Maggie Rowell, younger sister of the bullocking midfielder, managed to get herself in on the interview and explain that she had to sit between her mother Louise and father Dave because they were such nervous watchers.
And then Louise joined in and held the national viewing audience captivated for several minutes, recounting how ‘freakin proud’ she was, and how ‘freakin good’ the club was.
She said she was most proud of Rowell “because he’s a good boy”, and amid the hysteria offered a special parental insight into the shared six-year journey of Rowell and best mate Anderson, who when they first moved to Queensland had stayed at the home of CEO Mark Evans and his wife Lynne.
It was a story that would resonate with the parents of all the young SUNS players who had move from interstate, she said.
“You let them go when they are babies, you miss them so much because they are such good kids, everyone has done so much for them, you love what they are doing. And they have their own family up here now, what this club has done for these boys is freakin unbelievable. I’m so grateful.”
Friday night’s heart-stopper, in front of a club record crowd of 57,507, wasn’t the first one-point win in club history. But it was the first in which they’d given up a 26-point lead in the third term.
Overall, it was the fourth time the SUNS have won by the narrowest of margins, having done so against Adelaide at home this year, Essendon at Marvel in 2024 and GWS in Ballarat in 2021 after they’d lost two by one point to St Kilda and Melbourne in 2019.
In other significant milestones:
Anderson’s 32 possessions, his 14th game of 30-plus this year, took his season possession count to 726. Having broken Sam Flanders’ club record of 680 in the last home-and-away game against Essendon, Anderson has become the first player in SUNS history to top 700.
The win was the 70th for ex-captain Miller, who joined Swallow as the only SUNS player to have hit this mark. Lachie Weller, a key contributor against his former club, enjoyed his 40th SUNS win, and Ben Long his 30th.
It was the SUNS’ first win over Fremantle at Perth Stadium and the first win over Fremantle in Perth since 2016, when they won by 26 points at Subiaco. And it gave the SUNS ‘away’ wins over both WA clubs in Perth this year – another first.
It was the first career win over Fremantle for Andrew, Alex Davies, Humphrey, Sam Flanders, Ethan Read and Uwland, and the first win at Perth Stadium for Farrar (who had never played there) and Flanders.
