Sydney Swans calling on Bloods spirit ahead of preliminary final against Fremantle

Sydney Swans fans will again climb aboard their emotional rollercoaster tonight when their battered club takes on Fremantle in a fascinating preliminary final.

The SCG will be full to the brim, tensions skyhigh, with the game, for all the wrong reasons, unexpectedly becoming one of the most intriguing match-ups we have seen in a final ... ever.

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Anything could happen ... from a 10-goal belting to a one-point thriller, all results seem possible.

Despite being the home team, Sydney of course go in as rank underdogs against the minor premiers. Not only missing All-Australians in Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner and Nick Blakey, their captain Callum Mills will watch from sidelines after destroying his knee in the qualifying final against Brisbane.

Veteran Harry Cunningham — one of those wise heads and dependable soldiers — will also miss due to a calf concern.

It feels like mission impossible ... but so did their last final against back-to-back premiers Brisbane.

Since the bombshell scandal at the Pullman Hotel after their Round 23 game in Melbourne, the Sydney Swans Football Club has been bludgeoned, gouged and gored.

Scribes have called the club a liar, the culture a facade, accused it of selling a myth to their fans.

The circling pack has wanted blood — some still do — and the blows have been savage, some fair, some misguided.

But the pack didn’t get their blood. The club’s brand and reputation may have been hanging off the bone but, in a plot twist no one saw coming, they got the Bloods instead.

Quick history lesson: When Sydney was South Melbourne their nickname was the Blood-Stained Angels before they changed it to the Swans in 1933. The Bloods culture was reborn under former coach Paul Roos, Stuart Maxfield and Brett Kirk, and after their drought-breaking premiership victory in 2005, Kirk famously shouted, “this is for the Bloods” when he was on the podium.

Sydney may be just one game away from a grand final, but right now they are in rebuild mode ... a rebuild of a famous culture. The question is, how badly damaged is it?

Chairman Andrew Pridham said after the win against the Lions: “You certainly don’t fix what ain’t broke ... We’re very comfortable with the overall culture of the club; I think it’s very strong – no culture is perfect, and that’s been demonstrated, but it’s very strong.”

And in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald ahead of today’s final, star recruit Charlie Curnow described the culture as “great”.

“The hard thing was there are so many amazing people in the AFL and here at the club. It is nice to play some really good football. Not only for us, but for everyone at the club. That’s probably the coolest thing to come out of it. It shows how great the club is and how great the culture really is. It was hard seeing a few people in there … it really impacted them. It’s a hard one to talk about,” Curnow said.

Make no mistake, Sydney have not silenced their critics following the victory over Brisbane.

And saying they are “very comfortable” with the culture is a ridiculous take ... after all their vice-captain has been stood down for breaching club standards and some senior players were up drinking at ridiculous hours and had exotic dancers in their room just weeks away from the finals (this we know as fact).

But just as one win doesn’t suddenly make things hunky-dory, the actions of a few individuals should not mean the entire playing group is stained and a culture is dead.

In fact, Dane Rampe — who has been named as captain for the preliminary final — oozes ‘Bloods’ qualities.

Kirk is emblematic of the Bloods ... the tough, hardworking battler who squeezed everything out of himself, mentally and physically, to be the very best he can be.

He was turned away from the Swans at the end of 1996 after playing for their reserves team ... then at the age of 22 in 1999 he was handed a rookie lifeline, to ultimately become an All-Australian and a famous co-captain.

Like Kirk, Rampe also struggled to get on an AFL list, and like Kirk, he wouldn’t make his Sydney debut until he was 22.

Rampe, also coming off a rookie list, was a co-captain of the Swans and in 2016 he became an All-Australian.

James Rowbottom, who was being considered for the captaincy in the absence of Mills, also plays with the spirit of a true Blood.

Like Kirk, Rowbottom doesn’t have a text book kicking action, doesn’t have a big bag of tricks, or rarely appears in the highlights of the round, but each week he’s usually on top of Sydney’s tackle count, and each week you trust he will quietly give his all.

In many ways Rowbottom reminds me of another famous Blood from the Kirk era, and that’s Jude Bolton ... these are players whose efforts are never questioned.

Tom Papley probably doesn’t fit that true Bloods mould, after all, he is blessed with plenty of footy tricks ... but, again, he’s another Sydney rookie who turned himself into an All-Australian.

Papley also has a paternal grandfather and a maternal grandfather who played for South Melbourne. He’s a Blood through and through.

And there’s Jake Lloyd, another rookie who turned himself into a two-time best-and-fairest winner.

Lloyd still wears No.44, his original number. It’s like a badge of honour and speaks volumes about the man and his humility.

Lloyd believes the Swans’ premiership push should not be overshadowed by a few individuals who “made the wrong choices”.

“It (winning a flag) would obviously be very special for the footy club itself, the people involved,” Lloyd told AAP.

“There are a few individuals that made the wrong choices and made the wrong decisions.

“But the club’s bigger than a few individuals, and there are people that do a lot of right things all the time. It’d be really special for those people.

“I remember post-game (after the Lions match) speaking to a couple of club legends and had a couple of messages from people that have been around the footy club for a long time.

“They said ‘that’s one of the best wins I’ve been a part of’.

“The expectations on the outside were that we couldn’t win, but the belief from the group within the four walls was super strong all week.”

Alongside Mills and the 36-year-old Rampe, Lloyd was crucial in leading the Swans through the immediate aftermath leading up to their Round 24 match against North Melbourne.

“It’s a bit of a blur, to be honest. There was so much involved,” Lloyd said.

“As a senior player, it was just trying to get around the rest of the group and supporting them. The feelings were different for everyone.

“I’m just super proud of the club itself, supporting our women’s team in the lead-up to that game. Our VFL team came out and put in a really strong performance themselves.

“It’s going to show how strong a club we do have.

“It’s very tough. I’m extremely disappointed in the situation the guys found themselves in.”

Like Rampe, Lloyd is chasing his maiden premiership after playing in four grand final defeats (2014, 2016, 2022 and 2024).

The pair were re-drafted as rookies at the end of last year, and while Rampe has yet to make a call on his playing future, Lloyd has signed on for a 15th season.

“There’s certainly no doubt that I won’t do everything to try and achieve a premiership, but it’s not going to define who I am,” Lloyd said.