Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian football -Mannschaft in Sydney , New South Wales , in the Australian Football League plays (AFL). The club colors are red and white.
The club was founded in 1874 as South Melbourne Football Club and entered the Victorian Football League in 1897 . In 1981 the club moved to Sydney and has been called Sydney Swans ever since . Since the mid-1990s, the Swans have been among the most successful teams in the AFL and have played a major role in the growing popularity of Australian football in New South Wales , which is traditionally a stronghold of the rugby league . The red and whites play their home games either in the Sydney Cricket Ground or in the ANZ Stadium .
history
The South Melbourne Football Club, founded in the summer of 1874, then known by the nicknames "Southeners" or "Bloods", was initially one of the strongest teams in Australian football. In the Victorian Football Association , predecessor of the VFL, South Melbourne won five league titles in 1881, 1885 and 1888-1890. In 1897 the club was one of the founding members of the Victorian Football League . In 1909 and 1918 the first championship titles were won in this league. The 1930s were one of the most successful years in the club's history. From 1933 to 1936 South Melbourne reached four Grand Finals in a row, but was only able to achieve victory in 1933. During this time the team was nicknamed "The Swans" because many players from the state of Western Australia were active for the club, whose heraldic animal is a swan . In 1945 a grand final was reached for the last time , which was lost in a brutal game against the Carlton Blues . This was followed by a decades-long period of sporting decline. Demographic changes within Melbourne caused the traditional recruiting areas for players and fans of the Swans to shrink massively. The financial means were lacking for the commitment of high-class foreign players. Between 1945 and 1981, South Melbourne only reached the knockout round twice. The club was so financially and athletically downright that a change seemed inevitable.
In 1981 the Swans decided to play all of their home games in Sydney. The VFL supported these plans as it had long intended to install teams in the states of New South Wales and Queensland , where Australian football has traditionally been overshadowed by rugby league and rugby union . Despite massive resistance, the fans from South Melbourne could not prevent the temporary move from becoming a permanent one, also because the players spoke out in favor of relocating the club completely to Sydney. From 1983 the club was officially renamed Sydney Swans . After promising beginnings, however , the Swans fell into a sporting and financial hole again in their new home. From 1992 to 1994 Sydney "won" the bottom of the table three times in a row, the wooden spoon , the average attendance fell below 10,000. From 1995 the tide turned. Around the newly signed superstar Tony Lockett, the Swans were able to build a top team and finally move into a Grand Final again in 1996 after 51 years , which was lost to the North Melbourne Kangaroos . In the following years the Swans became regulars again in the finals . In 2005 the 72-year drought came to an end and the championship title was finally won again with a 58:54 final victory over the West Coast Eagles . It was also the first AFL championship title that went to New South Wales. 2006 succeeded again in the Grand Final , in which the Eagles were able to reciprocate, however, for their defeat. There were other Grand Finals in 2012 and 2014 , this time against the Hawthorn Hawks . In 2012 the Swans won 91:81 and brought the second title to Sydney, while in 2014 the Hawks more than clearly got the upper hand with 137: 74. In 2016, Sydney finished the regular season in first place, but was sensationally defeated by the Western Bulldogs 67:89 in the Grand Final .
Fans
Until 2012 the Swans were the only AFL club in Sydney and have a correspondingly large target group. However, Australian football is still not nearly as popular in Sydney as it is in Melbourne, for example . The current number of members of around 40,000, with a respectable average viewer of 32,500, is quite impressive. The Swans have intense rivalries with the West Coast Eagles , the Brisbane Lions and, more recently, the Greater Western Sydney Giants .
successes
- VFL Championships as South Melbourne (3): 1909, 1918, 1933
- AFL Championships as Sydney Swans (2): 2005, 2012