This time last month, Sally Edmiston could not have imagined she’d been spending Thursday morning in the third week of September at the SCG, attending the Swans’ open training session the day before a preliminary final. Instead, the 57-year-old was considering cancelling her membership.
The Swans are in Edmiston’s blood. Three generations of her family have supported the club, going back to its days as South Melbourne, and she says she was taken to her first games as a baby in her pram.
Like the rest of the AFL world, she was shocked to read the reports coming out of Melbourne’s Pullman Hotel on the morning of Monday, August 17, which would lead to the suspension of five players for breaching the clubs’ behavioural standards.
Four of those players – Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey and James Jordon – remain part of a police investigation into the alleged sexual assault of exotic dancers at the Pullman after the club’s victory over Essendon at the MCG the night before.
Edmiston was so upset at what she was reading she began drafting an email to the club. In it, she wrote that she was thinking of ending her membership.
“I just needed to offload to say how disappointed I was,” she said.
Though Edmiston received a prompt reply, she said she was still undecided about continuing her membership when she turned up for the Swans’ next home match, against North Melbourne.
“But when I saw them play their guts out … You fall back in love and trust them again,” she said. “You end up loving the players, but it’s the jumper you love at the end of the day.”
After their stunning 53-point victory over Brisbane in the qualifying final 12 days ago, Edmiston bought a plane ticket from Melbourne to Sydney, arriving on Thursday morning with her sister, Amanda. The two women went directly from the airport to the SCG, still carrying their suitcases, to watch the Swans train.
“I figured that I wanted to fly up just for moral support, whether we lose or win,” Edmiston said. “I figured if they lose, I think it’s nice to have us just proud of them for what they’ve been through and everything going on. And if they win, we’ll be at the ’G.”
Edmiston will be part of a sold-out crowd at Friday night’s preliminary final against Fremantle. On Thursday, though, coach Dean Cox dismissed the suggestion that a full SCG was proof that the Swans had won back their fans.
“We’re still trying to do that,” Cox insisted. “I think the support that this football club has had for a long period of time has been phenomenal. This year’s been sold out most of the year, and it’s great to see everyone get back in. Hopefully, we can put in a performance that we’re really proud of.”
Also among the crowd of Swans fans at the SCG on Thursday was 36-year-old Paddy O’Sullivan and his five-year-old son, Tadgh. O’Sullivan said he was missing a couple of work Zoom calls to bring Tadgh to the training session as Friday night’s game, which kicks off at 7.40pm, was too late for him.
Originally a Gaelic football fan from Ireland, O’Sullivan has been a Swans devotee since he moved to Sydney 18 years ago, while his son has worn red and white since he was born.
“He’s inherited it,” O’Sullivan said. “He loves it.”