ONE YEAR ago, the normally rock-solid Brisbane defender Brandon Starcevich lived out a horror Grand Final, tasked with shutting down eventual Norm Smith medallist Bobby Hill.
Twelve months later, the now 25-year-old had to handle the wilfully dangerous Tom Papley, a man who can kick-start Sydney with a single, charging goal celebration.
Brisbane dominated the opening stanza of the game, but it was a fired-up Papley who kicked Sydney's second to give the Swans an 11-point lead.
There was a chance it was all about to go horribly pear-shaped again for the tenacious backman.
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"He's a big energiser for them," Starcevich told AFL.com.au with a knowing grin.
"So I tried to keep him quiet early, take him out of it, which I couldn't do. He kicked a pretty good goal early on, and you just have to tip your hat sometimes.
"It's a long game, and it bounces around. You try and wear him out, and try to get him on the back end.
"At the end of the day, forwards are going to kick goals sometimes. As a defender, you have to move on pretty quickly, you can't dwell on that. Obviously good players are able to kick good goals.
"The back seven, we're really good at coming together and supporting each other when you've just had a goal kicked on you."
Papley finished with 10 disposals and one clearance, barely raising a whimper when the game was in the balance.
With some (disappointingly cold) McDonald's chicken nuggets in one hand, and a XXXX beer can in the other, Starcevich reflected on his past 12 months.
"The whole year, from that moment, it's been that fire burning in the background, motivating you to try and go one better," Starcevich told AFL.com.au.
"Obviously at times this year, it didn't look like it was going to happen again. I wasn't the only one who was heartbroken.
"The group rallied and came together at the start of the year after a poor start and turned things around, which is credit to the group, great character."
Upon entering the rooms, the team came together to sing the song.
Starcevich happened to land on the other side of the changeroom barrier from his mum, grandparents and sister, embracing them before bursting into a raucous rendition.
"It's euphoric, it's unbelievable. Nothing feels better than this," he said.
"We did a really good job in that second quarter to get the ball forward. Our mids were enormous and then our forwards were really good at converting and putting pressure on, making our job easy down back.
"That second quarter was some pretty good football."
