Both players took time to get to their feet and, when Jolly did, he came straight from the ground, spending the next 10 minutes gathering himself on the interchange bench.

But that doesn’t explain his state – Jolly later says the collision had only winded him. It’s the 11-point loss the Swans have just had to Hawthorn that’s largely to blame.

What could have been makes the defeat smart even more. If Barry Hall hadn’t, in an extraordinary last-quarter lapse of discipline, given away three consecutive 50-metre penalties that took Jarryd Roughead from the Hawks’ defensive 50 to their goal line for a certain goal. If Jolly and Adam Goodes hadn’t missed set shots for goal in the game’s dying minutes.

A losing team’s changeroom is never the happiest place. Still, when asked, players such as Ted Richards and Jarrad McVeigh happily pose for photos. Coach Paul Roos even manages a smile talking to a young fan, while other players mix with family and friends.

Jolly, though, one of the Swans’ best players with 17 disposals, 35 hit-outs and a goal, remains lost in his own world.

It has been a bad end to an even worse week. His aunt, Lisa, had earlier passed away after a battle with cancer. Unable to get to her funeral in Brisbane two days before the game, Jolly had worn a black armband in her memory, kissing it after kicking a goal at the start of the final quarter.

As Jolly and the rest of the players gradually shuffle out for ice baths and showers, the changeroom matches the feeling of the club – empty.

All that remains is the discarded tape that held ankles and shoulders together during the game, empty blue paper cups and the team sponsor banners that line the walls.

About 30 minutes later, the players begin to emerge from the showers and head for a club function. Jolly, however, returns to the changeroom for our pre-arranged interview.

Dressed in club polo shirt and dark slacks, Jolly sits on a chair that rests in about the same spot he was slumped in half an hour earlier.

Checking his watch, he says we should have plenty of time. That despite the fact he has to be on a bus to the airport in 30 minutes.

Having emerged from the fog that engulfed him in the immediate aftermath of the defeat, Jolly is relaxed and forthcoming.

At 27, and in his ninth AFL season, he has started 2009 well as the Swans’ No. 1 ruckman.

Having continued his impressive progression of recent seasons, he now looms as one of the biggest challengers to All-Australian ruck incumbents, West Coast’s Dean Cox and Fremantle’s Aaron Sandilands.

Read the full story in the round 12 edition of the AFL Record, available at all grounds.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.