Col Kinnear was chosen to replace Tom Hafey as coach for the 1989 season, becoming one of only a handful of men to coach a senior team without ever having played senior football. Initially it appeared to be a move likely to pay dividends, as the team got off to a flying start, winning four of its first five games.
However the six game losing streak which was to follow saw the Swans’ hopes for the season begin to fade.
The sixth losing game in particular was to have telling consequences for the team’s hopes. It was a Friday night game against Carlton at the SCG, and champion Sydney centreman Greg Williams lined up on former Swan David Rhys-Jones.
By the end of the match, Rhys-Jones had been reported three times for striking Williams, but it was on the basis of newly allowed video evidence that the tribunal decided Williams also had a case to answer, and the Sydney Swans found themselves without one of their major stars for five weeks.
Surprisingly, the team won the very next game, but the following four matches saw only one Sydney victory, and by the time Williams returned from suspension it was to a team closer to the bottom of the ladder than the top.
A resurgence in form towards the end of the season saw the Swans finish with 11 wins and 11 losses, two games out of the final five in a season which would culminate in the great clash between Hawthorn and Geelong, one of the most memorable Grand Finals in the game’s history.
