In Jim Main's series, 'Swan Songs', this week he talks to Swans Hall of Famer, Mark Bayes...

Mark Bayes
Born: March 15, 1967
Played: 1985-98
Games: 246
Goals: 174

It took extreme cunning for the Sydney Swans to snare brilliant youngster Mark Bayes.

The teenage Bayes lived in the outer eastern Melbourne suburb of Dandenong and was tied residentially to Footscray (now the Western Bulldogs), but Swans’ recruiting manager Greg Miller was reluctant to let the hugely talented youth slip his grasp.

Miller knew that Bayes’ parents had separated and therefore hatched a plan to thwart the Bulldogs. He convinced Bayes’ father Brian to shift to Noble Park, a suburb in the Swans’ zone, with Mark moving to live with his father.

The Bulldogs eventually realised they had little hope of signing Bayes, so accepted a small fee to allow the youngster to play in the red and white.

Bayes recalled: “I started with the under 19s and was coached by (former St Kilda and Richmond star) Stephen Rae. I then was coached by former Melbourne tough-nut Denis Clark before playing in the reserves under (former Richmond rover) Peter Hogan.

“I made my senior debut in 1985, but the club had become the Sydney Swans three years earlier and a group of us, including Bernie Evans and Rod Carter, were still living and training in Melbourne.

“The club ordered everyone to move to Sydney for the 1985 season and although Bernie and one or two others were unable to move, I made the shift.

“I was a bit homesick at first but eventually settled in, even though the club seemed to run into one crisis or another.”

Bayes was almost the perfect utility as he could play in just about every position.

However, he played his best football at centre half-back and usually had the better of his opponents, especially Carlton’s Stephen Kernahan.

“I had plenty of tough tasks,” Bayes said. “I seemed to play on all the best centre half-forwards and played against North Melbourne’s Wayne Carey a few times, as well as St Kilda’s Stewart Loewe. They were big jobs, tough mentally and physically.”

Bayes named the 1996 Grand Final against North Melbourne as the highlight of his career, even though it ended in disappointment for the Swans in their first premiership play-off since going down to Carlton in 1945.

“It was an amazing journey,” Bayes said. “We had struggled for years and there were several times when we looked like going to the wall, but there we were in a Grand Final. Who would have believed it?”

Bayes, who represented Victoria five-times in his glittering career and won the club best and fairest in 1989, in 2003 was named on the interchange bench in the Swans’ Team of the Century and, earlier this year, was inducted into the Swans’ Hall of Fame.

“Being in the Hall of Fame alongside some absolute champions is a tremendous honour,” he enthused. “It is something I shall always cherish as the Swans probably have had more champions than any other club.

“The night was superb and it made me think of how well the club does things these days, not only on-field, but also recognising its past.”

Bayes moved to Brisbane after retiring in 1998 and sill runs the commercial cleaning business he started as a Swans player. He has two teenage children, 15-year-old daughter Mikayla and 13-year-old son Jesse. Young Jesse plays soccer, while Mikayla is a track athlete.

Bayes, who gave the Swans wonderful service over 14 seasons, is as passionate about the red and white as ever and sees the Swans play whenever they are in Brisbane and travels to Sydney a couple of times a season to his old club in action.

“I guess that move to Noble Park made me a Swan for life,” he mused. “It was the best thing Dad and I ever did.”