We continue our countdown to the biggest event in the Club’s history - the 25 year Anniversary Dinner. Follow the highs and lows of each year the Swans have been in Sydney every day on sydneyswans.com.au leading up to the event. Here is 1998...

Dual North Melbourne Best and Fairest and 1996 Premiership player Wayne Schwass joined the Sydney Swans in 1998, in a deal which saw Shannon Grant head to the Kangaroos.

Due to suspension he was unavailable for the round one match away match against Port Adelaide – a seven point Swans victory, but was instrumental in the round 2 win over Brisbane at the SCG.

Round three saw a 103-point demolition of Geelong, before the team embarked on one of the hardest tasks in football – a trip to Perth to play the West Coast Eagles.

The Swans had not won in Perth since 1987, but the 1998 Sydney team was victorious by 19 points.

After the round five win over the Western Bulldogs, the Swans were the only undefeated team in the competition and therefore sat alone at the top of the ladder. However, four losses from the following six games saw the Swans slip back to the pack at the halfway mark of the season.

It was perhaps the round 16 game against Port Adelaide which was a defining moment for the Swans in 1998.

Barely five minutes into the game, having gathered the ball and while making one of his trademark dashes through the middle of the ground, Paul Kelly dodged a Port Adelaide opponent and his knee gave way.

In typical Paul Kelly fashion he tried to play on, but ultimately left the ground to watch his team defeat Port, and to face the fact he would need a knee reconstruction which typically keeps players out of the game for twelve months.

The team battled on without its inspirational captain.

The following week marked Paul Roos’ 350th senior game, and the Swans duly defeated Brisbane. In fact they won the following three games, and the five game winning streak at that stage of the season again boosted their ladder position.

Two consecutive losses endangered that position once more, but the round 21 game was memorable for Tony Lockett kicking his 100th goal for the season and the ensuing chaos as the crowd joined the players in the middle of the MCG.

A victory in round 22 was necessary to consolidate the Swans’ position and ensure a home final, and the win they achieved over Collingwood meant third position on the ladder, with 14 wins and 8 losses for the home and away season.

At the conclusion of the match, a red convertible drove slowly around the boundary line. Its passengers were Paul Roos and Mark Bayes, both having announced that they would retire at the end of the 1998 season. The crowd farewelled the two retiring champions hopeful that there would in fact be a few more games for each of them.

The following week brought the second qualifying final at the SCG, against St Kilda, a team which had absolutely annihilated the Swans during the season proper.

1998 Club Champion Michael O’Loughlin was the star of the show, kicking four goals and making a match-saving tackle with only seconds to go, ensuring that the Swans held on for a two-point victory.

The Swans’ semi-final opponent was Adelaide, in a game played in torrential rain at the SCG. Adelaide led at every change, and ultimately defeated the Swans 14.10 (94) to 10.7 (67) on their way to a second consecutive Premiership.

Mark Bayes’ magnificent fourteen-season career with the Sydney Swans had finished a few hours earlier, in a losing reserve grade team.

Paul Roos was chaired off the ground by his team-mates after 356 senior games, 289 goals, and a host of All-Australian and State honours. But the major impact he would have on the Sydney Swans was still to come.