IT WAS a night Troy Schwarze and St Kilda fans will never forget.
Saturday, May 1, 2004, the young, frisky, unbeaten Saints were taking on the might of the reigning three-time premier Lions.
Four Brownlow medallists graced the field that night with Michael Voss, Robert Harvey, Jason Akermanis and Simon Black all in their prime. Emerging superstars Jonathan Brown and Nick Riewoldt were at either end. There was the 'G-Train' Fraser Gehrig, Lenny Hayes and a young Nick Dal Santo.
Telstra Dome, as it was then called, was heaving. A whopping 52,539 spectators, still the fifth most for a home and away match at the venue, crammed in.
Prior to the first bounce, commentator Tim Lane proclaimed: "I can't quite recall a lead-up to a home and away match like it."
With all this at play, it was Schwarze, the frizzy-haired 22-year-old Saints defender, who had just three kicks and two marks for the night, who would be the hero and etch his name into folklore.
But we'll get to that.
As the Saints and Lions prepare to meet at the same venue on Friday night, 18 years on, AFL.com.au spoke to Schwarze for a walk down memory lane.
Now 40, and a real estate agent in Sorrento on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, Schwarze was not even supposed to play that night.
"I got a call-up because Aaron Hamill was a late out," he recalled.
SAINTS v LIONS Follow all the action LIVE tonight from 7.50pm
"I only found out on the Friday or Saturday morning."
St Kilda entered the match 5-0 and the Lions were 4-1, with their only defeat coming at the hands of West Coast by three points.
After an even first term, the Saints held sway for much of the next two-and-a-half quarters.
Harvey and Hayes were having big nights and every time Brisbane threw a punch, the Saints answered.
They led by 25 points midway through the final quarter, before the champions did what champions do. Three goals to a previously unseen Alastair Lynch and one to Black and suddenly scores were level.
All the while, Schwarze bided his time on the St Kilda bench. Coach Grant Thomas barely went to him.
"Back in those days where there wasn't a lot of rotating, if you were on the bench, you were on the bench," Schwarze said.
"Then all of a sudden they thought 'let's get Troy on, he's got fresh legs'.
"I got put on to run as hard as I could for the last five or 10 minutes."
Ultimately, statistics show Schwarze played just 17 per cent game time that night, or around 20 minutes in total, so he was literally thrown into the fire with the game on the line.
Not long after getting on in the last quarter he had an unexpected run-in.
"Simon Black punched me fair and square in the head … he'd be cited and get a few weeks these days," Schwarze said.
"He tried to push off but came around and got me right in the face.
"I chased him around for a bit. I wasn't sure what I was going to do because I couldn't fight.
"To his credit he stopped a few minutes later and said: 'I'm really sorry, mate, I didn't mean that'."
By this stage the crowd was at fever pitch. Luke Power ran down the right wing, took a bounce and steadied from 40m to thread a wonderful goal and give Brisbane a six-point lead with less than five minutes remaining.
The Saints pressed, and at the 31-minute mark of the term, Austinn 'Aussie' Jones took a flying shot at goal that was controversially signalled a behind.
Schwarze conceded it should have been given out on the full.
Then his moment came. Brisbane kicked in and Heath Black gathered a loose ball on the wing, finding Brett Voss in the middle of the ground who spotted an unmarked Schwarze 65m from home.
"I can't even remember whether I was playing back or on the wing, but they just said you go on and run, it was all or nothing," Schwarze said.
"When I got the ball, that's all I thought, I looked straight at the goals and thought 'this is your chance'.
"I hadn't made an impact all night. I knew the situation and thankfully the rest is history."
That history was a 60m drop punt that sailed long, high and accurately, over the outstretched hand of Brisbane's human pogo-stick Jared Brennan.
"I think I kicked it so far because I had such fresh legs," Schwarze said.
"I couldn't hit it any better than that. It's like cricket or golf and you know you've hit it as well as you can, it's like it doesn't hit your foot.
"I hit it so pure ... it was on line and never going to miss.
"As I kicked it my first thought was 'if someone is on 20m out here I'm going to cop a serve', but thankfully I didn't have to worry about that."
Schwarze says he still gets people asking him about the moment almost two decades later, either in person or tagging his social media accounts when iconic moments in the AFL bob up.
He played, in his words, arguably the best of his 71 games two weeks later against Collingwood, but no one remembers that.
"I still get people now that stop me in the street and say 'are you Troy Schwarze?' he said.
"I have people telling me they were there that night and it's the loudest they've ever heard a crowd.
"I don't mind hamming it up a bit as well. I probably kicked it 60, but I don't let that get in the way of a good story, I let it get to 70 or 75 sometimes.
"It's my claim to fame."
Schwarze will be back at the scene of his heroics on Friday night, in the crowd with some mates, hoping he can see his Saints produce something similar.
