There was no fairy tale result when the Dane Swan show rolled in to Shellharbour on Saturday.
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But while the Brownlow Medal winner failed to inspire the Shellharbour City Suns to victory over the Wollongong Bulldogs at Myimbarr Oval, Swan's presence on the field was "priceless".
Suns coach Dan Posch added the former Collingwood Magpies great delivered in spades in the round-six AFL South Coast fixture.
"He was a huge factor for us out there, both physically out on the field but also just the intangibles he bought to the boys. He played a good game of footy," Posch said.
"He did everything you'd expect of a Brownlow Medallist. Having him out there was a great experience for our young group."
It was more than eight months ago that the AFL great was encouraged to come out of retirement to play a special one-off game for the Shellharbour Suns.
The unbeaten Bulldogs prevailed 88-43 winners but Swan won plenty of new admirers with his impressive performance.
Posch said his players will get a lot in the long run from having played with Swan.
"I've been around a long time and played a lot of footy and this is the first opportunity that I've had to play with a guy who is a s decorated as Swanny," he said.
"Most of our guys are 18 to 20 years-old. For a first-grade footy side that is obviously very young.
"So to have an influence like him so early in their career, and to be on the field and see how he goes about what he does, positioning, just how he plays the game, to see that first hand, I think that is invaluable, you can't buy an experience like that.
"I think our young playing group will take a lot out of that, experience wise."
As for the game itself, a Suns side with Swan in it did much better than Shellharbour did when they lost 133-14 to the Bulldogs in round one.
"Five weeks ago they beat us by about 110 points so to see the improvement over five weeks in our group, and just how far we've come in that time, is really promising," Posch said.
"For us, where we are, everything is about improvement at the moment, that's a big tick.
"You always want to leave the ground with a win but to turn the round one result to what we put out today was a tremendous effort by the boys."
Posch praised his club for bringing Swan to Shellharbour.
"Huge shout out to the Shellharbour Suns footy club. What an initiative to put something like this on, to give not only our players and club the opportunity, but for the whole league.....AFL in the Illawarra is not necessarily a huge thing so to have such a proactive club and committee, that were willing to invest and put this in, I think was tremendous."
Elsewhere on Saturday, reigning premiers Figtree Kangaroos prevailed 60-48 over the Northern District Tigers in a tight clash at Hollymount Park.
Read more: Leaders APIA end Wolves' unbeaten stretch
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
