It was Round 11 1987 when the Brisbane Bears played the Sydney Swans for the first time at Carrara. Queenslander Darren Carlson, from Southport, made his AFL debut in a 73-point loss and Jim Edmond, one of the Bears’ boom recruits, was fined $2000 for punching a journalist.
It was the start of a bad period for Edmond, a 154-game Western Bulldogs star from 1977-85 and the Dogs 1983-85 captain who had joined Sydney in 1986. But after 13 games with the Swans he headed north in ’87 to join the League’s newest club.
Edmond kicked three goals in Brisbane’s unforgettable first game against North Melbourne at the MCG and a career-best eight the following week at Geelong. By Round 10 he had kicked 28 goals in eight games.
But in Round 11 against the Swans the 28-year-old full forward had just six possessions and was held goalless by Rod Carter before taking out his frustrations on Sydney Morning Herald journalist Mike Cockerill.
He had a post-game run-in with Cockerill, who was more a soccer man but had covered Edmond’s time at the Swans the year before.
The fine was part of a negotiated settlement in which the Bears issued a statement confirming Edmond had been severely reprimanded for the incident, and, after a guarantee of no legal action, an apology on Edmond’s behalf to Cockerill and the Sydney Morning Herald.
Edmond kicked one goal the following week against Hawthorn but was suspended for six weeks for striking the Hawks’ Russell Morris. It was Edmond’s second suspension of the year and the heaviest in the VFL for an incident not involving an umpire since Essendon’s Ronnie Andrews copped six weeks in 1974 after a halftime brawl.
Speaking later, Edmond denied he was a thug. “I’m not that way at all. I’m an easy-going guy who gets on well with people – or at least I hope I do. Nothing like this has happened to me before,” he said.
On the incident with the journalist, who in 2011 was inducted in the Football Federation Australia Hall of Fame before dying in 2017, Edmond said he regretted what happened with Cockrell but indicated it was a question of pride and honor after Cockerill had taken ‘a lot of cheap shots’ at him in Sydney the previous year.
Of the Morris incident, he was deeply sorry. “It was an accident. I didn’t go out to deliberately hurt him. I tried to bump him hard but legitimately, but it did look pretty bad on the video,” he said.
Edmond topped the Bears goal-kicking in 1987 with 34 goals in 12 games but after eight goals in five games an injury-disrupted 1988 he retired at Round 18.
With Edmond’s eight-goal haul at Geelong still equal fourth-best in club history behind only Jonathan Brown (10), Brad Hardie (9) and Daniel Bradshaw (9), and still the club’s equal best against the Cats, Edmond is one of 18 players to represent Brisbane and Sydney.
He and Mark Roberts were members of the first Bears side, and have been followed by Jamie Duursma, Warwick Capper, Matthew Ryan, Matthew AhMat, Dion Scott, Craig Potter, John Hutton, Shannon Corcoran, Brent Green, Adam Heuskes, Stefan Carey, Craig Bolton, Ben Fixter, Amon Buchanan, Daniel Bradshaw and Lewis Taylor.
The head-to-head record between Brisbane and Sydney, who were strong allies in the early years against the collective Victorian powerbrokers, favors Sydney 30-25, with one draw. The Swans even have had 12 wins and a draw in 23 visits to Gabba.
This is due largely to an overwhelming domination after Brisbane’s triple premiership era.
In nine meetings between 2004-08 in the last five years of the Leigh Matthews era Sydney had eight wins and a draw, when Jonathan Brown kicked a goal after the siren for a split of the points. And after Brisbane won both meetings under Michael Voss in 2009, Sydney won 11 in a row from 2010-18.
Since then the teams have played only once each year, with the Lions going WWLWW.
Brisbane and Sydney have met only once in a final – but it was one very special time.
It was the 2003 preliminary final at the Olympic Stadium in Sydney when a barnstorming finish set up a 44-point Brisbane win but saw Nigel Lappin suffer broken ribs late in the game, setting up one of the most dramatic grand final build-ups in history before his heroic performance in the last leg of the flag hat-trick.
Statistically, Brownlow Medallists Michael Voss and Adam Goodes have been clearly the standout players in games between the two clubs.
Voss played more often against Sydney than any other club, missing only one game against in his 15 years – when he broke his leg in 1998 – and enjoyed a 15-9 strike-rate from a club high 24 games.
Also, despite averaging just 18.9 possessions a game against the Swans, his lowest average against any club, he polled six times in the Brownlow against the Swans for a club-high 10 votes.
Goodes played 28 of a possible 29 games between the clubs from 1999 to 2015 for a 17-1-10 record, and polled nine times in the medal for 19 votes – more than the dual medallist polled against any other club. He also kicked more goals against Brisbane than any other player at 42.
Nigel Lappin (9), Jason Akermanis (9), Roger Merrett (8), Dayne Zorko (7) and Lachie Neale (7) are next on the Brisbane Brownlow vote-count against Sydney, while Barry Hall (11), Jude Bolton (11), Dan Hannebery (10), Josh Kennedy (9), Kieren Jack (8) and Luke Parker (8) are next best for the Swans.
The individual possession record in games between the clubs is Josh Kennedy’s 41 at the Gabba in 2015, while Kennedy’s six 30-possession games against the Lions is a record between the clubs. Barry Mitchell (5), Dan Hannebery (4) and Barry Mitchell (4) also have had more for the Swans than Dayne Zorko (3) and Tom Rockliff (3), who head the Brisbane 30-possession game count.
The individual goals record in games between the club was set 28 years ago at the SCG in Round 9 1996, when Tony Lockett kicked 11 to out-point the then Bears on his own in a Sydney win 21-6 (132) to 10-14 (74). He kicked 11-1 from 12 kicks in Roger Merrett’s 301st game.
Brisbane’s best is the eight of Merrett and Michael Murphy in the unforgettable 1993 game at the Gagba, when the Bears obliterated the Swans 33-21 (219) to 8-9 (57), and John Hutton’s eight straight at Carrara in 1992. Cameron O’Brien and Alastair Lynch enjoyed bags of seven against Sydney, and Roger Merrett, David Cameron and Scott McIvor six.
Among the common players, Daniel Bradshaw has the most unusual story. Despite sitting second on the all-time Brisbane goal-kicking list, and twice kicking five goals for Brisbane against Sydney, his best in the northern derby was in his only game for Sydney against Brisbane.
Having engineered a trade to the Swans in the wake of the Brisbane’s ill-fated deal that brought Brendan Fevola north, and posted his 500th goal three weeks earlier, Bradshaw played the sixth of his nine games in the red and white #19 at the SCG in Round 6 2010.
He kicked three goals in the first quarter and two in the last as the Swans spoiled Travis Johnstone’s 200th game celebrations with a 20-point win, finishing with six goals and three Brownlow Medal votes – three times as many votes as he polled in 18 games for Brisbane against Sydney.
Mal Michael polled a special Brownlow vote for Brisbane against Sydney. It came in his 200th game and his second-last for the Lions at the Olympic Stadium in Round 21 2006. He held long-time rival and fellow 200th-gamer Barry Hall to three kicks and two goals, and was the last of the powerhouse key defender’s four career votes.
Among a host of major milestones that have fallen in games between the clubs, the biggest was Marcus Ashcroft’s 300th at the SCG in 2003. He was the first Queenslander and the first player from a non-Victorian club to 300, but things didn’t go to script – the Swans won by 19 points.
Ashcroft, Voss, Lynch and Chris Johnson all played their 250th game against Sydney, Shaun Hart and Daniel Rich their 150th, and Clark Keating, Cheynee Stiller, Jed Adcock, Pearce Hanley and Stefan Martin their 100th before Cam Rayner posted his ‘ton’ last time the sides met in Round 14 at the Gabba last year, when Jaspa Fletcher debuted.
