‘It’s one of the great stories’: Rampe’s journey from last-chance saloon to 250 Swans games

The Swans have always had a talent for spotting unpolished diamonds that, given time and effort, end up shining under the floodlights in September. Brett Kirk, for example, was picked up from Albury as a mature-age university graduate at 22, captained the Swans to a premiership in 2005 and helped to instil the “Bloods” culture that still infuses the club.

Ahead of Friday night’s preliminary final against Port Adelaide at the SCG, the focus will turn to another Swan overlooked by others before getting his AFL opportunity at the same age as Kirk, when Sydney local Dane Rampe plays his 250th game.

The story of Rampe – the kid from Clovelly who grew up playing basketball and soccer, before falling in love with AFL and moving to Melbourne to seek his fortune in the VFL with Williamstown after leaving school – has been told before, but that doesn’t make it any less incredible.

The long punt almost worked. Rampe impressed at club level and was invited to train with the Western Bulldogs, but was overlooked in the AFL draft. Rampe then returned to Sydney primarily to enjoy local football with friends at UNSW, before the Swans rolled the dice with the untapped prospect. For coach John Longmire, Rampe is a study in resilience.

“It’s one of the great stories,” Longmire said. “He went through four drafts. He got missed at four national drafts and was picked up in our rookie draft, and who knows whether he thought he was ever going to make it.

“It might have been his last chance. It probably was – if he got bypassed in that particular draft, he was probably done after missing four [drafts]...

“He’s a great example of just being ready. He was ready for four years and didn’t get drafted, and then he’s been ready ever since: ready at training, ready in meetings, ready to care for people, ready to compete, ready in games. And you know, he’s been a real pleasure to coach for a long period of time.”

Rampe has captained the club and is recognised as one of the game’s elite defenders, but he is desperate to win a premiership with a young group of players he firmly believes has what it takes to go all the way. For Rampe, his 250-game milestone is set firmly in the context of the Swans’ all-or-nothing prelim against a confident Port Adelaide team enjoying an eight-year winning streak against the Swans.

“It’s important that it’s at home for me, that’s a nice little win that I get,” Rampe said. “Having all my friends and family here with the energy and the excitement of a prelim, it’s going to be pretty exciting, but I’m pretty happy it’s in a prelim week just because the attention will be on that more so than on the 250. But yeah, very proud.”

Callum Mills’ minor hamstring strain has opened an opportunity for Robbie Fox to help secure the Swans’ backline.

Fox will be charged with helping to keep the Port Adelaide forward duo of Mitch Georgiades and Willie Rioli quiet after both men managed three goals each in their semi-final win over Hawthorn last Friday night.

The decision to include Fox means that Taylor Adams again misses out on finals’ selection after the utility cruelly missed Collingwood’s Grand Final win last year due to a hamstring injury.

After an impressive showing as a substitute in the qualifying victory over the Giants, utility Braeden Campbell is rewarded with another opportunity to showcase his talents at the SCG.

Campbell is a close childhood friend of Errol Gulden, the pair having grown up playing together in the Swans’ academy and against one another in the AFL Sydney competition. Both players were selected by the Swans in the 2020 draft, with Campbell going fifth and Gulden going 32nd.

On Friday night at the SCG, Campbell will make sure to take stock of the long journey that he and Gulden have been on together, which gets even more special in September.

“It’s almost like before every game, every finals game we take a breath with each other and just look at each other like, this is finals footy, this is why we play,” Campbell said. “And it’s really exciting that we’ve been through the whole process with each other, and now we’re still playing with each other.”

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