Williamstown warrior: Billy Swan’s admiration for the man breaking his VFA/VFL games record

It was a dozen cold beers.

Last week former Port Melbourne and Williamstown champion Swan was called to a VFL photo shoot with Ben Jolley, who tonight will assume Swan’s league games record.

Both are on 302 matches. Jolley will tick over to 303 when he lines up against Essendon, the club that drafted him to their AFL list from the Calder Cannons in 2004.

The VFL photographer had Swan and Jolley pose with cans of Smithy’s beer, a sponsor of the league this year.

It was before a Williamstown training session.

Jolley did not put liquor to his lips. But Swan, 67, did have a drink, and after the shoot he made off with a dozen cans.

He’s joking about “the wreck’’; he says it’s an outstanding achievement for Williamstown veteran Jolley to still be playing state-league football at the age of 37.

Swan was also 37 when, in 1993, he claimed the VFA games record from the legendary goalkicker Fred Cook, his former teammate at Port Melbourne.

The right-footer was in his last season and struggling with a dislocated shoulder.

Thirty years on, he says there was a “little bit’’ of publicity for his milestone.

“Just a little bit. Put it this way, it wasn’t on the front page of the paper, mate,’’ he says. “But they gave me a mention.’’

He also got a burst when, in a match against Frankston, he joined Cook in the 300 club.

Swan says he’s never given much thought to the breaking of the record, which was one honour in a VFA career crammed with them.

He played in four premierships, took two best and fairests, and won two JJ Liston Trophies with Port.

Leaving the Borough over a pay dispute, he crossed to their fierce foe in 1998.

Some wondered if it was a wise move for him; he was past 30, slowing down and joining a strong side.

The challenge brought out his best. Swan won two best and fairests at Williamstown, and famously kicked the Towners to victory over Springvale in the 1990 grand final. He had five great years at Point Gellibrand.

Swan admires the fact that Jolley is still trying to get the best out of himself.

“He’s been a good player, a very good player, so good on him,’’ he says.

“To play that many games of footy … it doesn’t matter what level you’re playing, even if it’s F grade amateurs … that’s 16 or 17 years in the one competition.

“It’s a fair effort.’’

The coming together of Swan and Jolley for the publicity shoot was the first time they’d had a good, long chat, Swan says.

They met briefly at Williamstown, where Jolley was the 2015 premiership captain, but bumped into each other more at Port Melbourne, where Jolley had a stint under Gary Ayres.

“We spoke for half an hour. He’s a nice bloke,’’ Swan says.

Of course, Jolley was too young to see Swan play.

But he’s watched the replay of the 1990 grand final a few times and understands Swan’s standing as a champion VFA player and his enduring popularity at Port and Willy.

These days he’s often referred to as “Dane’s dad’’, but old VFA followers call Dane “Billy’s boy’’.

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“He’s humble, unassuming, a ripper of a bloke,’’ Jolley says of Swan.

“Meeting him at Willy, being super-encouraging in my time at Port, catching up and talking about how it would be great to do it (games record) in a Willy jumper, like he did … that’s the way I’d like to handle when the time comes for it to be broken again.’’

Tonight’s match will start at 7.05pm.