After all but 50 seconds of 207 matches, the entire 2012 AFL season hinged on one ball-up, deep in Sydney's forward-pocket.

The Swans, very much the underdog, led Hawthorn by just four points. A quick break and the premiership was still anyone's. Around the crush had crept Sydney half-back Nick Malceski.

"I don't know what I was doing down in the forward 50," he said. "There was a bit of traffic around. I know John Blakey [Swans defensive coach], tells me not to go in the forward 50." But fortunately for Sydney, Malceski broke the rules.

From the ruck contest, the ball spilled to the Swans' Dan Hannebery, who, responding to Malceski's call, flicked him the shortest of handballs. The bearded backman threw the ball quickly on to his left boot and snapped over his right shoulder.

It floated, up and up, seeming to hang in the air forever, but eventually, landing just over the goal line. And with now just 34 seconds left to play, Sydney were premiers.

"If you look at a replay, I think I fumbled it a fair bit," Malceski said, comparing the kick to Nick Davis's equally famous last-second snap to win Sydney the 2005 semi-final against Geelong.

"It wasn't quite in my hands. I kicked it out of mid-air. It went high. I was just hoping it went the distance. Once it did, I knew there wasn't much time to go and we were up by 10 points. I just went nuts."

And with the obvious exception of the sizeable number of Hawthorn fans, so did everybody else. For this was not only one of the great grand final moments, but a fairytale end to a truly epic premiership decider, one featuring three comebacks.

It was the heavily-favoured Hawks who made all the early running, late first-quarter goals to Lance Franklin, Luke Breust and Jack Gunston giving Hawthorn a 19-point quarter-time lead, Sydney already looking down the barrel.

Suddenly, though, the Swans came alive. Josh Kennedy and Kieren Jack got the ball rolling. Sam Reid put them in front. Then Mitch Morton, playing just his fifth game of the season, delivered a crucial cameo with two clever goals just before half-time.

Indeed, Sydney extended their lead to an almost game-breaking 28 points by the time Kennedy and Lewis Roberts-Thomson had kicked the first two after the long break, the Swans now with the last eight goals of the game.

Cue a trademark devastating Hawthorn burst of five goals in just 10 minutes. Franklin bombed two from beyond the 50 metre arc, the second of which produced one of the loudest roars the MCG had heard. From the restart, Isaac Smith repeated the dose. The Hawks were back in front.

And, it appeared, premiership bound once Breust and David Hale had goalled within two-and-a-half minutes of the start of a classic final quarter.

But Sydney, sore, and with heartbeat Adam Goodes limping around the forward line with a torn posterior cruciate ligament, somehow still managed to find something.

Hannebery, prolific all day, and an old warhorse in Ryan O'Keefe, simply worked into a higher gear. Hannebery's goal on the run reduced the gap to just six points. For the next five minutes, fortunes swung this way and that, until another critical moment, Hawthorn's Clinton Young stumbling in his defensive goal square and allowing Jack to level the scores.

Sydney rushed a behind. The ball rebounded straight back into the teeth of goal from the kick-in. Enter Adam Goodes.

From the spills of a marking contest, Goodes threw the ball on to his right boot, just eluding outstretched Hawk fingertips. It bounced through from 25 metres, Sydney now seven points up with just under seven minutes left.

Still there were chances for either side. Normally a dead-eye dick, Hawthorn's Jack Gunston hit the post from 25 metres out. Hawk warrior Brad Sewell had two speculative, difficult snaps. Both missed. Sydney's Lewis Jetta, tiring, couldn't quite make the distance from just on 50 metres.

The result of which was one final goal-front scrimmage. One last stoppage. And, thanks to Malceski, a moment which will still be replayed again and again decades from now.