It's every kid's childhood dream. You've taken a mark, you're 55 metres out from goal, and the time clock is down to less than 30 seconds.

Better still, it comes against the team you used to play for.

That's what stood in front of 22-year-old Anthony Rocca as he went back and prepared to take his kick in Collingwood's last game against Sydney at the SCG - 15 years ago.

So, as the Magpies look to return to the SCG on Friday night for the first time since 2000, it is worth looking back on the night Rocca had the destiny of a match riding on his right boot.

To do so, we have to go back to April 2000, the season brought forward to accommodate the Sydney Olympics at a place called Homebush which would throw up a stadium where the Pies would eventually play the Swans at for more than a decade.

It was also Mick Malthouse's first season at Collingwood, and coming off a decade of finals appearances with the Eagles, he knew he had his work cut out with the Magpies.

His new team had "won" the wooden spoon the previous year, a season that cost coach Tony Shaw his job, and threw up plenty of challenges, a farewell to Victoria Park as a playing venue, yet had earned the club the No. 1 draft pick, from which it selected Josh Fraser.

But instead of struggling in those early games, the Magpies won the first three under Malthouse and went into the Round 4 clash against an unbeaten Sydney with a feeling that things were finally on the right track.

Leaving aside a Millennium match fizzer against Carlton that brought about a sour entry into 2000, the first three wins had people wondering if the club's turnaround could come quicker than anyone expected.

There was plenty of interest in the lead-up to the Swans' game. The Herald Sun’s Mike Sheahan suggested it would "fill the SCG and rate like Blue Heelers” (Channel Seven's most popular drama at the time).

Typically, Malthouse was aiming to keep the hype at a minimum, knowing he had a young, improving side, but that the reality would strike deeper into the season, rather than in the first few matches.

"You have got to be a realist ... the simple fact is that we go into round four next week and we go in with a little bit of confidence, but we still have a fair way to go," Malthouse said after the 55-point win over Carlton the week before. "It has been encouraging, and the players have been very good at what they are trying to do."

This clash with the Swans came the season after Tony Lockett had broken Gordon Coventry's goal kicking record of 1299, and to coincide with Lockett's retirement, it was decided that the clubs would play on this day for the Lockett-Coventry Cup. And in the same week, the two corresponding ends of Melbourne's brand new but troubled venue Colonial Stadium at Docklands were named the Lockett End and the Coventry End.

That was a link with the past, but so much about Collingwood appeared to be the future. Just a quick scan of the team sheets that day showed that.

The side that took on Sydney at the SCG had an average age of just one day over 23 years, while the Swans were two and a half years older on average.

Eleven Magpies that day had played 30 games or less. Three of them were playing their fourth game that night - Fraser, Damien Adkins and Ben Johnson. Shane O'Bree, who had requested a trade from Brisbane, was also playing his fourth game in Black and White that night, which was his 23rd overall. Andrew Ukovic was the same, playing his fourth game with Collingwood, having played a further 19 with Essendon.

Former Swan Paul Licuria was in his 27th game overall - and 17th at Collingwood. Rupert Betheras was in his 20th game, along with Nick Davis (18th), Ben Kinnear (16th), Tarkyn Lockyer (19th) and Chris Tarrant (27th).

Given the game was between two unbeaten sides, Collingwood President Eddie McGuire was predicting an SCG sell-out. He boasted about the new drawing power of the Magpies, which came from being initially competitive in 2000 after what was a very flat wooden spoon season in 1999. Hope was becoming addictive for the fans, and that would only become more addictive as the new decade wore on.

McGuire said in the lead-up: "We sold out the MCG last week and we'll sell the SCG out this week. Sydney's the biggest market in the country and we're the biggest team."

He also warned the Swans audience at the pre-game chairman's dinner that Malthouse was building a team that would one day make a very big impression.

His counterpart Richard Colless undoubtedly smiled at the remarks.

As young as the team was, five players from the side that night against the Swans had reached 100 games. The most prominent was captain Nathan Buckley, who had played 146 games (including 126 for the Pies). There was also Paul Williams (172 games), Sav Rocca (148 games), Shane Watson (134 games) and Mark Richardson (103 games).

Anthony Rocca was playing his 82nd game, and had been at the club since 1997, after a short stint in Sydney that was only ever going to be temporary. He wanted to play with his brother - and with Collingwood.

In a pre-game feature on the youngest of the Rocca brothers in The Australian, the question was posed whether he had the killer instinct and competitive streak required, which seemed to be a particularly harsh call when you consider he had finished runner-up to Buckley in the Copeland Trophy in 1999.

If there were any doubts, Rocca would smash them apart in the dying moments of this game.

As his former coach Tony Shaw said: "A lot of people tend to see him as something of a gentle giant at times, but he's a very competitive person who will stand up for himself and never gets intimidated. Each year he's become a bit more consistent and in some games last season he was really exciting and awesome, yet I still think he's two or three years away from reaching his peak."

The player the Swans were clearly wary of was Buckley, as Jared Crouch admitted on the eve of the game, saying coach Rodney Eade had made note of just how good the star midfielder was at that time.

"You would be wrong to say Collingwood rely on him, but Buckley is an awesome player. He's like Tony Lockett when he is in full flight,'' Crouch said. "You've always got to try and nullify his ability, because he's such a beautiful kick of the football and he kicks the ball long."

Crouch wouldn't start on Buckley that day, but it wouldn't be long until he was conscripted into the role by his coach. The job started out with Jason Saddington, and after Buckley was dangerous early, it was left to Crouch to take over and he held down the tagging role for most of the day before John Stevens took on the role late in the game.

Buckley, oddly enough, wouldn't win a Brownlow vote that night, but had 28 touches and plenty of influence, even if he missed a goal late that he should have kicked.

The Swans had plenty of veterans in the side with five thirty-somethings to Collingwood's nil. They were 31-year-olds Wayne Schwass, Brett Allison and Andrew Dunkley, and 30-year-olds Craig O'Brien and Troy Luff.

Schwass would have a solid night, playing on 19-year-old Adkins for much of it, with the pair having a great duel before the Swan ran riot late in the game, having 32 touches.

It wasn't a sell-out as Eddie had predicted, but there was still 34,687 people in attendance to watch a tight and tense contest with precious little between the two teams.

Both teams were restricted to a goal apiece in the first 10 minutes with Glenn Freeborn and Adam Goodes (just a 20-year-old playing his 24th game) getting their sides on the board. Then Allison nailed one from about 20m out and Anthony Rocca scored a goal at the 17-minute-mark. Goals to Saddington and Tarrant came during time-on, and the difference at the first change of ends was a point in Collingwood's favour.

The Swans suffered a blow early in the second term when defender Leo Barry went down with a knee injury.

It was extremely tight throughout much of this quarter until three consecutive goals - two to Tarrant and one to O'Bree - got the visitors out to a 13-point break. But each time Collingwood looked like dragging away, Sydney fought back, and this time it came with goals to Saddington and Luff, which squared the margin at half-time.

The Roccas had a good third term. Sav kicked the first goal and then Anthony nailed a long bomb from 55m to open up a two-goal lead. Then Mark Orchard - another former Swan - made it 18 points.

No one saw what was coming next. The Swans kicked a string of goals and managed to lock the scores again at the last change.

Misses from Paul Williams, who finished the game with four goals and three Brownlow Medal votes, and Buckley looked to be costly.

It was tight again during the last quarter, and when Brad Seymour threaded through a goal from the boundary line at the 26-minute-mark, the Swans looked set.

Then came the most controversial moment of the game at the 29-minute-mark - when Wayne Schwass had a shot for goal that looked as if it was going through. He roosted it from 50m and the goal umpire - with some assistance from the field and boundary umpires – finally deemed it had been touched and hit the post.

The goal umpire lost his balance and was unsighted as Schwass's kick dropped close to the line. A goal would have left the Swans six points ahead, but much consultation it was deemed a behind.

"Obviously it didn't do that (hit the post), but it was touched before the line," Buckley said afterwards. He was about 15 metres away, with both coaches agreeing that a video review system should be implemented by the AFL.

A quick transfer of play saw Buckley kick the ball back in and reach the centre of the ground. And there was a touch of irony with how it played out. The ball was delivered from former Swan Licuria to former Rocca, who had the destiny of the game in his hands.

As the Rocca roost sailed through the posts, there was only 16 seconds remaining. The game was all but over. The siren was ready to sound. And Malthouse's Magpies would remain unbeaten for at least another week.

"It's probably like that time Plugger did it,'' Rocca said after the game. “I know it's not a Grand Final, but it's good to kick that sort of goal when scores have been up and down all day.

"I just wanted to try and hit it sweet and once I did that and it came of my boot, I practically knew it was going for a goal.

"I wouldn't say I'd rather have a shot from outside 50, but I am a long kick and my longer kicks tend to go straighter than my shorter kicks do."

Mike Sheahan said: Rocca's poise in the frantic last minute of the game was most impressive: "He took the he should have taken, and he took it cleanly. He then kicked the goal few others would have kicked, and he kicked it with great authority."

Malthouse said the thriller would be invaluable experience for his young side. "The mental development of the players in this game will be far greater than winning by 70-odd points," he said.

"The skills were down, bumbling and over-running the ball, but I think we are ignoring the fact there were two teams out there very committed physically.

"There've been no falsehoods. I think that's a credit to Nathan Buckley, Scott Burns and our three other young leaders (Rocca, Betheras and Licuria), and I could throw in there Gavin Brown, Gavin Crosisca, Paul Williams and so on because they are the blokes leading from the front."

It was Collingwood's first win in the Harbour City since 1994, and importantly, it gave the club four wins - the same tally that they managed for the whole of the previous season.

A fifth straight win would come the following week against the Western Bulldogs in what was a stunning start to Malthouse's coaching. But the reality kicked in soon after and the Pies would win only another two more games for the remainder of the season - though the seeds were being sown of a group that would contest Grand Finals in 2002-03.

Fifteen years on, a similarly young and hopeful Collingwood side returns to the SCG - with Buckley as senior coach and Anthony Rocca as an assistant coach - and they are also daring to dream of another big upset.