Jezza unloads a thumping kick down to Big Nick in the 1973 Grand Final

Today, the AFL  launched Leigh Matthews’ Moments of Greatness.

In each weekday of the 2011 Toyota AFL Finals Series, Leigh Matthews will count down his 20 Moments of Greatness from the finals.

(Interestingly, this is not completely dissimilar to the Vietnam Swans’ Taber Talk segment which will appear each Thursday of the Finals series under the heading, Thursday’s Taber Talk. Meanwhile, Thursday’s Taber Talk kicked off last Friday… But that was for one week only!)

Back to the AFL’s  moments of greatness, today’s moment is No. 20 which is when “Richmond’s Laurie Fowler set the tone in the 1973 Grand Final with a ferocious bump on Carlton’s John Nicholls” in the opening stanza.

Leigh Matthews says Nicholls was a “man mountain, and (for Carlton) to see their man mountain go down obviously hurt his teammates. It was a big blow to the psyche of the Blues in that particular year, and of course Richmond went on to win that Grand Final.

“It was a big moment”, concludes Matthews.

Arguably, of more interest to the Vietnam Swans is the bloke in the above frame, Alex Jesaulenko, who booted the ball down the field to Big Nick when Fowler cleaned him up.

So why would Jezza be of more interest to the Swannies? Because there’s a big chance that Jezza’s towering mark in the 1970 Grand Final may be Leigh Matthews’ most memorable moment?

Or is it because a rumour is circulating that a piece of merchandise will be signed by the great man specifically for the 2011 AFL Grand Final Party at the Boomarang Bistro Saigon with the Vietnam Swans?

Ooooh! We love a rumour at the Swannies!