The cupset

Swinburne's 2023 season started in Preliminary Round 1 of the Australia Cup, also known as the Dockerty Cup, away to Lyndale United. Lyndale were in State League 4, five tiers above Swinburne's Metropolitan League 4. A year earlier the club had gone out in the same round, beaten 3-0 by North Melbourne Athletic.

The odds were stacked. There was no senior head coach in place, the squad had managed four training sessions, it was the first game of the season, and only 14 players made the trip.

Swinburne led 1-0 at half-time. Lyndale came back to lead 2-1 late on, and with every substitution already used, it looked done. Then stand-in coach and centre back Jonathan Mandaradoni rose to head the equaliser with seconds left.

Extra time was scoreless, so it went to penalties. Midfielder Mackenzie Hyder, on his club debut, buried the winner for a 5-3 shootout win. It was the first time Swinburne had ever made it past the opening round. Mandaradoni called it the club's "perfect Australia Cup moment."

That night the players formed a circle and sang a new song to the tune of "Freed from Desire". Swinburne's on Fire was born, and it has been sung after every win since.

The draw for Preliminary Round 2 sent Swinburne to Sale United, a two and a half hour drive east. "We had to plug Sale into Google Maps to find out where that was," Thomas Burchsmith said. The run ended at Sale's Godfrey Baldwin Reserve [score], but the season didn't stop there. Swinburne went on to win the Metropolitan League 4 Premiership and Championship double.

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