Ten years ago this month, against the Western Bulldogs, a cheeky kid without a hint of ink on his arms and his legs, with a short but stocky frame, played his first match for Collingwood.

There wasn't a lot of fanfare about the 19-year-old's debut match.

He was, after all, a late inclusion - and he only offered up a few cameos amongst his eight touches after spending less than half the game on the field.

Nevertheless, he played a role in the 43-point win on an emotional night for Collingwood as it farewelled a man with a family link to the club dating back a century, and prepared to farewell one of its greatest footballers.

The kid's name was Dane Swan.

It was Round 13, 2003, and the 42,952 fans in attendance at Docklands that brisk June night had no idea they were about to witness the birth of a great career.

Swan was 19 years and 124 days old when he ran out in Collingwood senior colours for the first time that night. It was his second season at the club after being drafted as pick 58 in the 2001 draft.

Just as he snuck in for his debut match without fuss or fanfare, as a late replacement for defender Simon Prestigiacomo, Swan had not attracted significant attention when Collingwood used its No.58 pick on the kid from the Calder Cannons.

The lack of initial fanfare was understandably, given the 2001 draft would become known as the "super draft", with Swan's contemporaries including Luke Hodge, Chris Judd, Luke Ball, Gary Ablett, Jimmy Bartel, Steve Johnson and Sam Mitchell.

Swan remains the only player remaining at Collingwood from its 2001 draft crop, and his 207 games is almost 70 more than the other four players picked in the national draft (Richard Cole, Tom Davidson, Mark McGough and Tristen Walker) that year.

For all the lack of attention his first game attracted in terms of media coverage, Swan has more than made up for it.

More than 3600 days since his debut - and 5505 disposals later (following on from the eight in his first game) - Swan has become one of the most decorated players to represent Collingwood.

One of only nine Magpies to have won a Brownlow Medal (in 2011), he is also a three-time Copeland Trophy winner - only Nathan Buckley, Len Thompson and Bob Rose have won more Collingwood best-and-fairest awards.

That night, however, he was just a kid in the No.36 jumper trying to make his mark on the game.

As the Sunday Herald Sun's Mark Harding recorded: "The Pies took the opportunity to blood 19-year-old Dane Swan, who showed plenty of poise with eight possessions in only minimal time off the bench ... he is the son of VFA great Billy Swan."

Billy Swan had kicked the winning goal for Williamstown in the 1990 VFA grand final - just six days before Magpies' drought-breaking premiership that season - but his son's football career would be attract even more attention.

Most of those attending the stadium formerly known as Telstra Dome in 2003 had things other than Swan on their mind.

They were there to see Scott Burns play his 150th AFL game, and to see if the Magpies could steady a season that had been inconsistent to that stage. Collingwood had won the first three games of the 2003 season - following on from its near miss in the previous year's Grand Final - but sat at 6-6 from the first 12 games that season.

A win was desperately required that night against the Bulldogs.

Coach Mick Malthouse said as much on the eve of the game, saying:  "If we don't win this week, we don't deserve to be even considered a top 4 side."

He added: "So there's a lot at stake for us and this is the first part of a 10 week program ... it’s not the end of the world if we lose, but by gee, it makes it very difficult to go into the top four."

In the lead-up to the game, Collingwood announced it had passed 40,000 members for the first time - yep, that's almost half of what the club will achieve this year.

There was an emotional backdrop to it all. In the week leading up to the game, Jock McHale Jr, the son of the club's legendary coach, and who had himself been a player and long-time administrator and benefactor, had passed away, aged 88.

McHale's funeral was held in the lead-up to the game, with president Eddie McGuire saying: "The McHale name represents two generations of outstanding service to Collingwood made over the last 100 years."

And the Magpies - Swan included - wore black arms bands as a tribute for the match against the Western Bulldogs.

Just as poignantly, Bob Rose, considered by some to be the club's greatest player, had been diagnosed with cancer. But he bravely turned up to the game as the two teams battled it out for the Robert Rose Cup, in honour of his late son.

Rose, 74, was so unwell that he had to leave before the end of the game, allowing his grand-daughter Salli to present the Robert Rose Cup to Nathan Buckley at the end of the game.

The Sunday Herald Sun said: "(Rose's) spirit was undeniable as Collingwood produced patches of its 2002 form."

Malthouse acknowledged Rose's illness had resonated with the group. He said: "It was a pretty emotional game for us. Bobby spoke to a group of our younger players early last year and they were taken by his modesty, his passion for the game and his passion for the football club."

Shane O'Bree, who managed to kick four goals that night, agreed: "We certainly carried the emotion of Bobby in with us, but we had to win the game itself."

Sadly, Rose would only have nine days to live.

While, he was not at Docklands for long that night, what Rose did see would have warmed his soul as a man who loved the black and white and wanted to them the club succeed again.

From the outset, Collingwood showed the Western Bulldogs that it meant business, kicking the only six goals of the first quarter, effectively putting the game beyond doubt very early.

The opening term goals came from Jarrod Molloy, O'Bree (two), Rupert Betheras (two) and Chris Tarrant, seeing the Magpies open up 35-point quarter-time lead.

Anthony Rocca was strong from the start, with one observer saying he "was unstoppable in the first quarter with four marks and eight possessions".

But, as the Sunday Herald Sun said, "if (Bulldogs coach Peter) Rohde thought he had troubles with Rocca, it was nothing to his dilemma in the midfield, where Simon Garlick had drawn the short straw on Nathan Buckley." Buckley would have 19 touches in the first half, and 35 for the match.

The Western Bulldogs did not kick a goal until the six-minute-mark of the second term from Garlick (the club's current chief executive), by which stage Molloy had added another.

Molloy was proving too strong for Kieran McGuinness, with the Herald Sun's Mark Stevens saying the match-up was "the boy v the beast and surely it shook everyone into the realisation the Pies would be too strong."

Malthouse would later speak about the "one percenters" that gave Collingwood the edge, and that was personified by a brilliant smother from Jason Cloke during the second term.

Goals to Burns, a fine running shot, and Buckley closed out the first half, with the Magpies leading by 48 points.

Collingwood fans had minor heartburn when the Bulldogs kicked the first three goals of the third term, at one stage cutting the deficit back to 33 points at one stage.

That would, however, be as close as the Dogs would come, though they would score seven goals for the term.

One of the highlights of the third quarter was a spectacular mark that Molloy would take, that "issued the challenge to Essendon's Mark Johnson for mark of the year with his skyscraper."

Five rounds later, Molloy's teammate Chris Tarrant would upstage them all, bringing down the mark of the year in a match against Geelong at the same venue.

By three-quarter-time, the difference was 33 points.

Two more goals to Tarrant in the last term, a fourth to O'Bree, and a second to Buckley pushed the final margin to 43.

Malthouse was satisfied with the performance from his team, but he issued a challenge to the team to maintain the intensity for the rest of the season.

He said: "The test is whether we can win next week (against North Melbourne) and have the same attitude, want and desire. We have a reasonably good tackling side, if we get that together, it gives us a mental attitude to do the other things."

The Magpies would do all of that, and more, until the final game of the season.

That win over the Bulldogs would be the first of six wins in a row that would lead the club into second place at the end of the home-and-away season behind Port Adelaide.

But it would be the team's nemesis Brisbane Lions who would eclipse the Magpies on Grand Final day 2003 - despite the reverse result in the qualifying final.

Swan didn't play in that 2003 Grand Final. He was dropped after his first game and played only two more games for the rest of that season.

But his time – and Collingwood’s time – would come.