Stephens played in both the 1982 O&K grand final for Chiltern and the 1990 O&M Bloodbath grand final for Wodonga.

Both deciders were among the most violent of their era with hundreds of punches thrown.

Both were umpired by Ken Wright.

"I often joke with Ken when I see him now that it was all his fault because he couldn't control the players," Stephens said.

"The O&K grand final against Milawa was similar to the Bloodbath grand final in that the fights pretty much started straight away.

"But it wasn't a Bloodbath with blokes getting king hit from behind."

The match is remembered for many things.

The O&K introduced the send off rule the following season to help deter the breakout of fights.

It was also remembered for Jock Lappin's heroics in his final match in red and white, aged 34.

In his 300th match, the strongly built full-forward arguably produced one of the best performances of his stellar career.

Lappin booted 11 goals to claim best-on-ground honours in the Swans' 74-point victory at Tarrawingee.

"Jock could play but could handle himself too," he said.

"Jock was playing full-forward and a fight started up the other end of the ground.

"His opponent started running towards the fight.

"Jock said 'we're not going all the way up there' so his opponent didn't quite make it to the other end of the ground."

Chiltern were coached by dual Morris medallist Jack Clancy who decided to head bush after stints in the O&M with Corowa and Albury.

"We were undefeated in 1981 and got bundled out in straight sets during the finals," Stephens said.

"It was an unusually wet winter and we literally couldn't train on the ground in the month before the preliminary final because it was knee deep in mud.

"So we used to train on the netball courts and lost a bit of fitness and got overrun.

"That's why we were never going to get beat in 1982 because we were that hungry and hell-bent on making amends.

"History says we went through undefeated."

Despite dozens of players being involved in fights during the decider, remarkably there was only one report - Swan ruckman Peter Lappin.

Lappin faced the three man tribunal immediately after the match on a striking charge.

"Peter was found guilty and given a four match suspension," Stephens said.

"So Pete wasn't a happy camper and stormed out of the tribunal while shouting out a few obscenities.

"So the tribunal give him another two weeks and he missed the first six weeks on 1983."

Stephens finished runner-up in the Swans' best and fairest in 1982 behind 'Rowdy' Lappin who also won the league award.

"I usually just tell people I finished runner-up behind 'Rowdy.' but don't tell them I got beat by 50 votes - that's a minor detail that people don't need to know about."

ALSO IN SPORT

Fast forward four decades and the Swans are set to celebrate their 1982 flag this weekend when they host Tallangatta.

Stephens' son, Nicholas, is part of the senior side who are the ladder leaders with two rounds remaining.

Surprisingly there is only one Lappin in the seniors this season, Fin.

In stark contrast there were 10 Lappin's who played for the Swans during the 1982 season.

"It was funny, I ran into Brad Hibberson at training on Tuesday night when I was down at the ground," Stephens said.

"I said to Brad 'just think, if everything goes to plan, I could be having a 50-year reunion in a decade and you could be having a 10-year reunion.'

"But they have got a couple of tough teams to beat in Kiewa and Beechworth."

Chiltern 24.14 (170) d Milawa 15.6 (96)

Goals: CHILTERN: Jock Lappin 11, M. Stevens 4, J. Clancy 3, D. Walsh 2, Rowdy Lappin 2, J. O'Neill 2, G. Peake, B. Cassidy

Best: CHILTERN: Jock Lappin, J. Clancy, R. Lappin, P. Klein, G. Lappin, P. Lappin, C. Price, R. Thompson, M. Stevens.

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