After previously being predominantly used as a forward by coach John Longmire, Heeney’s move into the midfield has been one of the key catalysts for the Swans’ success this year, and he spoke of his desire to set an example for his teammates against the Giants.

“I pride myself on being just the ultimate competitor,” Heeney said. “I’ll put my head over it and be as hard as I can, as clean as I can, and punt as hard as I can.

“Sometimes it comes off, and it works, and I’ll back myself in a lot. ‘Horse’ [Longmire] has given me the licence my whole career, and especially this year, just to really just hunt the footy and do what I do and have fun while doing it – and when it comes off, it’s nice.”

A consistent theme of the Swans season has been their slow starts, and in the first half the Swans were down by as much as 28 points. Heeney believes that the Swans’ ability to fight back from the most difficult of circumstances has set the competition on notice.

“I believe there’s a belief there that teams know we can chase them down,” Heeney said.” So we’ve got that ultimate belief in the group, we need to match it early if we can and we can finish the game strong.”

Heeney’s all-action performance included a broken nose as he got his third goal in the final quarter to level the score at 82-82.

The Newcastle-raised Swan, who excelled at rugby league as a young boy, hammered his final goal from outside the 50 after small forward Tom Papley provided some aerial brilliance of his own, beating the far taller Giants defender Connor Idun in a contest to perfectly set up Heeney’s finish.

Ultimately, the Swans could not be stopped and key forward Joel Amartey sealed the victory with a goal in the dying minutes of the game.

Heeney has been outstanding this season as part of the Swans’ newly vaunted All-Australian midfield trio that includes Chad Warner and Errol Gulden.

Gulden and Warner both put together a strong final quarter, leading their side in disposals with 11 and 13 respectively.

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In the Swans changing room after the game, Warner paid tribute to Heeney’s standout performance that helped book his side into a Friday night preliminary final on September 20 at the SCG against either Port Adelaide or Hawthorn.

“I don’t even know where the hell he’s from,” Warner said “He’s just an absolute animal isn’t he? To kick three goals and have the impact that he did in the contest on that game, we’re so grateful to have him in our team.”