The story of two young friends, an incredible tale of mateship, captured the hearts and minds of the sporting public on Saturday afternoon two weeks ago.
It all began with a tweet by Jonathan Drennan, commenting on the heartwarming story of a young boy commentating for his blind friend.
The Sydney Swans twitter account put the message out there - let's find the boys, and a national search for the two children - believed to be brothers at the time - was started.
More than a week passed before passed before the club could make contact with the boys, and when they did, the red carpet was rolled out, for some very special VIP treatment.
The two boys attended the round 23 match against Carlton at the SCG, and when their radio went dead, 12-year-old Jarryd Haines took it upon himself to call the match for his blind 13-year-old friend Mark Smith.
Such was the quality and professionalism of the call, it warmed the hearts of fans around them.
“We were giving Mark something so he could listen to the commentary, like Triple M or something like that, and that didn’t work in the second quarter so I just decided to call the game for him,” Jarryd said.
Mark has been blind for the last four years because of cancers in his brain and spine.
While he can no longer watch the footy, he loves going to games because of the feelings he gets from the crowd when they roar and the sounds from the game.
Much to their delight, the Swans rolled Carlton in the final match of the home and away season 138-57.
A week of searching came to an end on Tuesday when Jarryd and Mark visited the the SCG to meet the Swans playing group, and kick the ball around on the SCG.
The Swans have also given the boys the honour of running through the banner against Essendon in the elimination final on Saturday afternoon.
“It’s been amazing. I met all the players and I’ve loved it,” Mark said.
Swans support Jonathan Drennan kicked off the hunt with a series of tweets on Saturday afternoon, when he sat near the boys, and implored the club to find them.
“I guess I heard a beautiful thing and we heard this amazing commentary so I tweeted it and here we are at the SCG with two amazing boys,” he said.
“It just shows the power of social media and the power of the football community.”
The two special boys met the entire playing group, before having a kick-to-kick session on the hallowed SCG turf
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