GEORGE STONE was Hawthorn's runner and a specialist coach for much of that club's golden era of the late 1980s, and considers many of the club's champions from the time as his best mates.

But when the Hawthorn past players and officials get together later in the week to toast their past deeds and ponder yet another Grand Final appearance, Stone will not be among them.

"It's probably not something I should go to," Stone said this week.

And nor will Stuart Dew, whose six minutes of brilliance helped turn the 2008 Grand Final Hawthorn's way for good, be catching up with the former Hawks.

That's because the pair is now firmly entrenched with the Swans and will be in the coach's box at the MCG on Saturday helping John Longmire plot a victory against their former club.

Stone is in his second coaching stint with the Swans and has a role in player development and forward scouting. Dew is in his third season with the club and in that time has moved from development to the midfield, with a particular brief to manage the club's stoppage work.

"I'm pretty excited the Swans are in the Grand Final and against my old club makes it even better," Stone said.

Stone has a wonderful football resume. A champion 200-game VFA footballer with Brunswick, Camberwell and Prahran, he returned to Hawthorn - where he once captained the under 19s - to work under Allan Jeans and Alan Joyce and was a key off-field part of the 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1991 premiership teams.

Stone then went to the Swans as an assistant coach under Rodney Eade in 1998, before returning to Hawthorn in 2002 to work under Peter Schwab. Three years later, he was released by his coaching contract with the Hawks by new coach Alastair Clarkson and returned to Sydney.

"He always had a good understanding of the game and could walk that line between the players and the coaches," Schwab said of Stone's first stint at Hawthorn as runner and specialist coach.

And he jumped at the chance to add Stone to his coaching panel at Hawthorn when, in 2002, Stone decided to return to Victoria for personal reasons.

"We're great mates and he was a great sounding board for me. He's a very calm and logical thinker who just gets footy. He simplifies it and cuts through the hard stuff," Schwab said.

Stone initially planned to remain at Hawthorn when Clarkson took the helm at the end of 2004. But it soon became clear that the new coach wanted to make a clean break with the former coaching staff and after a discussion with friend and then interim chief executive Jason Dunstall, he was released from his contract.

The Swans welcomed him back with open arms with a position in the then fledgling area of forward scouting.

"He's just a terrific fellow to have around a footy club," said Roos, who had worked alongside Stone in his first term at the club when Eade was coach.

Tadhg Kennelly, who Stone moulded from a raw Irish recruit to a tough and hard-running premiership half-back, was probably his best piece of work with the Swans. Club insiders say his work this year with Lewis Jetta has been similarly transformative.

"He has a skill-based knowledge and feel for the game that translates really well into teaching," Roos said.

So over 27 years of continuous involvement, he has spent 15 years with Hawthorn and 12 with the Swans. His ties to both clubs are long and deep, although these days, his heart is only with the Swans.

Still, he knew Glenferrie Oval (Hawthorn's former home ground and training base) well enough in 2005 to think he had a private and secure place to observe a Hawthorn training session one morning, only for Clarkson to see him from a distance and unceremoniously march him off the premises.

Their altercation made headlines at the time (and amused his Hawthorn mates endlessly) and Stone himself laughed heartily when asked about the incident this week. "I thought it was an open training session, while 'Clarko' thought it was closed," he said.

But despite some initial frostiness, Stone is a fan of Clarkson and his contribution to Hawthorn. Just for a moment, his affection for the Hawks rises to the surface once more when asked about that club's return to power.

"The club went in a certain direction in 2005 and 'Clarko' has done a marvelous job. I rate him at the cutting edge in footy," he said.

"Obviously I've got fond memories of my time at Hawthorn. I think a few of my mates there will never forgive me for bringing Josh Kennedy across to Sydney, but I'm entrenched at the Swans now."

Dew is in his third season with the Swans as an assistant coach. When he finished his two-year playing stint with Hawthorn at the end of 2009 he moved to Sydney to be with his partner and almost stumbled into a job with the Swans, initially as a development coach but more recently as a midfield coach overseeing the club's stoppages work.

He will be forever adored at Hawthorn for his two goals and two goal assists in 2008 in the third quarter of the Grand Final that triggered the upset win over Geelong.

Dew, who joined the Hawks that year after 180 games and a premiership with Port Adelaide, provided the template for the mature-aged recruiting model that has helped the Hawks get back into the Grand Final this year.

"We got him here for a reason in 2008 and it paid off," said Hawk forward Jarryd Roughead, who forged a close friendship with Dew in his time at the Hawks. It was Dew who helped calm the nerves of Roughead and some of the younger Hawks on the morning of the Grand Final that year by texting them a picture of his 2004 Port Adelaide premiership medallion with a message saying it needed a friend.

"He's done some great things in Sydney and I'm sure he'll have some plans to try and stop us, but I don't think I'll be answering his calls this week. I might let them through to the 'keeper."

One phone call the Swans are certainly pleased they took was from former Swans assistant coach Peter Jonas around this time three years ago. Jonas knew Dew from Adelaide and gave the club a glowing recommendation.

"We gave him a go in development initially and we've been absolutely rapt," Longmire said. "He comes from two quality programs in Port Adelaide and Hawthorn, which is important, and he knows his footy."

Talk to coaches at the Swans and they talk about Dew's aptitude for football. There are talented players and smart players, but they sometimes don't boast those two traits in equal spades.

"As a player he would be the first to admit he wasn't the most naturally fit player, he was very talented, but he's also very smart," Longmire said.

"He's been a great asset for us."

Additional reporting by James Dampney

You can follow AFL Media senior writer Ashley browne on twitter @afl_hashbrowne