Like fish and chips and salt and pepper, and even the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, Isaac Heeney and Callum Mills just go together.

Whether you are a Sydney fan or not, when you think budding Swans champions you automatically to go Heeney and Mills.

So, it was a sweet moment in Swans history last night when they shared the honour of being the first graduates of the QBE Sydney Swans Academy to win All-Australian selection.

The two junior sporting all-sorts who chose an AFL career largely because of the Academy were rewarded for seasons in which they confirmed their status as two of the very best young players in the competition.

At 25 and a 132-game AFL veteran, Mills is the eighth-youngest member of the All-Australian side, has played fewer games than all but seven All-Australian teammates and is the youngest of four club captains in the side. At 26 and with 151 games behind him, Heeney is 11^th-youngest and 12^th in experience.

Statistically the homegrown pair have both had career-best seasons. Heeney kicked a personal-best 46 goals, second only to Lance Franklin’s 50 on the club list and 12^th in the League, and Mills had a team-high 547 possessions and an equal team-high 139 tackles.

Just as impressive is the ‘no frills’ part of their statistical package. Among the top 12 goal-kickers in the League Heeney ranked top in possessions, contested possessions, clearances and tackles. And among 44 players who topped 500 possessions Mills was equal third in tackles, eighth in goal assists and 14^th in one-percenters.

The shared football journey of Heeney and Mills will be forever linked not just because of their heritage but because they inadvertently found themselves at the centre of a raging AFL debate and interstate Academy players.

Together, because they dared to be so good despite their Sydney Academy background, they prompted the League to introduce a bidding system for Academy products in the AFL draft designed to ensure interstate clubs ‘pay’ market value for Academy products.

Born 332 days apart and so physically similar – both are 87kg and Mills at 187cm is 2cm taller – the pin-up pair have walked a path that has taken them to so many common moments.

They debuted in Round 1, 12 months apart and have played 116 games together for a 62% win rate.

Heeney won the AFL Players’ Association Best First-Year Player award in 2015 before Mills did likewise in 2016, and both have been chosen twice in the PA’s 22Under22 side. Both have three top 10 finishes in the Bob Skilton Medal – Heeney has gone 4^th-6^th-7^th in 2018, ’19 and ‘21, and Mills 5^th-6^th-5^th in 2019-21. And oddly, both picked up their first Brownlow Medal votes against GWS.

Even statistical comparisons of the pair are strikingly similar. Heeney was 59 games to 1000 possessions and Mills 56 games. Heeney was 112 games to 2000 possessions and Mills 105 games. Heeney was 83 games to 20 Brownlow votes and Mills 108 games.

Both wear famous Swans jumper numbers, with Heeney adopting the #5 worn by former games record-holder John Rantall and later his hero Ryan O’Keeffe, and Mills, who idolised Tony Lockett growing up, was given the most famous jumper of all – the #14 of Bob Skilton and Paul Kelly.

Heeney and Mills are the 39^th and 40^th Swans players to win official All-Australian selection after Graeme John, later a Swans coach and president, was the first in 1966 at the Australian carnival in Hobart.

The Swans’ biggest representation was in the 2016 premiership year when five players won All-Australian selection – Lance Franklin, Dan Hannebery, Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker and Dane Rampe.

Three players have won four All-Australian blazers while wearing red and white – Franklin, Adam Goodes and Greg Williams. And six are three-time selections – Barry Hall, Hannebery, Gerard Healy, Kelly, Kennedy and Lockett.

Completing the multiple selections are two-time choices David Ackerly, Leo Barry, Craig Bolton, Barry Mitchell, Michael O’Loughlin and Paul Roos.

Year-by-Year Swans All-Australian selections have been:

1966 – Graeme John
1980 – John Roberts
1983 – Mark Browning
1984 – David Ackerly, Bernie Evans
1986 – Dennis Carroll, Gerard Healy, Greg Williams
1987 – Gerard Healy, Craig Holden, Bernard Toohey, Greg Williams
1988 – Gerard Healy, Barry Mitchell, David Murphy, Greg Williams
1989 – Mark Bayes, Greg Williams
1991 – Barry Mitchell
1995 – Tony Lockett, Paul Kelly
1996 – Tony Lockett, Paul Kelly, Paul Roos
1997 – Daryn Cresswell, Paul Kelly, Michael O’Loughlin, Paul Roos
1998 – Tony Lockett
1999 – Wayne Schwass
2000 – Michael O’Loughlin
2003 – Adam Goodes, Paul Williams
2004 – Leo Barry, Barry Hall, Brett Kirk
2005 – Leo Barry, Barry Hall
2006 – Craig Bolton, Adam Goodes, Barry Hall, Ryan O’Keefe
2009 – Craig Bolton, Adam Goodes
2011 – Adam Goodes
2012 – Josh Kennedy, Ted Richards
2013 – Dan Hannebery, Kieren Jack, Jarrad McVeigh
2014 – Lance Franklin, Josh Kennedy, Nick Malceski, Nick Smith
2015 – Dan Hannebery
2016 – Lance Franklin, Dan Hannebery, Josh Kennedy, Luke Parker, Dane Rampe
2017 – Lance Franklin
2018 – Lance Franklin
2021 – Tom Papley
2022 – Isaac Heeney, Callum Mills