They say that he who takes the long road shall reap the rewards, and when it comes to AFL coaching, plying the craft away from the top level can bring benefits down the track. Certainly, that seems to be the game-plan of former Swan Shannon Grant.
The Sydney Swans grand final midfielder and North Melbourne veteran, a link between the clubs ahead of Sunday’s Round 8 clash at Etihad Stadium, is walking a coaching path not dis-similar to that which has taken Luke Beveridge to the top of the AFL coaching tree.
Having sampled development coaching roles at AFL level in recent years, Grant is looking to replicate the efforts of Beveridge by making his name in the Victorian Amateur Football Association.
He’s taken charge of St Kevin’s Old Boys, and after four rounds has his star-laden team unbeaten on top of the ladder.
Similarly, Beveridge made his name as a coach with St Bede’s Mentone in the VAFA before spending time at Collingwood and Hawthorn before landing a senior job at the Dogs.
Grant, whose 301-game AFL career with Sydney and North ended in 2008, coached Frankston in the VFL in 2009 before two years with the Bendigo Bombers (the Essendon VFL affiliate) in 2010-11 and three years at the Dogs in 2012-14.
In 2015-16 he coached Greenvale in the Essendon Districts Football League, taking them to the grand final in his first season and the preliminary final last year.
At St Kevin’s, where senior AFL coaches Chris and Brad Scott went to school, Grant has surrounded himself by experienced AFL people.
His senior assistant coaches are 192-game Fremantle and North player Jess Sinclair and 85-game Bulldog Tom Williams, while the director of football is 1990 Collingwood premiership player turned media personality Michael Christian.
Recruited to play for St Kevin’s this year are 2016 AFL retirees Jay Schulz, Mark Jamar and Mitch Brown. Steven Salopek, too, is on the list.
It’s more likely Grant’s allegiance on Sunday will lie with the Kangaroos, given he played 11 years at North after three years in Sydney, but he does hold a unique place in Swans history.
Among 1,411 players to wear the club’s red and white in VFL/AFL football Grant is the only one to play in a final for the Swans against the Roos, and in a final for the Roos against the Swans.
It’s not exactly a huge field from which to pull this obscure fact because the clubs have only ever met in four finals – the 1996 grand final, 2008 elimination final, 2014 preliminary final and 2015 semi-final.
But still it’s talking point when it comes to meetings between the two clubs.
Grant, who turned 40 in April, started and ended his illustrious AFL career surrounded by red and white and blue and white.
A product of the Western Jets in the TAC Cup and an All-Australian schoolboys selection, he played 58 games with the Swans from 1995-97, including the 1996 grand final.
He was the youngest member of a Swans side beaten that day by 43 points by a North team which included current Swans director of coaching John Blakey.
Three other former or future Swans players also played for the Roos – Mark Roberts, Wayne Schwass and Brett Allison.
Sydney-born Roberts played 18 games for the Swans and 58 games for the Brisbane Bears before 125 games for North, while Allison played 213 games at North before 15 games at Sydney and Schwass played 184 games at North before 98 games for Sydney.
Shannon Grant went on to win a premiership with North Melbourne in 1999.
Ironically, when Grant decided he wanted to return home to Melbourne in 1998 for family reasons and was targeted by North, it was Schwass who headed to Sydney as part of the trade.
Twelve years later Grant finished his career playing for North against Sydney in the 2008 elimination final at Stadium Australia, which Sydney won by 35 points.
As the footy gods might say, it was karma.
Indeed, Grant’s win/loss ratio against Sydney was the lowest of his career against any club. He had five wins and a draw from 16 games against the Swans.
Grant was given a standing ovation from players of both teams after the 2008 elimination final to end a journey which began when the nuggety goal-kicking midfielder was drafted by the Swans with their third selection in the 1994 National Draft. His decorated career included the Norm Smith Medal in North’s 1999 premiership, the 2001 North best and fairest award and All-Australian selection in 2005.
The 1994 draft was one that underlines the massive improvement by clubs in preparation for the annual talent pick-up, and the work done to investigate potential talent.
Grant was one of just ten 200-gamers from the Class of ’94. And he, Michael O’Loughlin and Anthony Rocca, each drafted by the Swans, were three of them.
O’Loughlin, the Sydney Swans games record-holder and a bargain pick-up at #42, heads the games list from that draft at 303 from Grant (301), Adem Yze (271), Scott Lucas (270), Jeff White (268), Scott Camporeale (252), Anthony Rocca (242), Aussie Jones (226), Joel Smith (221) and Ben Dixon (203).
Interestingly, though, in something that would not happen in the more thorough drafting processes of the new era, six players chosen in the top 20 in 1994 played no more than six games.
Chris Hemley, taken at #13 by St Kilda, played only game, and Robert McMahon, taken at #6 by Fitzroy, played two games.
Shane Sikora, taken at #12 by West Coast, Robert DiRosa, taken at #18 by Geelong, and Stuart Mangin, taken at #20 by Sydney, each played three games. And Ben Wilson, taken at #9 by Collingwood, played six games, including four at Sydney.
Other players to have played for both the Swans and the Roos since the inception of the AFL draft in 1986 have included Dean McRae, Jason Love and Darren OIgier.
