HALFWAY through the 2012 season, John Longmire started to sense some belief creeping into his young side.

That belief would gradually build as the year progressed and result in a stunning Grand Final victory over Hawthorn at the MCG on Saturday.

Perpetually written off in most AFL circles, the Swans made this season the year of busting hoodoos, starting with an impressive victory over previous bogey side Adelaide in week one of the finals that set them on their way.

Next up was Collingwood - a side the Swans hadn't overcome since the 2005 premiership, but that 11-game losing streak was emphatically ended in the preliminary final.

Despite those two telling finals performances, the Swans were still rank outsiders for Saturday's Grand Final against a Hawks outfit heavily backed to claim a second flag in five years.

Instead, it was the Swans recovering from a two-goal deficit in the final term to prevail by 10 points.

"Most of the players across our list have improved, which is fantastic and a credit to the football department and the players," Longmire said.

"You get to the stage where they start to believe in themselves and I thought about halfway through the year, you could sense that they were really starting to believe in themselves.

"It takes a lot to get that feeling and you can't make it up.

"You could see it in the players, they started to get that feeling, that drive on the training track, and I thought once that happened, it was a good sign."

This premiership triumph caps a stunning decade for a club that spent 72 long years, the longest drought in AFL history, chasing a flag that some felt may never come.

That ended famously in 2005, following by a Grand Final defeat to West Coast the following year.

Most teams then traditionally start to bottom out, but the Swans persevered and between 2003 and 2012, missed the finals just once, in 2009.

Now with a second premiership in eight years in their keeping, and with a strong young list and still-performing veterans, they seem unlikely to be going anywhere anytime soon.

"A couple of years ago we were getting to the end of a period of success from '05 and '06," Longmire said. "A lot of the senior players were retiring.

"It just so happened to be the same time as two compromised drafts, so we had some big decisions to make and didn't want to go down to the bottom of the ladder.

"We wanted to stay competitive.

"Fortunately some of those decisions have come off and we've been able to get back up here.

"It's really difficult to do, but whether it's through the draft or through trade, we've tried to come up with the best talent we could into the place."

Players such as Rhyce Shaw, Shane Mumford and Josh Kennedy were recruited from other clubs, while the likes of Dan Hannebery and Lewis Jetta were selected in the draft.

There was also another name added - a Canadian rugby union player named Mike Pyke, who silenced the doubters with an excellent performance on Saturday.

"He turned up at our footy club and it's a great effort for listening and taking on feedback and working hard at your craft and he's been able to do that today," Longmire said.

"He rucked unchanged for a lot of that last quarter and did a great job.

"He's a quality person who has performed really well today."

James Dampney is a reporter for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_JD