No Swans player has ever worn jumper #64 in the AFL. And most likely nobody ever will. But a player new to the ranks this year has a special link to a number that is best known as the number of squares on a chess board, is four cubed and eight squared in a junior mathematics class, and in a football sense is reserved for the weird and wonderful.

Player #64 on the all-time Swans playing roster was Charlie James, a 179cm fullback originally from Albert Park who played in South Melbourne’s first grand final in 1899 in just his fifth game at the age of 19.

He was renowned for his prodigious place kicks that invariably reached the centre of the ground before his career was cut short at 78 games in 1904, due to a serious knee injury which saw his leg amputated not long afterwards.

Another connected to 64 is Frank Johnson, a 189cm tap ruckman from Port Melbourne who played 64 games for South Melbourne. In his first season at South in 1960, when he was aged 29, he beat the legendary Bob Skilton to win the club best and fairest award.

Another 64 gamer is Harold Robertson, who played at full forward in the 1918 grand final win over Collingwood, and in 1919 kicked a then League record 14 goals in a game against St Kilda at Lake Oval – seven in the last quarter.

Likewise Owen Evans, who played in the 1936 grand final loss to Collingwood, and Graham Dempster, whose son Sean was a 2005 Swans premiership player. Plus, Aliir Aliir and Jordan Dawson who each finished their career at the Swans on 64 games.

Greg Smith, the first AFL player to have 40-plus possessions in a game at the SCG in 1982, when he had 44 touches and five goals, kicked a total of 64 goals for the Swans.

But ask off-season recruit James Jordon why #64 is special to him and he’ll take you back to his draft year of 2018 when he played for the Oakleigh Chargers against the Dandenong Stingrays in one of the great grand finals of the TAC Cup, now the Coates Talent League.

He was a late starter to the Chargers program so he’d been given jumper #64.

But playing in the midfield for an Oakleigh side captained by Brisbane draftee Noah Answerth, which lost by six points after a titanic struggle, Jordon had 10 first-quarter possessions to not only get his side off to a flying start but win himself a ticket to the AFL.

Described at the time as a ‘draft bolter’, the 187cm utility from Yarrawonga via Caulfield Grammar had made his mark in a game which included a staggering 20 AFL draftees, and was rewarded when he was claimed by Melbourne at #33 in the 2018 AFL draft.

Taken eight spots earlier at #25 was a Chargers teammate with whom Jordon has this year been reunited at the SCG – James Rowbottom. He was Sydney’s second pick overall behind Nick Blakey at #10 and ahead of Justin McInerney at #44.

Also drafted from the Chargers in the 2018 draft were #13 Isaac Quaynor (Collingwood), #20 Riley Collier-Dawkins (Richmond), Rowbottom, #28 Xavier O’Neill (West Coast), #29 Will Kelly (Collingwood), #43 Jack Ross (Richmond), #55 Answerth, #70 Ben Silvagni (Carlton) and #77 Atu Bosenavulagi (Collingwood later North).

Drafted from the Stingrays in the same year were #17 Sam Sturt (Fremantle), #30 Will Hamill (Adelaide), #35 Bailey Williams (West Coast), #51 Zac Foot (Sydney) and #75 Toby Bedford (Melbourne now GWS).

In the 2018 rookie draft the Chargers’ Will Golds went to Hawthorn, and the Stingrays’ Lachie Young was picked up by the Western Bulldogs before Stingrays Matt Cottrell (Carlton) and Sam Fletcher (Gold Coast) got their chance via the pre-season supplementary period. The Stingrays’ Mitch Riordan was picked up six months later by the Gold Coast in the mid-season draft.

And that’s without including Oakleigh’s Matt Rowell, who won the medal as best afield in the grand final, and Noah Anderson. They were bottom agers who went to the Gold Coast Suns with the first two picks in the 2019 draft.

Jordon debuted for Melbourne in Round 1, 2021 on the same day as Errol Gulden, Logan McDonald and Braeden Campbell debuted for the Swans against the Lions in Brisbane, and the same weekend as 23 players fulfilled their lifetime football dream.

Surprisingly, of those 23 seven are now at new clubs – Ollie Henry (Collingwood to Geelong), Lloyd Meek (Fremantle to Hawthorn), Tyler Brockman (Hawthorn to Fremantle), Jacob Koschitzke (Hawthorn to Richmond), Matt Flynn (GWS to West Coast) and Tanner Bruhn (GWS to Geelong). And four are out of the AFL system – James Rowe (Adelaide), Connor Downie (Hawthorn), Tom Highmore and Paul Hunter (StKilda).

Among the Round 1 debutants of 2021 only Gulden (67 games) has played more games than Jordon (65). Only Gulden (five finals) has played more finals than Jordon (four). Only Jordon, Gulden and Campbell have played in a grand final. And only Jordon has won a flag.

Shaping as a prized pick-up for the Swans this year, the former junior cricketing standout played all 22 games with Melbourne in 2022, giving him an unbroken run of 45 games in his belated career start, and played 18 of 25 games in 2023, including one final.

So why is he no longer at Melbourne? It’s all about opportunity. He averaged just 55% game time last year, and six times was the starting substitute and played less than 35%. And because, having been delisted before he played a game, he had life-time free agent status.

Linked to Essendon, St Kilda, Carlton, Western Bulldogs and the Gold Coast after declaring his intention to seek a fresh start, he was always on the Swans radar from his junior days in Yarrawonga, where he had a family link to the family of Swans coach John Longmire, and he and his mother Prue were big Swans fans.

So when the chance to join the club came, he jumped at it, and was the first player to move clubs on the opening day of the 2023 trade period.

Having moved to Sydney with partner Emily, he inherited jumper #17, worn most often for the Swans by Tadhg Kennelly (197 games). He’s had plenty to do to familiarise himself with the Swans headquarters because he has played there only once – for Melbourne against Collingwood in Round 13, 2021 during Covid times.

But clearly somebody was watching – that day he played only 57% game time (again) but had 23 possessions. Only Christian Petracca (27) and Christian Salem (26) had more for the Dees.

In three games against the Swans he had a 2-1 win/loss record and averaged 22.7 possessions – more than against any other club. The scouts must have been watching then, too. Another example of a club recruiting a player who has played well against them.

Indeed, it is the business of every AFL recruiting team to know all they can about every player in the League, while this story serves to introduce Swans fans to the highly-rated 23-year-old.