Thirteen years less 20 days ago on Thursday a new era began at the Sydney Swans when a 40-year-old John Longmire coached the club for the first time.

It was Sunday 27 March 2011. The Swans, having finished 5^th in 2010 to close out the Paul Roos era, took on a Melbourne side that had finished 12^th the year before and was going into their fourth season under Dean Bailey.

In magnificent conditions at the MCG, they played a draw after Sydney had led by 24 points midway through the third term.

The Demons’ Lynden Dunn kicked the first goal of the final term to cut the margin to eight points before the Swans’ Jude Bolton took a clever juggling mark falling backwards and goaled to make it 12 points.

It was five points after Liam Jurrah answered for the Dees and when home captain Brad Green soccered one off the ground from the goalsquare his side was in front for the first time with still seven minutes to play.

A rushed behind to the Swans made it one point the difference before a hurried snap from Ryan O’Keeffe after a ball-up tied it up with 50 seconds to play. And there it finished. Melbourne had possession on centre wing when the siren sounded.

Only two players from that game are still playing in the AFL – Sydney’s Sam Reid, who hasn’t played since the 2022 grand final due to injury, and Gary Rohan, who is going into his sixth season at Geelong.

And only three of 17 coaches from Round 1, 2011 are still in the same job. And that’s including St Kilda’s Ross Lyon, who is in year two of stint two at the Saints after eight years at Fremantle and three years out of the game.

Geelong’s Chris Scott, who debuted the same weekend as Longmire, is still in the same job, while four coaches from Round 1, 2011 are still in the League but at different clubs, with Alastair Clarkson having gone from Hawthorn to North Melbourne, Damien Hardwick from Richmond to Gold Coast, Michael Voss from Brisbane to Carlton, and Brad Scott from North to Essendon.

Other coaches in Round 1, 2011 were Neil Craig (Adelaide), Brett Ratten (Carlton), Mick Malthouse (Collingwood), James Hird (Essendon), Mark Harvey (Fremantle), Matthew Primus (Port Adelaide), Rodney Eade (Western Bulldogs) and John Worsfold (West Coast).

As Sydney and Melbourne prepare to open the 2024 season on Thursday night, this time at the SCG, a recount on the Longmire years makes fascinating reading. And underlines the overall performance of the club, and the importance of consistency and solidarity.

Sydney, with 188 wins under Longmire, rank second through this period to Geelong’s 210. Both clubs have made 11 finals appearances – Collingwood is next best with eight – while Sydney’s 12 finals wins is second only to Geelong’s 13. Sydney’s four grand final appearances is equal most with Hawthorn and one more than Geelong, Collingwood and Richmond.

While the coaching numbers in the table here are inflated somewhat by Covid fill-ins in 2020, it is impossible to ignore the fact that while Longmire and Chris Scott have coached through this entire era the average number of coaches at the other 16 clubs has been 5.2.

Interestingly, too, Sydney have introduced the least number of new players during the Longmire years at 82. In the same period Carlton have debuted 107 players, Brisbane 104, St Kilda 102 and Collingwood 100, and expansion clubs Gold Coast and GWS, who had not even played in the AFL at the time of Longmire’s coaching debut, have used 144 and 125 players respectively.

Longmire, now 307 games in charge of the Swans and 105 games clear of Roos as the top of the club’s all-time games coached list, is 23^rd on the all-time AFL list, equal with Hardwick and two games behind Scott, and 13^th for finals coached.