Jake Lloyd and Isaac Heeney were born 958 days and 1200km apart into entirely different lifestyles.  The big AFL breeding ground of Horsham in western Victoria for the future Swans #44 and the rugby league domination of Maitland in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley region for #5 .

But through their shared football passion, albeit via vastly contrasting pathways, 31-year-old Lloyd and 28-year-old Heeney have built an almost unbreakable bond.

They’ve shared countless hours together in pursuit of football success, sharing triumph and disappointment, and won the respect not just of Swans fans but of the greater AFL community.

On Saturday night at Marvel Stadium the pair will add a major milestone to their journey when they play their 200^th AFL game together against North Melbourne.

That in itself is a special achievement, but given it will be just Heeney’s 204^th game is more so.

Heeney will be the 17^th Swans player to share 200 games with a teammate, with Heeney and Lloyd the 25^th duo to post a common double-century.

Heading the ‘Twin 200’ list are Adam Goodes and Jude Bolton, who sit 1^st and 2^nd on the club’s all-time games list. They played 301 times together from 1999 to 2013 for 169 wins.

Goodes, the 372-game club record-holder, shared 200 games with seven players – Bolton, Ryan O’Keefe (272), Jarrad McVeigh (236), Brett Kirk (235), Michael O’Loughlin (216), Leo Barry (203) and Jared Crouch (200).

Kirk has six 200-game pairings, and Bolton, O’Keefe and Grundy four.

Others in this group are Luke Parker, Josh Kennedy, Heath Grundy, Kieren Jack, Dane Rampe, Ted Richards and Dan Hannebery.

Rampe, the only other current player among them, played 231 games with Parker, and has played 221 with Lloyd.

The Heeney-Lloyd partnership that began 10 years ago on April 4, 2015 when Sydney played Essendon in Round 1, and Heeney, a highly fancied junior out of the QBE Sydney Swans Academy, debuted.

It was John Longmire’s 100^th game as Swans coach, and among the 18-year-old blonde’s first teammates was Lloyd, a 21-year-old ex-rookie in his 22^nd game.

It was a twilight game to be remembered. The Swans trailed by 26 points at quarter-time, 22 points at half-time and 34 points at three-quarter time, having kicked just three goals, but they piled on 7.4 to 0.0 in the fourth quarter to win 10.12 (72) to 9.6 (60).

Lloyd had 13 possessions and Heeney 17 possessions, and kicked the last goal of the game 35 minutes into the final stanza to lock it away.

Amazingly, since then Heeney has only played four times without Lloyd by his side. The veteran defender was omitted once in 2015, was injured in 2017 and 2021, and missed the 2022 season-opener with Covid.

The only time Heeney has had to cope with a loss without Lloyd in the same side was in Josh Kennedy’s 200^th AFL game against Hawthorn at the MCG, when the Hawks won by six points to spoil the party.

After Lloyd played three finals in 2014 in the pre-Heeney era, the pair have shared 17 finals.

They’ve never polled in the Brownlow Medal in the same game, but three times they’ve both had 30-plus possessions – against the Bulldogs in 2017, Essendon in 2019, and GWS in last year’s qualifying final.

They’ve played together 90 times at the SCG, and have shared the club song after a win no less than 125 times.