Many were called but few were chosen when the Sydney Swans on August 8, 2003, named their Team of the Century.
The selection process was long and arduous, with more than 70 nominated players in contention for the rare honour of being named in this highly prestigious “team”.
However, the final 25 (including an extended interchange bench of seven) generally was regarded as one of the best of any club’s Team of the Century.
After all, the South Melbourne/Sydney Swans club always had been regarded as one producing a long list of champions, possibly unrivalled by rival clubs.
Even from its foundation in 1874, the red and white had more than its share of champions and, in the late nineteenth century, boasted the presence of a player regarded as the best in the old VFA era to the formation of the VFL in 1897.
The great Peter Burns was ineligible for inclusion in the Team of the Century as he moved to Geelong in 1897, but will always be regarded as one of the club’s greatest champions.
The honour of being the earliest member of the Team of the Century member went to Vic Belcher, who played 226 games with the club from 1907-20 and was a member of the 1909 and 1918 premiership sides. He was club captain in 1913 and 1920 and captain-coach from 1917-20.
Then, of course, the Team of the Century, included several champions from the golden era of the 1930s.
Goalkicking freak Bob Pratt was named in a forward pocket (the full-forward position going to the modern era’s Tony Lockett), with Laurie Nash at centre half-forward, Bill Faul on a half-back flank and winger Harry Clarke on the extended interchange bench.
Full-back Ron Hillis was desperately unlucky to miss selection behind John Heriot, with another champion full-back in Brownlow Medal winner Fred Goldsmith named on the bench.
The decision of who to name as the Team of the Century full-back was onerous in the extreme as the Swans long have boasted champion full-backs, including Jim Cleary.
Although 1933 premiership captain-coach Jack Bisset was named Team of the Century coach, he missed selection in the team.
Bisset might have been a fine leader, but he was never considered a champion ruckman, despite being a wonderful workhorse.
At just 180cm (six feet), he was short for a ruckman, even in his era, when the average ruckman stood 186cm (about 6ft 2in).
The position of ruckman in the Team of the Century went to the enormously popular Barry Round, who won a Brownlow Medal in 1981 and captained the Swans from 1980-84.
But there could be no argument over the selection of triple Brownlow Medal winner Bob Skilton as Team of the Century captain.
Skilton led the club in 165 games from 1959-71, a total bettered only by Team of the Century vice-captain Paul Kelly, who led the Swans in 182 games from 1993-2002.
The Swans’ Team of the Century:
B: Vic Belcher, John Rantall, John Rantall
HB: Bill Faul, Ron Clegg, Dennis Carroll
C: David Murphy, Greg Williams, Herbie Matthews
HF: Tony Morwood, Laurie Nash, Gerard Healy
F: Bob Pratt, Tony Lockett, Paul Kelly (vc)
FOLL: Barry Round, Peter Bedford, Bob Skilton (c)
INTER: Billy Williams, Stevie Wright, Daryn Cresswell, Fred Goldsmith, Mark Bayes, Harry Clarke, Mark Tandy.
