It is now 535 days since his last AFL game in the 2017 semi-final loss to Geelong at the MCG.

It was precisely one year ago today (Wed 7 March) that he blew out his knee at training, prompting a reconstruction.

The 26-year-old ruckman is eager to add to his career total of 28 AFL games, with Naismith’s frustrating wait expected to end “four-to-six weeks” into the premiership season.

Yet Naismith is nowhere near the club record for the longest time between games by a Swans player – that is a staggering 10 years 264 days, or 3917 days, and stands to the credit of one-time Swans coach Harvey Kelly.

So long was Kelly between Swans games in the early 1900’s that the club played 190 games without him, and debuted 144 players.

A 183cm centre half forward born in St Kilda and well regarded for his long and accurate drop and place kicks, Kelly broke into the then VFL with South Melbourne as a 19-year-old in 1902, playing nine games. He was player #100 on the all-time Swans player list.

He played in Western Australia in 1903-06, and when he returned to Victoria he joined Carlton, winning premierships in 1907-08 and playing against the Swans in their 1909 grand final win against Carlton.

In 1910-11 he played in Tasmania, and in 1912, when Carlton blocked his transfer back to South, he played country football in Bairnsdale.

Finally he returned to the Swans in 1913 as playing coach. He played 19 games and became the second player after Dick Mullaly to wear the #14 Swans jumper later made famous by Bob Skilton and namesake Paul Kelly (no relation).

The Swans finished second at the end of the home-and-away season with a 14-1-3 record under Kelly but were eliminated in the first week of the finals.

Kelly stayed on as a player at South in 1914 when long-time captain and Team of the Century member Vic Belcher was appointed captain-coach, and played all 21 games, ending his career with a six-point grand final loss to Carlton. In total he played 49 games for South and 43 games for Carlton.

A total of 21 Swans players have had periods of more than three years between games for the club.

Herb Matthews, father of Brownlow Medallist Herbie Matthews Snr and grandfather of Herbie Matthews Jnr, who both played in the red and white, is ranked second on the list at 3242 days. He played one game with South in 1914, played at Richmond (1915) and Melbourne (1919-22) either side of World War I, and returned to South for a further 33 games in 1923-24.

Laurie Nash, Swans Team of the Century member and Test cricketer, only played for South Melbourne but did not play for 2795 days after retiring at 27 in 1937. He made a 17-game comeback at 34 in 1945 after serving in the war.

Similarly, Bob Pratt Snr, the club’s all-time leading goal-kicker and Team of the Century member, retired at 27 in 1939 and made a one-game comeback after war service aged 33 in 1946. He was 2424 days between games.

In the same era, Bobby Mullenger played only six games for the club but his fourth and fifth were split by the war and 2180 days.

Alex Johnson, 2012 premiership player and six-time knee reconstruction victim, ranks next on the list due to the cruellest of runs with injury. He was 2135 days between the 2012 grand final and his comeback in Round 20, 2018.

Carl Willis, South Melbourne captain in 1921, played three years and 46 games with University from 1912-14 before switching to South in 1915. After 14 games in red and white he enlisted in the army, serving as a dentist and rising to the rank of captain. He returned to football in 1920, and, including the 1916 season in which South did not participate in the VFL, was 1946 days between his 14^th and 15^th game for the club.

The career of Stan Wootton was similarly disrupted by the war. He played eight games in 1915 before waiting 1771 days for his ninth game in 1920. He topped the Swans goal-kicking in his first season back at the club and after a total of 43 games with South switched to Richmond to play a further six games in 1923.

World War II interrupted the career of Footscray 28-gamer turned five-game Swan Roy Porter, who was 1519 days between his first game for South in 1940 and his second in 1945, and 1941 Swans club champion Rex Ritchie, who played 64 games for the club from 1931-36 and, after a 1360-day wait, 25 games from 1946-47.

Records don’t confirm why 15-gamer Johnny Jackson was 1757 days between his eighth game in 1902 and his ninth game in 1907, why 25-gamerJohn Woolley was 1807 days between his fifth game in 1955 and his sixth game in 1960, and seven-gamer Bert Lawrence was 1337 days between his fifth game in 1921 and his sixth game in 1925 ahead of a switch to Melbourne for three games in 1926.

Jock McKenzie, a Swans premiership player in his 10^th game in 1933 and a grand final player in 1934-35, was 1413 days between his 44^th Swans game in 1944 and his 45th game in 1940 due to a four-year stint with Fitzroy. He played a total of 55 Swans games.

The 23-game Swans career of Reg Thomas was also interrupted by a stint elsewhere that saw him 1421 days. After 20 games with South in 1931-32 and nine games at Footscray in 1933-34 he returned to South for three games in 1936.

Don Taylor was a South Australian football star with West Adelaide and Glenelg who had two stints at South Melbourne which saw him go 1708 days between games in red and white. He played five games including two finals during war service in 1942, and returned for a further 31 games in 1947-48. He was named in 1952 in the Sporting Life Team of the Year, chosen from the VFL, SANFL and WAFL and an unofficial forerunner to the AFL Team of the Year.

Albie Dunn played 18 games from 1960-62 before a three-year stint at Corowa. He returned in 1966 to add 13 games after an absence of 1358 days. He finished his career at Launceston, winning Hec Smith Medal as the best and fairest player in the NTFA in 1968 and then represented Tasmania in the 1969 Australian Carnival in Adelaide.

In more recent times, Barry Beecroft played 64 games with South from 1973-77 before premiership stints with Port Melbourne in the VFA and Claremont in the WAFL. He returned to the now-relocated Sydney Swans in 1982 and added seven AFL games before ending his career back in Perth. He was 1779 days between Swans games.

Paul Morwood played 85 games with the Swans from 1977-82 before a 60-game stint with St Kilda from 1983-85. He returned to Sydney in 1986 to add 10 games after a 1311-day absence, and finished his career with 15 games at Collingwood in 1987.

John Rantall, one-time AFL games record-holder and Swans Team of the Century member, also had two stints in red and white in a three-club career. He played 174 games at South from 1963-72 before 86 games with North Melbourne from 1973-76, including the ’75 flag in his last game in blue and white. After a 1310-day absence from his famous #5 Swans jumper returned home for a further 86 games. He closed out a stellar career with six games at Fitzroy in 1980, when he broke the League’s all-time record held at the time by Fitzroy’s Kevin Murray at 333. He played 336.

And Warwick Capper was 1304 days between Swans games when, after 77 games in five years and 103 goals in 1987, he made an ill-fated decision to join the Brisbane Bears. After 34 games from 1988-90 up north he returned to Sydney in 1991 to play a further 13 games and extend his Swans tally to 90.