Don't miss any of the news involving the Swans as we bring you everything from the newspapers around the country from Tuesday 22nd September.

Instead, the 35-year-old Swans legend looked happy and relaxed as he celebrated the end of a wonderful career with teammates at Alexandria Hotel.

As Luke Parker put the acid on Sydney's generation next, club legend Michael O'Loughlin has described the retirement of Adam Goodes as the official end of an era for the Swans.

The departure of Goodes, the last-serving member of the 2005 premiership team, follows that of stalwarts Jude Bolton, Ryan O'Keefe and Lewis Roberts-Thomson – representing close to 1200 games' experience – in the past two years.

The transition is expected to continue in the next year or two with Ted Richards, Mike Pyke and Jarrad McVeigh all into their 30s, placing an added need for the Swans' younger players to step up.

"It signals the end of an era," O'Loughlin said. "Everyone knew it was coming, what a player he's been. He's achieved everything to achieve on the field and more.

"We're really proud of what he's been able to do, and what an unbelievable person he's become. I'm absolutely rapt he was able to finish the year and he was still playing some really good footy."

While Lockett is regarded as the most significant player at the club for the way he brought fans through the turnstiles, Goodes is being hailed not only for his on-field heroics but his deeds away from the game.

The man himself was philosophical about his finals playoff campaign finishing earlier than expected. "There's not too many fairy tales in footy and to finish the way we did last night was disappointing," he told television crews outside his home on Sunday. "I just wanted to do it on my terms, I think I've done that.

"As soon as I come back after the West Coast game it was all about just getting things on my terms and getting back and playing footy. I'm just really happy to come back."

When asked what he thought was his best achievement, he replied: "Hopefully that's yet to come."

There wasn’t any fanfare when Goodes stepped quietly away from the game on Saturday night, and he will also be absent when players are farewelled at the MCG on October 3.

He’s not the first player to choose to exit football unobtrusively — Geelong’s triple premiership player Matthew Scarlett gave the procession a miss as well.

IF you want to get into an argument with an old South Melbourne supporter, just tell them Adam Goodes was a better player than club legend Bob Skilton.

Goodes’ retirement after Saturday’s semi-final loss to North Melbourne sparked an instant debate on just who is the greatest Swan.

Both have great cases for the title.

The name Adam Goodes has come to represent many important things over the last few years; a symbol of indigenous pride and of a people who refuse to be marginalised or patronised any longer.

That's a legacy which, like that of a predecessor on the AFL scene, Michael Long, will be felt for decades, not just seasons after his retirement as a player.

But in the aftermath of Goodes' understated farewell from the game on Saturday night, as Sydney lost their knockout semi-final to North Melbourne, it's also important that his on-field legacy doesn't get left behind.

Because that which Goodes leaves is significant indeed.

You always remember the first glimpse of a player who goes on to become something very special, and in Goodes' case, for many football fans it was a TAC Cup under-18 grand final played as an early-morning curtain raiser on the AFL's biggest day.

Playing for North Ballarat Rebels, the 17-year-old was a dominant force with six goals, his mobility and athleticism despite his height unmissable.

IN his final game, Adam Goodes swings his boot, makes sweet contact and sends the ball in a perfect parabolic arc between the posts — it could not have started any better.

The crowd — relatively small but typically optimistic — rises. Red and white chests thump. Another chapter in the Swans’ inspirational tale seems ready to be written.

THERE was no fairy-tale ending or fanfare for Adam Goodes in his last game of AFL football, a 28point semi-final loss to North Melbourne at ANZ Stadium.

He wasn’t even chaired off the ground by his teammates — he simply chose to tell them after the match this was the end.

Swans coach John Longmire said his quiet goodbye was typical of the type of person Goodes is.

It was obvious something was up when the call came for Michael O'Loughlin to join the side behind closed doors.

Minutes of silence followed, the only murmur that of the 50 or so friends and family outside, on the periphery of the team's inner sanctum.

Then the doors opened and Adam Goodes appeared, looking as fresh as the day he made his debut in 1999, a grand total of 372 games ago.

If it had been something of a wake after Sydney's season was ended by North Melbourne's 26-point dominance in the semi-final, it quickly turned into a solemn celebration for Goodes, encircled by his partner Nat, brother Brett and standing arm-in-arm with his great mate O'Loughlin. Slaps on the back, smiles, love - it was all on display in those precious moments after one of the game's true icons finally brought down the curtain.

The 35-year-old veteran won two premierships, two Brownlow medals, four All-Australian honours, three club best and fairest awards and became the Indigenous games record-holder.

His first kick of his final game was a goal, as was his last kick. In between he produced a typically fine performance, featuring 18 disposals, roving about the ground with authority and class.

The end has come for Adam Goodes and possibly so too a golden age for Sydney.

For the first time in six years, the Swans have not won a final as a season which showed so much promise mid-year came to a grinding halt at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.

Grand finalists last year, the Swans' class of 2015 became the club's first in 28 years to bow out in straight sets, their 26-point defeat coming a year to the day of their crushing win over the Kangaroos in a preliminary final.

THE conversation will take place after the finals. But this is almost certainly the last time you will see Adam Goodes play for the Sydney Swans in his adopted home city.

It will be the 35-year-old’s 372nd game. He has won two Brownlow Medals, three club best and fairests, been a pivotal member of two premiership teams and a four-time All-Australian.

This is not merely the record of a champion but an all-time great. A wonderful career that fulfilled a sublime athletic talent. Yet one that always defied perceptions.

IT’S hard to believe but the Swans were once the ugly ducklings of Australian football.

After struggling for success and support for decades, South Melbourne moved to Sydney in 1982 to embark on a long, hard slog to respectability that many thought was doomed.

Fast forward to today and the AFL powerhouse is preparing to notch a significant milestone.

Sydney will tonight face North Melbourne in their 41st final since moving to Sydney, the same number of finals South Melbourne played in their 84 years in Victoria.

Sydney have been able to do it in just 34 years.

THE AFL has backed down for the second time on heavy trade restrictions but the Sydney Swans still aren’t entirely happy.

In an embarrassing backflip, league chiefs yesterday agreed to allow the Swans to replace a player with a contract worth up to $450,000 a season.

It isn't hard to find a Buddy story right now. Everyone's got one in their back pocket. Text messages are flying in from all over the country: "Is what I heard re: Buddy Franklin true?"

Probably not – but you'll tweet it anyway.

Let's tell a Buddy story that isn't salacious or slanderous. One that's real, from the mouths of those who have come to know him.

It's late 2013, and Franklin fronts one of his first training sessions for his new club. He's joined the premiers from Hawthorn saddled with reputation: as an abundantly gifted player with a $10 million price tag to match, and also a 24-carat celebrity. In the egalitarian republic of the Sydney Swans, it's an incongruous fit.

When he signed with Sydney, he told then-chairman Richard Colless words to this effect, according to Colless: "I just have to get out of Melbourne. I can't live in the fishbowl where everywhere I go my life is intruded upon."

So here he is at the Swans, jumping out of the fishbowl into the big, murky swamp of Sydney's eastern suburbs, sitting in a team meeting with his new club.

Buddy opens his mouth. They are all listening.

"I want to learn," he tells them. "I want to learn. I want your respect. Tell me what I have to do."