Sunday could possibly be the final time we see Paul Roos coach at the SCG when he goes head-to-head with his successor John Longmire during the Swans' Round 13 encounter with Melbourne.

It’ll be a strange sight given it’s also Roos’ first coaching appearance at the ground since 2010, which was his final season at the helm of the Swans.

While he’ll be decked out in opposition colours and aiming to upstage his old side, the Australian Football Hall of Fame member is irrefutably part of a very significant chapter in the Sydney Swans’ story.

After hanging up the boots on his 356-game playing career, split between two clubs (Fitzroy and Sydney), Roos replaced Rodney Eade as senior coach to spearhead a rebuild. He would oversee 186 games across nine seasons, leading the side to back-to-back grand finals, which included the 2005 premiership.

To mark his return to the SCG, we take a look back at some defining moments in the Paul Roos-led dynasty. There are quite a few highlights, too many to list in full, so we’ve picked out five we think should make the cut.

What’s your favourite “Roooos!” moment?

A new era

It would be wrong of us not to look back to the beginning.

Roos, who spent 18 months as an assistant coach, was all of a sudden at the helm as caretaker following the resignation of Rodney Eade halfway through season 2002.

Eade had coached the Swans to four finals appearances, including the 1996 grand final in his first season, but had missed out on September the previous two years and, as Martin Blake put it in his book The Rise of the Swans,“had run his race at Sydney”.

Roos would enjoy a great trial run, coaching the side to six wins in the final 10 games of the season to finish 11th on the ladder by year’s end.

There was a famous moment following the final game of 2002 where, after walking a lap of honour to thank fans and farewell club greats Paul Kelly and Andrew Dunkley, the playing group descended on their coach near the ANZ Stadium dugouts.

“We got around him and it was a tell-tale sign,” Jude Bolton recalls. “We wanted him as a coach for good, not just as caretaker.”

The deal and announcement was made less than three weeks later.

Players mob their soon-to-be coach after the Round 22 clash with Richmond at ANZ Stadium.

Brave, courageous and against the odds

“The Sydney Swans have confounded the critics again.”

Exhausted commentator Anthony Hudson used this line to describe the Sydney Swans’ triumph against minor premier Port Adelaide in the 2003 qualifying final.

Sydney had already stamped its premiership credentials. Heavily favoured for the wooden spoon at the start of the year, the Swans would defy predictions and finish fourth.

But the Swans weren’t expected to travel deep into September after suffering a spate of injuries which threatened to derail the campaign before it had even started.

Jason Ball, Ryan O’Keefe and Jason Saddington were already sidelined with injury, Michael O’Loughlin limped off with a torn hamstring the week before while Daryn Cresswell was touch and go right up until the start of the game.

Even Roos was among the walking wounded, with the coach in a moon boot and crutches after rupturing his Achilles tendon in a game of social basketball before the first final.

The curse continued during the game as Brad Seymour, Stephen Doyle and Tadhg Kennelly were forced to sit out of the final quarter with fresh injuries, meaning the Swans only had one on the bench.

But as we all know, the Swans’ incredible start gave the visitors enough breathing space at Adelaide’s Football Park to hold off the Power and clinch an unlikely 13-point win.

Roos, nursing his ruptured Achillies tendon, watches a training session from the stands of ANZ Stadium in the lead up to the qualifying final against Port Adelaide.

Winning ugly

During a radio interview in early 2005, AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou made the unprecedented move of publicly lambasting the Sydney Swans’ playing style.

“I don’t like at all the way that they’re playing football, but that’s just a personal view,” he said. “I think it would be fair to say in the early part of the season we saw some games that weren’t attractive, and I think they’ve been described as ugly. Unless the Swans change that style of play, they won’t win many more football matches.”

It’s fair to say Roos wasn’t pleased. But instead of biting back, the fourth-year coach let results speak for themselves in the form of wins and premiership success.

Roos, by his own admission, said Demetriou’s comments came during a poor patch of form and that his one-on-one, contested, ‘get the ball at all costs’ coaching philosophy was simply misunderstood.

And, as history tells us, it worked like a charm.

Demetriou's comments caused a stir in Sydney.

“I see it, but I don’t believe it.”

Apart from the premierships there’s arguably no highlight reel played more on this site or in the minds of Sydney Swans fans than the epic come-from-behind win against Geelong in the 2005 semi-final.

After suffering a tough loss to West Coast the week before, Roos’ side manufactured one of the more impressive wins in recent memory thanks to Nick Davis’s four goals in the final term at the SCG which helped overcome a three-quarter-time deficit.

It was coming. Davis had let his opponent slip away early in the fourth quarter, mark unopposed and goal to put Geelong up by four goals. Brett Kirk grabbed his teammate by the jumper shortly after and said something along the lines of: “You owe us.”

It was a clear example of the ‘one in, all in’ culture Roos and the leadership group had instilled in the playing group over the previous three seasons.

Roos would later describe Davis’ efforts as the best quarter of finals footy he’d ever seen by an individual.

Roos addresses the playing group during three-quarter-time of the semi-final againt Geelong.

The wait is over

The 2005 premiership. A triumph which broke a 72-year premiership drought – one of the longest in AFL/VFL history.

Roos laid out a five-year plan to the flag when pitching to the board for the top job in 2002. It took him three years and the future looked bright.

Up against the heavily favoured West Coast, with a midfield boasting Chris Judd, Ben Cousins and Daniel Kerr, the Swans would prevail in thrilling fashion.

A defender would be the saviour, his famous grab immortalised with fans across the AFL would imitate commentator Stephen Quartermain's famous words “Leo Barry, you star!” over and over again ever since.

And then, the moment that still fills Swans fans with shivers and pride, we remember Roos holding that cup aloft on the dais and yelling into the microphone: “Here it is!”

Players run to the dais to get their hands on the precious silverware.