Renowned AFL journalist and author Martin Blake says the so-called ‘Bloods’ culture is not the sole explanation for the Sydney Swans’ success over the past ten years.

Blake, the author of The Rise of the Swans – A decade of success: 2003 to 2012, was invited into the club following the 2012 Grand Final and spent time with players and coaches in an effort to capture the Swans’ accomplishments over the last ten years, which included three Grand Finals appearances for two premierships.

The former Fairfax journalist said while the club’s culture is strong, the Swans’ recruiting excellence, talent and coaching could not be ignored when it came to premiership success.

“The culture is very good and it’s important, but I think when I spoke to all the players and coaches, they actually downplayed the culture,” Blake told sydneyswans.com.au.

“I think it became popular last year outside of Sydney, and I would say in Melbourne in particular, it became popular to explain Sydney’s success by saying that they had a good culture and I think it’s an over simplification and I think the players probably get sick of that because it implies that there is no talent or not much talent.

“The fact of the matter is that there is a lot of talent in the club and there is a tremendous amount of excellence in the recruiting and the administration and the coaching of the club that is overlooked if you just put it down to culture.

“I always find myself telling people that the culture is terrific and it’s important but it didn’t make Lewis Jetta run any faster around the wing on the MCG that day.”

Blake takes a closer look at the club’s inner workings in The Rise of the Swans, after speaking to a number of key players including Adam Goodes, Brett Kirk, Jarrad McVeigh, Jude Bolton and Barry Hall, as well as key club personnel including Richard Colless and Andrew Ireland.

The importance of recruitment over the last decade, which has seen the club select talented late draft picks and make the most of interclub trades, also gets highlighted in Blake’s book.

“I was just blown away by the club’s excellence in recruiting and developing players, which I’ve covered in a chapter which I called ‘Moneyball’,” he said.

“I think that’s another area that outside of the Sydney Swans, people don’t really understand how good they have been at that and how important it is.”

One of those players was Ted Richards, who arrived at the Swans at the end of 2005 from Essendon and has gone on to play 200 AFL games.

Blake said interviewing Richards was one of his highlights, adding that the defender’s stories about the days leading into the 2012 Grand Final were of particular interest.

“I loved talking to Ted Richards,” he said.

“He’s really entertaining to talk to and I talked to him a lot about playing against Buddy Franklin in the Grand Final.

“I just thought that it was pretty amazing to think that Ted almost broke his ankle in the preliminary final and was in terrible trouble with an injury in the lead up to the Grand Final, and he couldn’t even run.

“To think that he had to go out and play on Buddy Franklin, I can’t imagine what that would be like to go to sleep the night before a Grand Final and think that you’re playing on a player who is capable of kicking 8-10 goals on you and your leg is no good.

“That was my favourite little bit I think.”

Since its release early last month, Blake said he had received an overwhelmingly positive response from both the club and Swans fans.

“The fans are really happy that something has been written about this era, which really amounts to arguably the best era in the history of the club,” he said.

“They are really happy with the look of the book, which is very handsome, and I would hope that they like my take on things.”

Click here to get your copy of The Rise of the Swans – A decade of success: 2003 to 2012 at the Swanshop.