What do Craig Bolton, John Blakey and Andrew Ireland all have in common?

Of course, the three have played important roles at the Sydney Swans, but the trio also made the trip down south to join the Swans after stints at the Brisbane Lions.

While the Swans and Lions are foes on field - including tomorrow’s match at the SCG - history has shown that off field, the two sides hold a very healthy trade relationship.

Bolton played 29 games with the Lions before heading to the Swans in 2003, while John Blakey joined the Sydney coaching staff in 2006 after his tenure with the Lions as an assistant coach.

Even Swans CEO Andrew Ireland has extensive ties with the Lions, having served as Brisbane’s CEO for 11 years between 1990 and 2001, before taking on the role as Football Manager at the Swans in 2002.

In the spirit of the Swans long-standing tradition of developing traded players into top notch contributors, Bolton said joining the Swans was the best career move he could have made.

“It was an interesting time for the club,” Bolton said.

“Paul Roos had just taken over and there was an air of excitement around and Stuart Maxfield had just assumed the captaincy, and guys like Adam Goodes and Brett Kirk you could tell were about to break out and really get something special going within the club.

Click on the video player above to watch Craig Bolton talk to SwansTV about his time at the Swans, including being a co-captain of the club from 2008 to 2010

“It was a great time to get on board and certainly I came at an opportune time and was really excited to come here.

“I was able to go into games with a fair bit of confidence knowing that I wouldn’t be taken off too quickly if a mistake was made or anything, so it was a great turning point in my career.”

But the list of Swans/Lions trade relations doesn’t stop there.

Lions’ premiership player Daniel Bradshaw made the trip down south in 2010 following 222 games and 496 goals with the Lions and the Brisbane Bears. Despite only a brief career with the Swans, Bradshaw made a huge impression on matches between the two teams when he booted six goals for the Swans in round 6, 2010 - including a monster torpedo after the three-quarter time siren.

Click here to re-live Braddy’s six-goal game for the Swans against the Lions at the SCG in 2010

Swans premiership player Amon Buchanan did the opposite, leaving the Swans in 2009 after 116 games with the club and joined Brisbane the following season.

Even Swans premiership coach Paul Roos has ties with the Lions, having played 269 games for Fitzroy and was last week inducted into the Lions Hall of Fame, while flamboyant Swans goal-kicking champion Warwick Capper was one of the pioneers of the trade tradition by switching to the then Brisbane Bears to play 34 games between 1988 and 1990.