Among an all-time Swans playing list that now numbers 1416 there is a very, very special group of 25 who stand alone.
They comprise the elite of the elite, chosen through an exhaustive process to be the star attractions at one of the all-time great occasions in Sydney Swans history.
Fifteen years ago today, on 8 August, 2003, the Swans unveiled their Team of the Century.
The team was chosen from a list of 66 nominations by a selection panel of five, which comprised chairman Rick Quade, a former club captain and coach; Jim Main, long-time journalist, co-author of The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers and a life-time Swans supporter; Bill Jacobs, a retired journalist and one of the selectors of the AFL Team of the Century; John Heriot, former player and president of the Swans’ past players association in Melbourne; and Dennis Carroll, a former club captain and now Player Welfare and Development Manager.
To be eligible a player had to play a minimum 75 games for the club, have filled a leadership role, or won a Brownlow Medal, All-Australian selection, State selection or a significant club award.
What a task it must have been for a club which at the time had won three premierships in 1909, 1918 and 1933.
How do you possibly compare the achievements of players from the early 1900’s with those of a century later?
Inevitably, there were some obvious and automatic selections, and others more difficult and contentious.
The occasion itself was a special celebration of a club which was a foundation member of the old VFL in 1897 and moved north in 1982 to lead a challenging and exciting charge into unchartered territory in Sydney.
Richard Colless, Sydney Swans chairman at the time, said at the dinner:
“When we embarked on the Team of the Century project, we knew the function would be a huge event, but the response has been even greater than we could have anticipated.
“Apart from the size of the night, what is extremely pleasing is the fact that almost half of those in attendance came up from Melbourne.
“It is an acknowledgement of this club’s heritage in both Melbourne and Sydney.”
The Team of the Century went all the way back to Vic Belcher, a 1909 premiership team member who in the 1918 grand final win over Collingwood became the was the first player in club history to play 200- games.
Mark Tandy, another 1918 premiership player and the club’s second 200-gamer, completed the representation of the early part of the century.
Jack Bissett, captain-coach of the 1933 premiership side, was named coach of the Team of the Century, which included five members of his premiership side: Harry Clarke, Bill Faul, Bob Pratt, Laurie Nash and Herbie Matthews.
From the 1940s and 1950s the selectors chose Ron Clegg, Bill Williams and Fred Goldsmith before the incomparable Bob Skilton, whose career spanned 16 years from 1956-71, was an automatic choice as captain.
John Heriot also represented the 1960s, while John Rantall and Peter Bedford were included from the 1960s-70s.
Barry Round and Tony Morwood were recognised for their achievements across the 1970s-80s, Dennis Carroll, David Murphy and Mark Bayes across the 1980s-90s, and Greg Williams, Gerard Healy, Stevie Wright, vice-captain Paul Kelly and Tony Lockett predominantly from the 1990s.
The most recent player included in the Team of the Century was Daryn Creswell, who was still playing at the time of the announcement.
Collectively, the team played 4500 games for the Swans, ranging from Rantall (260), Bayes and Wright (246), Cresswell (244), Skilton (237), Kelly (234), Clegg (231), Morwood (229), Belcher (226), Carroll (219) and Tandy (207) through to Nash (99), Lockett (98) and Healy (81).
Between them the Team of the Century members won 41 Swans club champion awards: Skilton (9), Matthews (5), Bedford (5), Kelly (4), Clegg (3), Billy Williams (3), Healy (3), Round (2), Wright (2), Faul (1), Clarke (1), Bayes (1), Creswell (1) and Lockett (1).
They won 11 Brownlow Medals: Skilton (3), Matthews (1), Clegg (1), Goldsmith (1), Bedford (1), Round (1), Greg Williams (1), Healy (1) and Kelly (1).
And they captained the Swans for a combined 59 years: Skilton (11), Kelly (10), Matthews (8), Carroll (7), Clegg (6), Belcher (5), Round (5), Bedford (4), Tandy (1), Nash (1) and Rantall (1).
That was all done 15 years ago.
Can you imagine if you had to do the same job now and select the Swans Team of 115 years?
If only from a statistical viewpoint, the list of those who might be included in discussions is massive.
Six of the top seven players on the all-time games list today were not eligible at the time the Team of the Century was chosen, including dual Brownlow Medallist Adam Goodes (372), Jude Bolton (325), Jarrad McVeigh (315), Michael O’Loughlin (303), Ryan O’Keefe (286) and Heath Grundy (253).
Interestingly, only eight of the top 20 on the all-time games list are included: Rantall (6th), Wright (9th), Bayes (10th), Cresswell (11th), Skilton (15th), Kelly (16th), Clegg (17th) and Round (18th).
Only five of the club’s top 10 all-time goal-kickers are included: Pratt (1st), Lockett (5th), Skilton (6th), Morwood (7th) and Bedford (10th), leaving O’Loughlin (2nd), Barry Hall (3rd), Goodes (4th), Ted Johnson (8th) and Lance Franklin (9th).
Jude Bolton, Adam Goodes, Ryan O’Keefe and Lewis Roberts-Thomson are, with Belcher, the club’s only dual premiership players.
Behind Belcher, Matthews and Nash, who played in five Swans grand finals, McVeigh and Goodes, like Bisset, Faul and 1930s stars John Austin and Dinny Kelleher, are four-time grand final players, although Kelleher would not be eligible because he played only 59 games for the club.
Josh Kennedy, a three-time winner of the Bob Skilton Medal as Club Champion, is another modern-day player who would come into the discussion. Among others.
But there is, and never will be, any denying the 25 members of the Swans Team of the Century:
B: John Rantall, John Heriot, Vic Belcher
H/B: Bill Faul, Ron Clegg, Dennis Carroll
C: David Murphy, Greg Williams, Herb Matthews
H/F: Tony Morwood, Laurie Nash, Gerard Healy
F: Bob Pratt, Tony Lockett, Paul Kelly (vc)
Foll: Barry Round, Peter Bedford, Bob Skilton (c)
Inter: Bill Williams, Stevie Wright, Daryn Cresswell, Fred Goldsmith, Mark Bayes, Harry Clarke, Mark Tandy
Coach: Jack Bissett
