Tens of thousands of fans lined the city streets this afternoon to honour the Sydney Swans following their 2012 AFL Premiership win over Hawthorn last weekend.

The City of Sydney gave their premiership team a heroes’ welcome in today’s victory parade, with the majority of the CBD being shut down for the celebrations.

Hats and sunscreen were the order of the day with today’s parade being a stark contrast to last Friday’s AFL Grand Final Parade in Melbourne, with Sydney putting on glorious 30-plus degree conditions to celebrate the Swans’ achievements.

Today’s parade was the first time in seven years the Swans had received a victory parade, with the club’s last AFL Premiership and street parade dating back to 2005.

The parade was led by members of the QBE Sydney Swans Academy, who were followed by the loyal members of the Sydney Swans Cheer Squad, who enjoyed the experience on top of a double-decker bus.

The players, coach John Longmire and the Premiership Cup then followed in convertible Volkswagen Golfs as red and white confetti was propelled into the city streets.

The parade, which began at the bottom of George Street, culminated at Town Hall, where the team was welcomed by New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell and representatives from the City of Sydney.

Swans co-captains Jarrad McVeigh and Adam Goodes were presented with the keys to the city before being welcomed into Town Hall for a formal reception.

Addressing the sea of red and white fans at the parade who started the famous ‘Syd-ney’ chant as he took to the stage, McVeigh said he could not be more proud of his team’s achievements this year.

“We want to thank all the fans for coming out today and for the rest of the season and we want to thank our sponsors Citi, QBE and Volkswagen,” McVeigh said.

“To my team mates, I want to thank you for an unbelievable year.

“We are proud to be Sydney.”

Premier O’Farrell said today’s parade was the perfect reception for Sydney’s AFL heroes, who he said had done the city proud.

“The Sydney weather has turned out, the crowd has turned out to cheer a team of champions, the best AFL team in the country, the Sydney Swans,” he said.

“Last Saturday’s Grand Final will go down as one of the greatest Grand Finals in the history of the AFL and what this team of champions taught us all is whether we were watching it on TV in Sydney or if you were at the ground in Melbourne, the message is ‘never give up, work hard, and you can win’.”

"Everywhere the Swans go they are ambassadors for this city,''

Tonight will mark the end of the Swans premiership team’s formal celebrations, with the Club Champion Dinner being held this evening at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. You can stream the Dinner live on SwansTV from 7pm.

The premiership winning Sydney Swans are presented at the steps of the Sydney Town Hall