Thirty-five years on David Murphy still bemoans the Swans premiership that got away, using good old Aussie colloquialisms like ‘coulda’ and ‘shoulda’ when talking about the Tom Hafey years of 1986-87.

It was when the Swans finished second and third on the home-and-away ladder and were denied the homeground advantage in the finals which in the modern era they would be entitled to.

Both years were in the days of a 12-team competition and a top five finals system when Murphy played alongside the likes of Greg Williams, Gerard Healy, Barry Mitchell, Stevie Wright and Merv Neagle in arguably the best midfield in the competition.

Williams, Healy, Neagle, David Bolton, Bernard Toohey and Jim Edmond had joined the club and with Warwick Capper dominating at full forward the Swans, owned at the time by the colorful Dr Geoffrey Edelsten, were the pin-up team of the League from March to August.

Sadly, in a story that long-time Swans fans will remember only too well, things went awry in September.

In 1986 they were second on the H&A ladder with a 16-6 win/loss record, behind only Hawthorn (18-4) and ahead of Carlton (15-7) and Fitzroy (13-9) yet had to play Carlton and Fitzroy in the finals at the MCG. They lost 16 points and five points.

In 1987 they were third at 17-5 behind Carlton (18-4) and Hawthorn (17-5) and ahead of North Melbourne (13-1-8) and Melbourne (12-10). There were no arguments about playing Hawthorn in the final at Waverley, but a second final at the MCG against Melbourne, five wins inferior in the H&A season, was a bit much.

Murphy too remembers how the Swans were set to snare Richmond great Maurice Rioli only to be told he wouldn’t fit in the salary cap, and also had their sights on Essendon ruck great Simon Madden.

“I remember Madden was weighing up what he was going to do,” Murphy recounted. “He was a teacher and was worried about employment. Edelsten said to him “I’ll buy you a school”. That was enough for him to decide ‘this is not for me’. If he’d come we would have won one for sure.”

Murphy had played only two years before the massive influx of big-name talent and theoretically could have enjoyed finals success later in his career. But hindsight trumps theory and given that he never played in the finals again the heartache only gets worse with time.

Still, there were a string of very special highlights to counter the disappointment of September for the one-time bank employee from Finley, a Riverina town of about 2000 in the Geelong recruiting zone whose move to Wagga in his early football days saw him eligible to join the Swans.

He was a six-time Victorian representative, twice represented NSW, won All-Australian selection at the 1986 Bi-Centennial career, was named on the wing in the Swans Team of the Century in 2003 and was an inaugural Swans Hall of Fame inductee in 2010.

He was part of a phenomenal Team of the Century centreline which had the 1984-86 Brownlow Medallist Williams in the centre and 1940 Brownlow Medallist Herbie Matthews on the other wing.

In 1986-87, too, he was part of the AFL’s best centreline, with Williams and either Neagle or Bolton.

So, going on 28 years after his last game, the 156-gamer, so quick, tough and skilful, can reflect proudly on not just a wonderful football career but an equally satisfying and successful family and business life.

Living with wife Tania in the family home of 35 years in Lane Cove, he has two adult children whose only minus is their failure thus far to deliver grandchildren. Daughter Kara is a physiotherapist in Scotland, when she looks after the Edinburgh rugby team, and son Kane, a Norwood SANFL premiership player, is back in Sydney working for global giant Amazon.

Now 58, Murphy is Business Development Manager for Impresstik, a labelling company that is a subsidiary of Print Media Group, one of Australia’s largest printing companies that dates back to 1892. To the envy of many ex-teammates, much of his focus is on the wine and beer industry.

He plays golf “pretty badly”, defers to Tania when it comes to tennis, and to the envy of the same ex-teammates, after playing at 78kg he now tips the scales at a fit and trim 83g due to a vigorous routine of cycling and swimming.

He was a two-time premiership captain-coach of Campbelltown in the Sydney Football League, part of a successful coaching team with ex-teammates Wright and Rod Carter at the NSW Rams in an era which produced Jarryd McVeigh, Lenny Hayes, Craig Bolton, Nick Davis and Ray Hall, and is now a 10-year coach of the prestigious Saint Ignatius College, Riverview.

The school team has only lost “a couple” of games under his coaching, and, more importantly for Murphy, has established a strong and still growing foothold for the code in in the Sydney GPS schools competition.

Technically speaking, Swans premiership hero Leo Barry and Josh Bruce, now at the Western Bulldogs, head the school’s AFL products after both spent time there as boarders, but Will Sierakowski, who played at North Melbourne after originally being drafted by Hawthorn, is the more ‘real’ Riverview man, having done his entire schooling there.

Murphy still follows the Swans closely. He attends SCG games “whenever time permits” with ex-teammates Brett Scott, Dennis Carroll, Steve Taubert and Carter, watches regularly on TV, is a big fan of the recent rule changes and confident the Swans are on the right track.

“They are good to watch … you can see the direction they are heading and they are going to be a very good side in a year or two,” he said.

“The 6-6-6 rule has definitely improved the game, and the man on the mark rule this year has definitely made a big difference. The ball is starting to fly up and down the ground. Less interchanges, too, has been good.”

Unable to split Michael O’Loughlin, Adam Goodes and Buddy Franklin as the Swans players he has enjoyed watching most in retirement, he nominated Doug Hawkins, Robert Dipierdomenico and Darren Pritchard as his toughest opponents, and said Pritchard “gave me most trouble”.

And the best player of his time? “Gary Ablett Snr … he was just God. And Nathan Buckley,” he said.

And if you were doing a football trivia quiz with ‘David Murphy’ as your special subject you should also know the following:-

• He had nine coaches in 10 years at the Swans, including three by the time he had played two senior games. Having joined the club in 1984, the final year of Ricky Quade’s three-year stint at the helm, he played the first half of the year in the Reserves. After Quade stepped down due to ill health following Round 13 he debuted in Round 14 under caretaker coach Tony Franklin and played his second game in Round 15 under Bob Hammond, who saw out the season. Then came John Northey (1985), Tom Hafey (1986-87-88), Col Kinnear (1989-90-91) and Gary Buckenara in 1992 before another three-coach stretch in 1993, when Buckenara was dismissed three rounds into the season and Brett Scott filled in for two games until Ron Barassi took charge and saw out his career.
  
  
• He was second in the Brownlow Medal count at the halfway mark in 1988, having polled six times for 11 votes to sit a vote behind Hawthorn’s Tony Hall. He didn’t poll again but still the Swans took the medal home when Gerard Healy (20) beat his ‘coodabeen’ teammate Madden (16), Hawthorn’s Jason Dunstall (16) and Hall (15). Overall he received 33 of his 40 career votes at the SCG, and, oddly, 18 votes – nearly half his career total - in 15 games against Essendon. He polled his first votes in just his fifth game against Essendon in 1984.
  
  
• He wore jumper #35 in every one of his 156 games “just because they gave it to me” and kept it “because I thought it might be lucky”. No other Swans player has topped 100 games in #35, with Peter Morrison next best at 95. Since Murphy #35 has been worn only by Jarrad Sundqvist (9 games), Campbell Heath (2) and Sam Naismith (28), but he has high hopes for current #35 - yet-to-debut Irishman Barry O’Connor. “It’s a good Irish name like Murphy,” he said.
  
  
• He played in the Swans first game at Subiaco (1987) and Football Park (1991) and the Swans last game at Junction Oval (1984), Windy Hill (1991) and Moorabbin (1992). And he split his career over 13 different venues – nine of which are not used for AFL football any more. Out of commission are the aforementioned five, plus Princes Park, Victoria Park, Waverley and Whitten Oval, leaving only the SCG, MCG, Carrara and Kardinia Park on which he played.
  
  
• He is part of an extraordinary Finley football history despite the fact that it is literally a pub and a general store town. Among the greats have been four-time premiership coach Allan ‘Yabby’ Jeans, Geelong great Jack Hawkins, Hawthorn Brownlow Medallist Shane Crawford and current Geelong star Tom Hawkins, son of Jack. Plus, he went to Finley Primary School with Bernard Toohey, even though he is claimed by nearby Barooga. “Hopefully the recruiters can find another one soon.”
  
  
• He joined the Swans after recruiting boss Greg Miller went to the Riverina specifically to watch Paul Hawke. So impressed was he that he signed them both.
  
  
• He is player #1129 on an all-time Swans list that now numbers 1438. He is one spot ahead of Barry Mitchell and two spots ahead of Jamie Siddons, better known as a cricketer after playing two games with the Swans in 1984. Having overlapped 32 players who started before him and seen the list grow to 1242 by the time he retired, Murphy shared a locker room with more than a tenth of the players in the club’s 125-year history.
  
  
• In one of the great trivia questions, he was a six-time Victorian State of Origin representative even though he never lived in Victoria. He also played twice for NSW. And, freakishly, he was sitting next to the great Yabby Jeans at the function after the 1988 Bi-Centennial Carnival when he won All-Australian selection.
  
  
• He still has every Swans jumper he ever played in, plus every Victorian, NSW and Australian jumper he earned, stored in a box at home. “One day I’ll go through it all – just recently I found a silver tray I was given for my 100^th I keep everything,” he said.
  
  
• As a member of the Swans Team of the Century he received a special TOC jumper, signed by each member of the team and beautifully framed, and copy of a painting of the TOC team. Where are they? His parents Ray and Edna have the jumper back in Finley, and he has the painting stored at home with everything else. “Apparently it doesn’t match the décor upstairs,” he quipped. “I need a pool room.”