Today is the 12th anniversary of one of the great administrative moments in Sydney Swans history.
Coming off a big Round 19 win over Richmond at the MCG to celebrate Michael O’Loughlin’s 300th AFL game, all was good at the club. But it was about to get a whole lot better.
It was Wednesday, 12 August 2009, when the club invited the media to the SCG to make a landmark announcement that has been a critical part of the solidarity and success that have followed.
Chairman Richard Colless confirmed the pending exit of coach Paul Roos, effective 13 months on at the end of the 2010 season, and the implementation of a succession plan whereby John Longmire would take the reins in 2011.
It was part of a two-fold plan by the club, with Colless confirming on the same day that Andrew Ireland, Swans football boss at the time, would step up to replace outgoing CEO Myles Baron-Hay at the end of the 2009 season.
The coaching succession plan wasn’t exactly a new concept. A fortnight earlier Collingwood had announced a similar plan whereby Nathan Buckley would succeed Mick Malthouse as senior coach in 2012, with Malthouse to stay on as director of coaching.
And while the Malthouse/Buckley partnership ended sourly two years later when Malthouse quit after Buckley took the top job, the Roos/Longmire handover could hardly have been smoother.
It was a Swans masterstroke. That Longmire is still in the job as his teams enjoy an exciting rebuild with a crop of young players the envy of the competition is all the vindication it needs.
At the time the Sydney succession plan was announced Longmire was hot property in the coaching market. He was a leading contender for the senior position at North Melbourne, where he had played 200 games over 12 years, following the exit of Dean Laidley seven weeks earlier.
He was due to be interviewed that week by North for the job that ultimately went to Brad Scott, but happily extended his Sydney commitment via the succession plan.
He has now coached 256 games in a row against no less than 43 different opponents.
That alone is vindication of the wisdom of the Swans planning, the effectiveness of the execution and the class of the people involved. But if you want more proof just count coaching changes at each club from 2009 to 2021.
Only Hawthorn, where Alastair Clarkson is still in charge, have had fewer new coaches. And that will change next year following confirmation that Sam Mitchell will replace Clarkson.
Like Sydney, Geelong and West Coast have had only one change. Mark Thompson to Chris Scott at the Cats and John Worsfold to Adam Simpson at the Eagles.
Collingwood and Richmond are at two, with Buckley having recently handed the reins to caretaker coach Robert Harvey, and caretaker coach Jade Rawlings making way for Damien Hardwick.
The average of the other 11 clubs in the League at the time is four, headed by Essendon (7), Adelaide (6) and Melbourne and North Melbourne (5).
Roos, later to take charge of the Swans Academy, had explained at the time his decision to stand down from the top job was primarily a family decision. He wanted to spend more time with his two teenage sons before they left home.
"Why now? I think it's important from a club point of view,” he said. “It's a really exciting time, which we've seen over the last couple of weeks for the footy club, with some young players coming through. It's a really exciting time for Andrew (Ireland) to take over the role as the CEO and I think it’s really important that we move forward,” he said.
"We've always talked about having some sort of succession plan and hopefully promoting from within. We really believe in our culture, we believe in the players and what they've done and we want to keep passing that down to the next senior coach.
"The time is right for me and I am really excited about the next 12 months. I look forward to helping the club go into the next phase and I am excited about handing it over to John after that."
Longmire insisted that despite the circumstances and the possibility of a senior job at his old club he had given the Swans any sorted of ultimatum.
"Obviously the North Melbourne job was appealing being an ex-player, but I think from my experience here - I have been here for eight years and working with the people I have - it is just a terrific football club. And when the opportunity came up when Roosy spoke to me this morning ... that was too good an opportunity to knock back."
Roos and Longmire had a relationship that went all the way back to Round 14 1988, when a 17-year-old Longmire played his third AFL game against Roos and Fitzroy at Waverley. Longmire kicked 1-3 from eight marks and 12 possessions and Roos, in his 137th game at 25, had 21 possessions. North won by 39 points.
They were regular combatants for the next 11 years as Longmire built a 200-game career at North, and Roos played a further six years at Fitzroy before joining the Swans in 1995.
They would have played against each other in the 1996 grand final had Longmire not missed the entire ’96 season with a knee injury.
Still, while the pair were not often directly opposed, they did play against each other 12 times. Longmire enjoyed a 7-5 record and averaged three goals against teams in which Roos was playing, with a best of eight goals in the MCG in Round 7 1991.
Roos’ favorite memory of the on-field rivalry would be the next time they met in Round 22 1991 at Princes Park. He finished with 29 possessions, a goal and two Brownlow Medal votes from centre half back as Fitzroy won 22-16 (148) to 21-21 (147) in the highest one-point game in history.
Longmire, a Riverina product who might so easily have been a Sydney player, kicked two goals but his memory of the game might be a little vague. YouTube highlights show he was penalised in the last minute for holding the ball deep in the North forward line, giving possession to Fitzroy before watching helplessly from the other end as Ross Lyon kicked the winner for Fitzroy 10 seconds before the final siren.
It wasn’t the last time Roos, Longmire and Lyon would be together at the football, but there was more to play out on the football merry-go-round before then.
Roos, four years a Swans player, retired in 1998 and moved to the United States. Longmire hung up the boots in 1999 and moved into media and player management.
In 2001 Roos accepted an assistant-coaching position with the Swans under Rodney Eade, and in 2002, when George Stone moved on, Longmire did likewise as his replacement.
When Eade quit as senior coach after Round 12 2002 after the Swans would not guarantee his future beyond the end of the season, Roos was appointed caretaker coach. And after a 6-4 end to the season, including wins in the last four games, he was appointed full-time coach from 2003 onwards despite media reports linking the job to Terry Wallace.
Longmire, Malaxos and Peter Jonas were Roos’ assistants in his first full season in charge, but when Malaxos moved home to Perth 12 months on Roos recruited his old mate Lyon, who had spent eight years as an assistant coach at Richmond and Carlton.
Ironically, Lyon had wanted to move to Sydney with Roos as a player in 1995 but when the AFL ruled there was insufficient salary cap room for both he headed to Brisbane for two games before injury ended his career.
Longmire and Lyon had been key members of Roos’ coaching group that spearheaded the breakthrough premiership of 2005, ending the club’s 72-year drought.
After the club’s 2006 grand final loss to West Coast Longmire and Lyon were leading candidates for the senior coaching job at St.Kilda vacated by Grant Thomas, who had played with Roos and Lyon at Fitzroy.
It went to Lyon, but Longmire was seen as a senior coach in waiting. It was not if he would get a chance but when.
And when Roos decided his days were numbered in 2009 and Longmire was linked to the North job for 2010 the stars aligned. The Swans, desperate not to lose their then coaching co-ordinator, committed to the succession plan which sees him in the job today.
This year the 256-game veteran has gone past Wallace (247) and Malcolm Blight (250) into 32nd spot on the all-time “most games coached” list.
Next on the list at 258 games is ex-Fitzroy and Essendon coach Bill Stephen, and midway through next year he will go into the top 30. Who will he displace? None other than Roos at 268.
