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The Rise of the Swans: a Decade of Success: 2003 to 2012 Author: Martin Blake

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The Rise of the Swans: a Decade of Success: 2003 to 2012 Author: Martin Blake The Rise of the Swans: A decade of success: 2003 to 2012 Author: Martin Blake Extract Foreword Bob Skilton A lot of people ask me how I feel about the success of the modern-day Sydney Swans, and of course, I'm rapt. But I might best sum up my response in one word: RESPECT. Standing out on the MCG as I was about to present the 2012 Premiership Cup, I remember thinking to myself: 'It's not just about the premiership. It's the way we're respected in the football world. We never, ever had that before'. When I played for South Melbourne, we played hard. We had some great players, quite a few of them, and fine people around the club. But we did not have much success, and we were not consistent. We did not earn that respect, and it is a matter of public record that beyond the 1945 Grand Final, which the club lost to Carlton, we did not participate in the September action for another 25 years. The 2005 Premiership was our first since 1933. The club moved to Sydney in 1982 but I never lost my connection with it. I know that some of the old players and supporters dropped off; they felt cheated by that change. But I had a more pragmatic view. I just didn't want to lose my team. I would rather say, 'that's my team from before it moved to Sydney' than 'I don't have a team anymore'. To me, that was far more important than a debate about whether we remained in Melbourne or moved to Sydney. Hence, I've always remained close to the Swans. I know that there were times over that 25 or so years in Sydney that we were very close to folding all together. I give credit to the Barry Rounds, the Gerard Healys and Tony Morwoods for hanging in there through that period, because it must have been difficult. Yet at the end of it, maybe the club came out stronger anyway. Maybe what the people at the club went through in that period – being put there without any help from the AFL and no proper support – maybe that was part of building what is there now, with that strong culture and feeling of belonging. The club has been rebuilt, bit-by-bit, and I admire Richard Colless's work as chairman and head of the organisation for such a long period. But no one can run a club by themself either, and it's not just Richard or Andrew Ireland as chief executive or Paul Kelly, Brett Kirk or Adam Goodes. We all know what a great job Paul Roos did as coach from 2003–2010 and I am a fan of John Longmire and his ability to create a new game plan, not falling into the trap of just trying to copy his predecessor. John found his own way; I like that thinking. It's all come together for us as a team and a club, and that's a great feeling to have, especially when it gets to Grand Final Day. The 2012 Grand Final was a classic, and the performance of the players was special. There were times in that game when Hawthorn looked like they were going to run away with it, but the boys were able to work back into it, one way or another. I think every player at one stage of the game did something special for the team. I mean every single player; you could go back through the video and quote their little moment. I love that photograph of the boys on the podium with the cup a few moments after I presented it to them. And I remember that everywhere I went in the next few months, people were congratulating me on what the club had done, what our club had done. A few months afterwards as the club prepared for another season, a photographer came to my home to take a picture of me with my three Brownlow Medals. It was a request I dealt with gladly, but as the picture was taken, I made a point. 'These [medals] aren't my pride and joy anymore,' I said. 'Those two things up on the bar are my pride and joy.' They are two replica Premiership Cups, presented to me after the 2005 and 2012 victories. They represent the change in our club, and they represent respect. .
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