Twenty years on, is Sydney’s ‘Bloods’ culture at risk of fading away

But nothing lasts forever.

“I was fortunate enough to play against that,” said coach Dean Cox. “[I know] what it did look like from an opposition player. Certainly, the players are aware of what the team stood for and how they played through that period of time. There’s a little subtle messaging that we’ll play throughout the week, about how we can try and emulate some of the things that they were doing.

“We’ll still focus on ourselves. But you need to certainly identify the amazing team that that was.”

Have the Swans of 2025 strayed too far from the ethos of 2005? The answer from Cox was no, but also yes. At times, they have, and at other times they haven’t – so it’s still there, somewhere.

“That’s probably the hardest part at the moment – for periods, it’s been OK,” he said.

“The discrepancies have been so great, and that’s what we need to line out, and we need to make as consistent as possible. We always want to be a hard team to play against. That hasn’t changed. We still want that. So we’ve got to get back to doing that.”

Now is the time. At 4-7, mathematically, obviously, anything is still possible for the Swans. But realistically, playing finals football becomes very tough if their colours are lowered again.

Though the Swans can look forward to the return of several key players from injury over the back end of the season – Errol Gulden and Tom Papley, most notably – they cannot take their focus away from the here and now.

“Injuries happen. You see every club go through injuries or suspensions or players in and out of form. So it’s about exactly that: seizing the moment when you are there,” Cox said. “We can’t wait. We’re not in a position to wait. As a football club, we never wait. So the players, they’re aware of that and everyone needs to address it.”

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Cox’s repeated warnings have not been heeded, to the point where he has had to deploy the big stick at selection, dropping star winger Ollie Florent and ending his run of 130 consecutive games.

“Obviously he’s had a great career to date, and still will for the footy club, but I think one thing you want the players to do is to play their role consistently. And Ollie hasn’t been doing that,” Cox said. “So when you don’t do that, your position gets put in jeopardy.”