It's now been 14 years since the Swans announced their Team of the Century. Many players have since joined in the last decade and a half, and many others have developed into fine players.
By 2024, the Swans will have existed for 150 years. Obviously more players will join over the next 7 years, but from all we have to choose from today, who would be in our best team of 150 years?
I'm proposing two possible teams.
BEST SWANS PLAYERS
1) the team of players/coach who have best represented our club. Minimum of 50 games for the Swans (apart from a player's debut, that's the next big milestone & they would have played a minimum of three seasons). Choose players based on their best football with the Swans (eg Brownlow medalist Len Thompson only played 20 games for the Swans and his best football was behind him, Norm Smith had a less than 30% winning record as a coach with the Swans)
BEST PLAYERS
2) a team of players/coach who have represented the Swans but might have been outstanding before or after their time at the Swans - ie they were outstanding VFL/AFL footballers, just not when they played with the Swans (eg Norm Smtih named the coach of the AFL team of the Century with 6 premierships for Melbourne). So they only have to have represented the Swans in a minimum of one game to be eligible.
A starting point would be the 2003 Swans Team of the Century (and there were even contentious selections then). Who would you replace to name your best Swans team of all time?
B: John Rantall, John Heriot, Vic Belcher
H/B: Bill Faul, Ron Clegg, Dennis Carroll
C: David Murphy, Greg Williams, Herb Matthews
H/F: Tony Morwood, Laurie Nash, Gerard Healy
F: Bob Pratt, Tony Lockett, Paul Kelly (VC)
Foll: Barry Round, Peter Bedford, Bob Skilton (Capt)
Inter: Bill Williams, Stevie Wright, Daryn Cresswell, Fred Goldsmith, Mark Bayes, Harry Clarke, Mark Tandy
Coach: Jack Bissett
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