Sydney Swans and Melbourne Storm are conquering foreign lands

THE Sydney Swans and Melbourne Storn are fighting their codes’ battles deep in enemy territory — but despite sustained success they have to fight tooth and nail for hometown recognition.

Cameron Smith signs autographs in Sydney ahead of the 2016 nrl grand final. Picture: Getty Images

THEY are fighting their codes’ battles deep in enemy territory — and doing an excellent good job of it.

Once again Sydney and Melbourne Storm will feature in grand finals at the weekend. Not that anybody should be surprised.

For the Swans, this is AFL Grand Final No.6 in the past 21 seasons and for Storm it’s NRL big dance No.7 since its 1998 debut.

Yet despite their sustained run of success — the Swans have missed the finals only three times since 1996, the Storm three times ever — the clubs still have to fight tooth and nail for every scrap of hometown recognition from the media and public.

But the lack of year-round frenzied attention does have its benefits, according to Swans chief executive Andrew Ireland and Storm counterpart Dave Donaghy.

While Lance Franklin, Billy Slater and Cam Smith were instantly recognisable, Ireland said the fact players could “move around more freely than in traditional footy towns ... probably helps the performance”.

Sydney Swans players saviour their 2012 premiership win. Picture: Alex Coppel

Donaghy said: “It’s a big selling point for our younger players, the fact that they can learn their craft in a place where you can just be a normal person.”

But that lack of recognition also has its own pressures.

The media and public love winners.

In the Swans and Storm, local fans are able to embrace the best of the best.

But what happens if a slide occurs?

Ireland said Sydney’s success over the past two decades had ensured the club had more “rusted-on support” than it might have.

But, likening a sporting club’s appeal to a movie theatre, he said: “If you start putting on dud movies, people will stop coming.”

The need to remain at the top was very real.

Melbourne Storm also won the NRL title in 2012. Picture: Gregg Porteous

However, Ireland and Donaghy said their clubs’ motivation to be the best they could be was not born out of fear of what might transpire if they spent time at the bottom of the ladder.

“No doubt you need to be competitive, but I think that’s the case for every club,” Donaghy said.

“What it is does do, though, is put an emphasis on us as a club to work harder because on and off-field we know that Melbourne is a hugely competitive market.

“We feel that we’re competing against not just NRL clubs, but AFL clubs down here as well.

“There’s an extra layer of responsibility on our club, like the Swans in Sydney, because we are the representatives of our game on every level in a market that isn’t a heartland.

“That equates to a lot of pressure in a lot of areas. You need to make sure you’ve got a base level that will get you through in lean times.

“Fortunately for us, that hasn’t been the case and the intention is for that not to be the case.”

Originally published as Sydney Swans and Melbourne Storm are conquering foreign lands