And didn’t he repay them in spades, becoming the first Sydney-raised player to win a premiership, then adding a second flag for good measure.

The skinny kid from Mosman, who started as a Willoughby Wildcat then a North Shore Bomber, became living proof that a harbour city boy could reach the pinnacle of the game.

Making his journey all the more remarkable was the fact he didn’t touch a Sherrin until his mid-teens and had to switch codes, as a rugby or even basketball career loomed during his years at Shore school in North Sydney.

But the Swans swooped at the right time, just as his unwavering commitment to his school rugby XV and basketball teams drew to a close.

They signed him a week before his HSC exams. He completed his final exam on a Friday and the following Monday he was training at the SCG.

He thanks his parents for keeping him “grounded” and asking him to be a role model for his three younger sisters.

The school spirit, with all its prestige and tradition, was something I wanted to be part of, especially as leadership roles and mentoring were expected of you in the later years - Lewis Roberts Thomson on SHORE

Now a fledgling St Leonards-based businessman Roberts-Thomson, known as LRT or the Hyphenator, wonders how he managed to fit everything in to his busy teenage years.

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The 34-year-old former Swans champ, who married wife Zoe at the Shore chapel five years ago with current Swans great Jarrad McVeigh as a groomsman, said: “You just find time. When you enjoy things it comes a lot easier. I found the hardest thing was that you can’t please everyone. There were competing agendas but school always came first.

“The school spirit, with all its prestige and tradition, was something I wanted to be part of, especially as leadership roles and mentoring were expected of you in the later years.”

He was playing in the first XV where future Wallaby Phil Waugh, several years ahead of him, was “the idol and role model for all the young kids coming through the ranks”.

He was also playing in the firsts basketball team, studying for HSC and training with his AFL team at Greystanes.

The rugby team played on Saturdays so “fingers crossed the AFL match was on Sunday”.

He was selected for the NSW AFL youth team and toured Ireland with an under-17 international rules side before being spotted by AFL recruiters at a national carnival.

AFL was always “in the family”. Dad Barry, originally a dairy farmer from Tasmania, played VFA for Sandringham and ended up in the Queensland footie hall of fame. Mum Victoria, a physical education teacher, was, as her name suggests, from the game’s home state.

But the young LRT played the game his friends played — rugby. He didn’t kick a footie until the day his dad, then CEO of Hutchison Telecoms, asked the Aussie rules coach training opposite his office to invite his reluctant son to join in.

“I enjoyed the open spaces, the skills; I was intrigued by the kicking and high marking,” he recalled. “You had a lot more freedom than rugby to roam and follow the ball.

“I think the Swans saw me as one of the first Sydney boys with links to the local community, not an interstate or a country player, and thought, ‘We’re starting to make inroads here with the Sydney market’.

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“AFL wasn’t that big at the time. But the Swans had signed Tony Lockett and Paul Roos, the momentum was building and the exposure was growing.”

He went on to play 179 games for the Swans, despite the frustrations of hamstring, Achilles and knee injuries, and a broken foot.

The highlights were undoubtedly the grand final triumphs in 2005 over the West Coast Eagles and 2012 against Hawthorn.

Not bad for a guy whose only goal at one stage was “to play one game of AFL footie”.

“Then you look at 50 games and the 100 game milestone. You dream of a grand final.”

He started with outstanding players like Paul Kelly, Daryn Creswell and Wayne Schwass. He ended alongside Buddy Franklin, Josh Kennedy and Luke Parker. In between there were stars like Barry Hall, Adam Goodes, Brett Kirk and Michael O’Loughlin.

It was a period of great achievement. Of his first 150 games, no fewer than 20 were finals.

Coach John Longmire called him an “outstanding competitor” who could adapt to any role.

“There is not a position on the ground he hasn’t played in,” he said, “and he has been a fan favourite, perhaps even a cult figure.”

Modesty sits snugly on him. Witness his own summary: “I was in the right place at the right time.”

When the North Shore Times asked him to appear in Up Close, his first response was: “You’re scraping the barrel with me, aren’t you?”

The former Swan said preparing for life after footy, making the transition from AFL star to the business world, was something he found extremely difficult.

He now jointly runs a business consultancy specialising in the telecommunications industry. He had the foresight to study while his AFL teammates were playing golf. He earned a Masters degree in commerce at Sydney University as well as management and corporate finance qualifications from the Australian Institute of Management.

But it was no walk in the park.

“It is not easy, no matter how prepared you think you are,” he said.

“The transition is not as straightforward as you expect it to be.

“You still have to break down barriers, showing you are not just a footballer. You’ve got to start at the bottom and work your way up again.”

He must have cut a lone figure at times as the only member of his AFL team who was studying.

“You’re not looking into the future. The club wants you to see yourself as a long term player and to work on certain things,” he recalled.

“Now they have welfare managers asking what you do with your spare time, not that there’s a lot of it.

“With footy most of the communication is verbal and there’s vision on screens. If you’re three points up with two minutes to go, playing in front of 60,000 fans and 300,000 watching on television, you know what the game plan is. You know how to back yourself and be confident in those situations.

“But as an entry level business analyst, say, you’re asked to put a report together and there’s a new language of email etiquette, balance sheets, cash flow, profit and loss, Excel spread sheets.

“Now I’m in the office at 7.30am, there are financial meetings and business development plans and all of a sudden it’s 6.30 at night.

“Your week is not governed by coaches or the football club any more. Everything was mapped out for me, even nutrition. Now we form our own culture.

“Football training does help. You have learned that to get better you have to put in the work, that if you fail to prepare you are preparing to fail.”

LRT doesn’t rule out a future role in football.

He has kept “a foot in the door” with a part-time role in player management.

That involves looking after welfare and contract negotiations for Sydney players, not only some Swans but also — shock horror — some from cross-town rivals the Giants.