John Longmire is a coaching genius and has elevated a team few believed in to a Grand Final

JOHN Longmire is a coaching genius. Almost without plaudits, he has elevated a team few believed in into the Grand Final, writes Jon Ralph.

Sydney coach John Longmire watches his players warm up.

JOHN Longmire is desperate for you to underestimate him.

A man who has never had a losing season and made a Grand Final in three of six seasons in charge hides his ambition behind a facade of tedium.

Last weekend he gave us a small glimpse of what makes him tick as his players entered the MCG rooms after executing the perfect preliminary final.

He hugged and high-fived and back slapped every single player in the most animated display we have seen from the 2012 premiership coach.

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Normally the John Longmire we see is in press conferences deflecting and dodging, whether over Buddy’s travails or Keiren Jack’s family dynamics.

And yet if Chris Scott gets the plaudits for his intellectual post-match explanations and Luke Beveridge is lauded for his emotional connections, John Longmire is a coaching genius.

Almost without plaudits, he has elevated a team few believed in into the Grand Final, all with seven player debuts this year and eight players with under 50 games.

When will John Longmire get the respect he deserves?

Sydney coach John Longmire embraces Lance Franklin after the preliminary final.

As North Melbourne premiership teammate David King says of Longmire, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“He is up for a laugh, he is involved in the conversation, he is a very jovial person. But once that red light comes on he becomes Captain Boring,’’ King said this week.

He is up for a laugh, he is involved in the conversation, he is a very jovial person. But once that red light comes on he becomes Captain Boring.

David King

“He doesn’t want to upset anyone or give ammunition so he doesn’t end up saying a lot.

“But inside the four walls of the Swans the players love him. They know everything he does is in their best interests.”

The beauty of long-time Swans assistant Longmire is that he didn’t just take the keys to the city and maintain the status quo when he took over from Paul Roos.

He innovated, keeping the fundamentals of intense pressure and midfield dominance while adding ball speed and the “slingshot” attack that won Sydney the 2012 premiership.

In 2013, Sydney was ravaged by injuries but still made a preliminary final, in 2014 they ruined a perfect year with a Grand Final stinker and last year they again were stunned by injuries and Lance Franklin’s late-season unavailability.

In every year they have played multiple finals, every stumble apart from that 2014 decider influenced by injuries.

Sydney coach John Longmire with co-captains Kieren Jack and Jarrad McVeigh.

Even this year he has made big tactical shifts with ball retention and worked away with a defence full of kids like Aliir Alliir and Callum Mills and a youngblood ruckman in Sam Naismith.

He has set such high standards that Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge told the Herald Sun his club aspired to be like Sydney.

“He has got an amazing track record. He cut his teeth over a significant period of time working with Roosy and then he brought in his own style and his own brand after that,’’ he said.

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“I think in many ways the Swans were transformed when he took over. The consistency of his success and finals footy is a great credit to him and his people.

“We aim to be like that. We aim to be envied like the Hawks and Swans.”

This week Longmire will have to revisit his own playing past when he makes one of the most difficult decisions of his six-season coaching career.

Kangaroos stalwart Longmire missed the 1996 premiership with a knee injury and only scraped into the 1999 team for the preliminary final after a lingering elbow injury.

He was hardly in Denis Pagan’s team all year and yet found a way to achieve his football dream before immediately retiring.

Craig Sholl and John Longmire hold the 1999 premiership trophy aloft.

Now he must decide whether to risk his captain Jarrad McVeigh just two weeks after a calf injury, aware the decision could make or break his team.

Says long-time North Melbourne teammate Wayne Schwass of that decision: “I have no doubt he will make the right decision with Jarrad and the medical team.

“But you only have to look back to him not playing Ryan O’Keefe (in the 2014 season). He is a person not afraid of making really difficult decisions for the betterment of the group.

“I admire him greatly for it. I think he has done a remarkable job. He is a great person and has all the attributes to be a really good coach.

“If they win this year he becomes a great coach.”

King says Longmire always had the bigger picture in mind, moving into player management with IMG then eventually deciding coaching was his passion.

“He was a great team man but also very intelligent,” King said.

“He was the first with a mobile phone back in the day. He turned up at a restaurant in Lygon St and it was so big it needed three blokes to carry it.

“It broke the group up into tears of laughter. It was like he was carrying a toolbox it was that big.

“But it was part of his desire for life outside footy. He was always working on something, always aspiring for more.”