Swans chairman Andrew Pridham talks hot 2024 form, John Longmire’s future in Sydney
The Swans are the flag favourites, and boss Andrew Pridham tells GLENN MCFARLANE the grand final in Melbourne remains an advantage for Victorian clubs, as he chats footy’s biggest issues.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
John Longmire has the Sydney coaching role for “as long as he wants it” in the eyes of Swans chairman Andrew Pridham, who believes stability has been one of the cornerstones of the club’s success on and off the field.
Having started 2024 with a 10-1 record – the club’s best start to a season since 1936 – the Swans have headed to their mid-season bye as clear premiership favourites after a brilliant first half of the season.
But in an interview with this masthead, Pridham said no one at the club would be resting on laurels with the goal of making the Swans’ 150th birthday celebrations a momentous one.
“We can be really proud of the on field (results) this season,” Pridham said.
“I am very confident with where the club is at right now and that’s come off the back of a lot of hard work from a lot of people in the past.
“We have a bright future. That’s the best thing about celebrating the first 150 years is that we are in good shape for the next 150 as well.
“This year and next year, to an extent, we will have various events (celebrating the anniversary). Obviously we had a big hall of fame event when we opened our (new) building (in Sydney). But hopefully the best celebration of all will come later in the year.
“We’ve seen what we can do this year, but we know how much work we still have ahead.”
THE COACH
Sydney gave up the rights to John Longmire the footballer – in a financial deal with North Melbourne which included a kid called Wayne Carey – but it has no intention of letting Longmire the coach go so easily.
He has been a part of the club since 2002, and has been senior coach since 2011.
But Pridham envisages the relationship between the coach and the club stretching beyond his current deal which runs to the end of 2025, if Longmire wants to keep going.
Longmire has coached the Swans on 318 occasions – a club record – with Pridham saying his evolution as a leader has been a key part of his success, which has so far included a flag (2012), three other grand final losses and a regular September action.
“He (Longmire) is very engaged, not just as a coach, but throughout the club,” Pridham said.
“I speak to him a lot about the business of the club, and he is engaged in that as much as he is engaged in the footy side of it.
“He has a job for as long as he wants it. It is not easy being a senior coach, it is very stressful and how much longer he has left in him, I don’t know.
“He joined us in 2002 and has been around a very long time. We don’t like change too much at the Swans. Football stability is massively underrated, I think it is very, very important.”
Pridham said part of Longmire’s ability to last as long as a senior AFL coach comes from being able to evolve in the role, with his connection to the younger players in the group every bit as rock solid as that of the veterans he has coached throughout their careers.
“He is extraordinary in the way he has evolved and adapted his coaching,” Pridham said. “Obviously, there has been generational change from the time he first started. But his connection to the players remains as strong as it ever has.
“The younger players absolutely love him and his connection with them is so great.
“He has changed the way he operates and has realised the days of screaming at players to motivate them is long gone.”
150TH BIRTHDAY BASH
Pridham and Sydney’s board of directors gathered for a special meeting on Thursday at the Temperance Hall in South Melbourne where the club was formed in June, 1874.
“It’s a significant anniversary,” he said.
“When you think about it, when the club moved from Melbourne to Sydney (in 1982), I think there were 1500 members or something like that. This year we will get to 70,000 members shortly, and we’ve got two million fans.
“We are averaging 39,000 (fans) at our games, which is smashing the records.”
He said it was “sensational” to see club legend Bob Skilton back at the club’s training session last week after battling ill-health for the past few years.
“We hadn’t seen him (Skilton) at the club for a number of years,” Pridham said.
“You could see what it means to the players to have him there – those who have met him before but also those who hadn’t, like Brodie Grundy.
“He is a living, breathing icon and when you think about it, there’s probably only Bobby, Plugger (Lockett), Paul Kelly, Goodesy (Adam Goodes) and a handful of others who you could put on that level.
“I feel really proud of a club that was founded in 1874 in South Melbourne, and which has had a tough life through the ups and downs.
“It certainly didn’t succeed in the way that the founders thought it would have at the time.
“If the club had been bloody-minded and had stayed in Melbourne, it wouldn’t exist now, so I think it is a really important reminder to everyone in the system that you can relocate and thrive.”
KEEPING CLOSE TO BUDDY AND GOODESY
Pridham said the Swans were keen to further their association with the Indigenous community, and he hopes retired Sydney greats Buddy Franklin and Adam Goodes can play a role.
“We’ve had 18 Indigenous players in 150 years and we’ve had some very big names as a part of that,” Pridham said.
“We have an Indigenous academy. We are really trying to grow our own players with this.”
Goodes remained closely connected to the club – and Pridham – despite the issues he had following his premature retirement.
And the Swans are in regular contact with Franklin, despite the fact he has moved to the Gold Coast since his retirement late last year.
“We do a really good job of engaging with all our past players, including our Indigenous players,” he said.
“We unveiled the sculpture of Adam Goodes at our building last year and it was unbelievable.
“We’ve had a lot of past Indigenous players, going all the way back to Elkin Reilly, who was our first Indigenous player back in the 1960s.
“I was talking to Micky O’Loughlin (former Swans star and now board member) and I said to him ‘Who does Derek Kickett barrack for?’ He said, ‘He’s definitely a Swannie’.”
COMPETITIVE BALANCE
Pridham makes no apologies for pushing the cause of non-Victorian clubs to make the AFL a more even national competition.
He has long pushed for a best of three grand final system, which would allow the AFL to take the premiership playoff on the road, despite a contract locking it into the MCG until 2059.
“I’m yet to hear a good reason why you wouldn’t have a best of three grand final series,” he said. “Maybe if we played a grand final in Sydney, we could buy some of the Melbourne clubs business class seats to fly up. I would make sure they get 13 business class seats.”
That last line was a dig at several Victorian clubs who questioned the travel issues of the two Western Australian teams by claiming they had access to 12 premium business class seats.
“There is always going to be tension between the clubs … there is no such thing as everything being equal,” he said.
“If you keep playing the grand final in Melbourne, that is the biggest advantage of all.
“We have to find an environment where it is as fair as it can be. I’m a big believer that if there is something that disadvantages the WA clubs, then we should try to help in other areas.
“Our disadvantage is that we travel every second week and we don’t have the media coverage that you get in Victoria, South Australia or Western Australia.
“But I always try to take my Sydney Swans hat off at times. I think that clubs that push agendas against WA clubs in terms of travel or the academies and what that is doing in terms of developing the game in the northern states, are myopic in their view of the game.
“You need to take a look at a bigger picture view.”
Originally published as Swans chairman Andrew Pridham talks hot 2024 form, John Longmire’s future in Sydney
Revealed: The panel which will oversee Dees’ review after backflip
After rejecting the need for a full-scale review of the club all through 2024, Melbourne has backflipped. JAY CLARK reveals the three men who’ll conduct the sweeping review.
Macrae, Daniel … Bevo? The big off-season calls facing the Dogs
The Western Bulldogs have made finals in seven of the past 10 seasons but were smashed by Hawthorn on Friday night so where to now for Luke Beveridge? Plus the latest on a premiership pair.