Bloodied Swans crawl off the canvas after another AFL grand final capitulation

The performance may have been a knockout blow for this generation of Swans, or just an ugly round in the AFL's never-ending bout. But somehow Sydney's soul-searching took on a boxing flavour in the immediate aftermath to their second grand final shellacking in three years.

Stand-in captain Dane Rampe pulled on the metaphorical gloves in the post-match presentation. "We've fallen short again, but I stand here beaming with pride that we put ourselves back in the ring, dusted ourselves off the canvas after '22, and we put ourselves in a position to keep swinging."

Coach John Longmire took the cue and fought on minutes later in his post-match press conference: "You'd much rather get into the ring and have a swing than be standing outside looking in."

Ask the club's fans, and this was no Rocky movie. "Went to bed disappointed. Woke up angry," one said on a Facebook group. "The mental scars from another fuck up this bad will run deep," another comment read. "If they don't want to take this problem seriously I'm not going to take the club seriously any more," said a third.

The problem is not just the Swans' recent inability to win a grand final. It is their inability to even compete.

Across the past four season-enders, the numbers are ugly. The Swans led the Bulldogs at half-time in 2016, before losing by 22 points. In the other three – against Hawthorn in 2014, Geelong in 2022 and now Brisbane – the combined losing margin is 204 points.

This burgeoning reputation as grand final nonentities will now be hard to shake. Much of Victoria only pays attention to the Swans in September, allowing trope to become truth. Sydney fans are already maligned as fair-weather, supposedly only joining the bandwagon come spring. That's despite the club averaging more than 31,000 fans for every regular season home match since 1997, in a period when the lowest average for a season was 24,981.

The legend of the Swans as kings of the contest, the competition's congestion junkies, is now largely outdated. The club's tradition of toughness, traced through Paul Kelly, Brett Kirk and Josh Kennedy, fading with every slingshot.

The exhilarating football of the Swans in 2024, predicated on their slick ball movement, tempo change in attack and all-round ability of their athletic midfield took them to the minor premiership and best percentage. The Swans today are now easy on the eye, very much modern football exponents, with an edge as sharp as any in the competition. But when things aren't clicking, the Swans take a licking.

"I don't want to use the term downhill skiers, but that's what it feels like sometimes with this Sydney team," Channel Seven commentator Kate McCarthy said in August as the Swans' slow starts were frustrating their efforts to correct a mid-year slump. The former Lions AFLW player – and proud Brisbane fan – shared on Instagram the same six-week old post again on Sunday with the caption "keeping receipts."

That was hard to argue with after what happened on Saturday in the second and third quarters. There were mitigating factors of course. Isaac Heeney's ankle, where a stress fracture caused him grief. Logan McDonald's struggles with his own ankle. The absence of captain Callum Mills.

But every team faces adversity. Brisbane were without injured defender Keidean Coleman, perhaps their best player in the 2023 grand final. Veteran forwards Lincoln McCarthy and Darcy Gardiner both injured their ACLs in the same game in May. And first choice ruck Oscar McInerney was out with his shoulder.

And so a disillusioned fan base must go looking for answers. Rampe, Harry Cunningham, Jake Lloyd and Luke Parker are the only players left from 2014. But they have all been key contributors for the minor premiers this year.

The tall forwards of Joel Amartey, Logan McDonald and Hayden McLean may be lampooned as technically limited, but they have helped anchor one of the best scoring outfits in the league, and the Swans' style relies on their ability to compete and bring the ball to ground.

Longmire's record as coach in grand finals now stands at one win and four defeats. During the week, three-time premiership-winning coach Damien Hardwick described Longmire as "someone you aspire to be like". But the Sydney coach has now gone more a decade without a flag, in a period where the Swans were almost perennial contenders. Three of his grand final losses came as minor premiers.

The man they call "Horse" reminded reporters just two teams get to make the grand final each year. "It's a very difficult challenge to get to stand there on grand final day and win. This footy club's been pretty resilient to be able to show the ability to be able to get back there time and time again," he said. "Very hard to win it if you're not in it."

The job is likely to be Longmire's as long as he wants it. But the coach, like his side, is now carrying extra baggage. When asked about his 1-4 win-loss record in deciders, the 53-year-old declined to comment. "It's not about me, mate, it's about the footy club."