Why Sydney is home now for Longmire

OF the thousands of photographs John Longmire has been involved in over 30 years in football as a player and coach, two recent snaps have jumped into his faves.

He’s in one of them.

And he took the other.

Both epitomise what the Sydney Swans mean to him and somewhat explain why he was never going to accept the six-year, $6 million offer from North Melbourne to coach them in 2020 and beyond.

Photograph No.1 was taken by Longmire in the Sydney rooms after the glorious send-off victory for Jarrad McVeigh, Nick Smith, Kieren Jack and Heath Grundy at the SCG in Round 23 last year.

The Swans had missed the finals for the first time under Longmire, yet the coach was swept up in what he believes is the soul of football.

“I was standing in the middle of the SCG,” he says, “and everyone was happy, was pumped, the crowd was going off, blokes were getting carried off, and I was thinking, ‘Should I be feeling happy or should I be dirty we’re not playing next week?’

“You just go with it because it was such a great day and great send-off, not only for those players going out, but for our young players to sit there and watch it. That was important to show these blokes what that link is.”

Like you’d find in any country or suburban footy sheds on any given Saturday night, the merriment continued inside in a kind of retirement party.

“I was standing in the rooms looking around,’’ Longmire says, “and there’s Clementine McVeigh, who is Macca’s wife, Andrew Ireland on the board and our ex CEO, there’s Nick Smith, Hanners is in there somewhere, kids are everywhere, parents everywhere, Plugger was there with his daughter, Josh Kennedy’s boy Emilio was running around, he’s mad but a funny bugger, there were board members through to former players ... it had everything.

“We’re eating pies and drinking Crownies and it was just fantastic.

“I got up and grabbed the phone and went bang with the camera. It’s one of my favourite footy photos of all time.

“You know what it shows ... it shows a footy club.’’

Photograph No.2 was taken a week later. It was the Friday after that final game at a Jamaican smoke house in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Barangaroo. Longmire, McVeigh, Grundy, Smith and Jack met for lunch. Which turned into dinner. Which turned into after dinner drinks.

“Yeah, it was a real late one,’’ Longmire said. “It was a ripping day. I saw them come in as 18-year-old kids, saw them all through their careers and to sit down and spend 10 hours having lunch, having a laugh, it was great.”

Longmire was never leaving Sydney. He signed with the Swans until the end of the 2023 season and, last year, became the club’s longest-serving coach. He is devoted and committed, traits nourished while growing up on a farm near Corowa.

“If you look at my track record,’’ he said, “I barracked for North as a kid and I spent 12 years at North playing.

“Now it’s 19 years at Sydney. I have a wife who I went to school with, we met in Year 7. That’s just who I am.

“I’m a country boy. I’m pretty basic. I’m not complicated with a lot of beliefs and systems I’ve got. It’s what you’ve been brought up as. My kids were born in Sydney. Sydney is all they know. They surf, they love Sydney. It’s an easier decision to be keep the family here because they’ve got friends, been through school, the network is here.’’

Still, the decision to continue coaching was far more consequential than considering the North role. It wasn’t about a possible new adventure, it was about whether he wanted — and the Swans wanted — him to continue the adventure he was on.

He says he goes through deep reflection every time a contract comes around. Is he still good enough to coach? Can he take the players to where they want to go. After all, this is a whole new group.

“Only Parker, Kennedy and Reid are left from 2012,’’ he said.

“You know, McVeigh came in with curly hair, gets a partner, has kids, captains the club, then goes out ... it’s quite a privileged position coaching. And now we’ve got a whole new generation.

“My challenge was to myself. I’d need to give this next generation more than the last. More in an everything way. You’ve got to give that energy every day.

“If you ever felt like you couldn’t get out of bed and go to work, you don’t want to be coaching. So, you decide, can you give this generation another crack? My gut feel was I could but I needed to make sure it was right.”

In the space of three weeks, he told Sydney he wanted to coach, he told North chairman Ben Buckley, a former teammate at the Kangas, he was staying and he agreed to a new deal.

“If this club tapped me on the shoulder, well, that would’ve been different. But I wanted to be here.

“We’ve got a whole new generation to teach.”