Twenty years on, is Sydney's ‘Bloods' culture at risk of fading away?

The Age

2 days ago

On Saturday, the Sydney Swans will mark the 20-year anniversary of their drought-breaking, identity-forging 2005 AFL premiership – the moment that their 'Bloods culture' went from being an internal concept, barely spoken about outside the club, to a very public ethos, mythologised in footy folklore and proudly etched into the club's DNA.
At half-time of Sydney's clash with the Adelaide Crows, players from that famous grand final win will do a lap of honour at the SCG, and thousands of fans will show their appreciation for them and the achievement that set up the enviable era that followed.
At no point in the past two decades has that culture – built on discipline, selflessness, unity and commitment, revered and feared by their rivals – appeared more vulnerable than right now.
If nothing else, the Swans of 2025 are clearly undisciplined. Skipper Callum Mills will miss Saturday's clash through suspension, and he's far from the only culprit; no team this year has had more players rubbed out than the Swans. And those other qualities, for so long non-negotiables at this club, just aren't sticking.
After last week's hollow defeat to Melbourne – the Swans' first match at the MCG since last year's grand final, their second belting on the game's biggest stage in the space of three years – former Western Bulldogs champion Bob Murphy diagnosed their issues in perhaps the most Bob Murphy way imaginable.
'Well, the thing about the Bloods,' he said on ABC Radio. 'Blood needs to pump, and the thing that pumps your blood is your heart, and I feel like they've played with broken hearts for most of the year.'
All the players who built the Bloods culture are gone; in fact, so much has changed that the bloke who kicked the ball that Leo Barry marked is now the coach. Paul Roos is long gone, and so too is his successor John Longmire; though he's still technically around, in his new upstairs role at the Swans, the football department is no longer his domain.
Like the Ship of Theseus, if all the parts have changed, and all the hands which put them there are different, is it still the same? Recent history would suggest that yes, that culture has been successfully preserved: only three times since 2005 have the Swans missed the finals, and most would agree that they probably should have won more than one of their four grand finals in that time. And the brand of footy they have played throughout is - or was - still based on the same fundamentals.