What Gerard Healy thinks John Longmire’s lasting legacy as Sydney coach will be

Sydney great Gerard Healy has reflected on John Longmire’s legacy at the club after the head coach stepped away from his role at the Swans following 14 seasons on Tuesday.

Longmire initially took over at Sydney in 2011 and went on to coach the club to 208 wins from 333 games in charge with the most important victory of them all coming in the 2012 Grand Final over Hawthorn.

In his 14 years in charge, the Swans finished atop the ladder three times while making finals in all but two of those campaigns.

While the knock on Longmire’s legacy is his 1-4 record in Grand Finals, Healy thinks that the 53-year-old will be remembered as a coach that got the best out of the groups he had along the way.

“It's been an amazing run from John,” Healy told SEN’s Dwayne’s World.

“He has coached that side and got the best out of that group and the groups he’s had, I think it’s fair to say,

“That to me will be his greatest legacy. 

“Yes, he's won the premiership, and unfortunately he lost four others, but I don't think he's ever had maybe with the exception of 2016, the best side in the competition.

“He’s taken some good sides to Grand Finals and in 2022 they ran into a powerhouse in Geelong, that was a boy in a man's fight in some respects.

“Probably the Bulldogs game was the one that got away from them. 

“But ultimately, he's just been such a great statesman, a great coach, a great developer of that club and he's been the leader of the club as much as he's been anything else.”

While the Grand Final results will be analysed, Healy doesn’t hope that Longmire’s statistics are twisted as he feels that the 1-4 win-loss record doesn’t tell the full story.

“Ultimately, you can't walk away from the fact that you've had five opportunities to win a flag and you've won one,” Healy said.

“The first was 2012 … he'd only been senior coach for two years and if you want to show somebody a good game of AFL footy, that one would just come to my mind.

“Then you get to 2014 and they got ambushed by Hawthorn, in 2016 they a couple of injuries, but the Bulldogs just were too good for them.

“Then they've never been a powerhouse like Geelong were two years ago, Geelong were just a super team and the Swans haven’t been that.

“So I think Horse’s stats maybe twisted if you like. But if you look at the ‘joy meter’ … look at how Sydney has grown and Horse has to take credit for that because he’s been the leader.”

With Dean Cox taking over as coach on a four-year deal, Longmire will remain at the club in a role as Executive Director - Club Performance in 2025.