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Ron Barassi is a proud man this week, and justifiably so.
For a man who arrived in Sydney a decade ago to coach a side playing in front of crowds of 6000, seeing the Swans take on Collingwood this Saturday night in front of what should be a crowd of 60,000 plus in Sydney is like a dream come true.
The biggest home and away match in the Swans? often troubled 21-year history in the Harbour City comes ironically at a time when Barassi?s long association with the club, and even longer association with football, is about to come to an end.
After ten years with the Swans as first coach and then club director, Barassi will retire at the end of this year ? ending his near constant 50-year involvement with the game, since beginning his playing career with Melbourne way back in 1953.
But the man, who played in six premierships for the Demons, before then coaching Carlton and the Kangaroos to two more premierships each, before then reviving the ailing Swans, is still far from satisfied.
While he will no longer have any official involvement in the development of the game in Sydney, Barassi is desperate to see the game continue to progress in the rugby stronghold.
?The ultimate would be to see three or four teams in Sydney,? Barassi told afl.com.au in an exclusive interview this week.
?Remember this is a city of five million people and for that to happen would mean we have been outrageously successful in attracting Sydney people and the youth to Sydney to our game.?
?But that?s a long way off and it might take 50-100 years.?
While Barassi said matches such as this Saturday night?s blockbuster at Telstra Stadium ? which is expected to attract the biggest crowd ever for an AFL match played outside Victoria ? were signs of a growing AFL influence in Sydney, he warned not to overestimate Aussie Rules? popularity in Sydney.
?There is still such a long way to go,? he said.
?We are paying for the lack of attention of 100 years ago.?
Barassi said that mistake allowed rugby to become entrenched as the number one sport in Australia?s biggest state, but praised the current AFL administration for its efforts in raising the profile of Australian Rules in the country?s most competitive sporting market.
In particular he praised the decision of the AFL several years ago to allocate several million dollars in funding to ensure Telstra Stadium could be converted into a stadium capable of hosting Australian Rules football after the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
?That decision took a lot of guts and enabled the ground to quickly become an AFL venue,? he said.
?If it was done now, it might have taken a lot longer and cost 30 or 40 million.?
Barassi said he could hardly wait for Saturday night when the ever-growing western Sydney area will be treated to its first genuine AFL blockbuster at Telstra Stadium.
?It is the first time we?ve had a really big game there in terms of the ladder positions (with the Magpies in third place and Sydney in fourth and with the double chance in the finals for both teams at stake) and of course coming up against a famous rival.?
It?s a far cry from Barassi?s beginnings in Sydney ? when he took over as coach mid-season in 1993 ? the year when the Swans were at their lowest ebb in winning just one match.
Yet just three years later the Swans played off in a grand final with Barassi, who introduced players such as Paul Kelly and Daryn Cresswell into the team, as well as securing champion players Tony Lockett and Paul Roos from Victoria, playing a crucial role in the club?s meteoric rise.
?I was used to going to clubs down the bottom of the ladder (which was the case when he first joined Melbourne, Carlton and North Melbourne) but I was still surprised by what I found when I got to Sydney,? he said.
?It didn?t get to the stage where I was pumping up the footballs, but it wasn?t far away.?
However Barassi said he never lost faith the Swans could eventually turn things around during such dark days.
?Things were pretty ordinary but there was always a lot of spirit amongst the players,? he said.
?You could always see there was light at the end of the tunnel.?
And while Barassi may have stopped coaching the Swans eight years ago ? his legacy lives on with players that began their careers during his three year tenure such as Cresswell, Michael O?Loughlin and Leo Barry still key players in the current Swans? side.
However Barassi said all the credit for the Swans? current success had to go to coach Paul Roos, who has performed miracles to have Sydney on the verge of the double chance in his first full year as coach.
?I can?t speak highly enough of Paul Roos? coaching ability,? Barassi said.
?He has got a great rapport with the players and he is smarter than us old coaches.?
And as for the master coach himself ? what are his plans for next year when he begins his retirement from a life spent in football?
?I don?t know what I will do but I will still get to lots of footy matches,? he said.
And free of club commitments for virtually the first time in 50 years ? who will the man so closely associated with not only Sydney but Melbourne, Carlton and the Kangaroos choose to barrack for.
?You will have to wait and see. I?m too smart to fall into that one,? he said.