Many comparisons have been drawn between Sydney and Geelong in the modern era, and they've been glowing. Now there's a new similarity. The difference is this one really hurts.
Sydney's 60-point smashing at the hands of Brisbane is the Swans' fourth successive Grand Final loss, a record of failure on the biggest of stages no team has been landed with since the Cats lost in 1989, 1992, 1994 and 1995.
But even Geelong back then at least made a fist of two of those losses, the six-point classic against Hawthorn in 1989, one of the greatest Grand Finals of all time, and a 28-point defeat at the hands of West Coast three years later in which the Cats had at one stage led by four goals.
The reading for the Swans is far more grim. Since famously upsetting Hawthorn in 2012, they've lost to the Hawks by 63 points in 2014, the Western Bulldogs by 22 points in 2016, Geelong by 81 points two years ago, and now have copped another 10-goal hiding.
In the days, weeks and months of soul-searching which will inevitably follow this disaster, Sydney would do well to avoid taking the comparison with the Cats further.
Because the last of those Grand Final losses was basically the end of Geelong for the next decade. The Cats did come good again, of course, and how, but under a different administration, different coach and completely different group of players.
What is going to tear at the Swans' brainstrust more, of course, is that this was another of those unpredictable 'shockers at the worst possible time' afternoons, similar to this same occasion 10 years ago, when Sydney had also finished on top but barely offered a yelp on the big stage.
Two years ago, against the Cats, the oldest team ever to take the field in an AFL game gave a masterclass to a Sydney outfit that was young, raw and still learning the caper.
That can't be said in 2024. This season, the Swans, in terms of games played, were the fifth-most experienced list in the competition. So what happened? As much as contemporary football is all about sophisticated analysis, there's some fundamentals which come into play first. And on the biggest stage, Sydney didn't have them.
"I don't think we gave it our best shot compared to what we've been doing and didn't do what was required on the day," said bitterly disappointed coach John Longmire.
"We were beaten at ground level and they were able to get back through us too easy. We didn't put enough pressure around the ball. You can't play that second quarter and expect to compete to the level that's required."
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Isaac Heeney revealed when asked after the game, that he'd been carrying a stress fracture in his ankle over the entire finals series. He smiled ruefully, when he described the injury, because really, even he being incapacitated on this biggest stage didn't explain the capitulation of an entire team.
"In big games you need pressure, you need a contest, and we just didn't show that. They were harder, they were cleaner, they tackled better and we couldn't match their pressure. They made us defend and took 76 uncontested marks in first half which just isn't acceptable, and that's where it all started."
Eric Hipwood amazes for Brisbane with a ridiculous finish from the pocket.
That Heeney was able to instantly cite that figure showed not only that his coach had made the point forcefully during the break, but that much of Sydney's planning had incorporated the necessity of not allowing Brisbane so much free ball.
And not surprisingly. Over the past four years, the Lions were 30 wins and just three losses any time they had taken 110 marks in a game. In this belting, they'd already taken 111 by three-quarter time, and finished with a massive 158.
Five of the Swans' previous six losses this season, meanwhile, had come when the opposition had been able to play a controlled style of game. And control was something Brisbane exerted right from the word 'go', even when, not for the first time, it was necessarily converting its dominance to scores.
Yet with 22 marks inside 50 to just nine, 158 marks to 88 and nearly 80 more uncontested possessions, even some profligacy on the scoring front wasn't going to cost the Lions this time.
For Sydney, simply, it was another shocker when a shocker could be least afforded, pure and simple. And that doesn't make a review and six months of soul-searching easy for Longmire and co.
Heeney, Chad Warner and Errol Gulden had been three of the AFL's best handful of players all season, let alone Sydney's, but arguably only Gulden might have been considered one of the Swans' half-a-dozen best in the Grand Final.
Not for the first time, Sydney's key forwards barely fired a shot, Logan McDonald playing injured about as successful as Sam Reid was playing injured against the Cats two years ago.
But that's been the case plenty of other weeks this season and the Swans were still potent enough to finish the season the AFL's highest-scoring team. Yet on this day, it looked like a gaping void, and Brisbane's posse of Joe Daniher, Eric Hipwood and Logan Morris the stuff of envy.
Sydney's defence has held tight all year, and come yesterday ranked third for fewest points conceded. But the Swans' backline this day looked loose, out-manouevred and with more holes than Swiss cheese.
In a nutshell, the Swans have held up all season until the Grand Final. So exactly how does Longmire deal with that? And if it's about character, how do you test that other than when the day arrives?
"I'm not sure yet mate, that's the honest answer," offered acting captain Dane Rampe in the subdued losers' rooms. "We have to do some searching and dive into that because you can be the best all year, but unless you're ready to match it on the big stage, it doesn't really matter does it?
"But just because we fell short today doesn't mean we're not capable of getting back there. One thing I know about this club is we'll fight tooth and nail to get back and not let this define us."
You can't doubt Sydney's capacity to keep plugging away given how successful a club the Swans have been now for so long. And yet the worry now is that when you consistently lose the biggest of games by the biggest of margins, perhaps you're already defined regardless of what happens subsequently.
You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.