Swan would say he knew what he could and couldn't do to be successful, and he did. He's 40 now, but still revels in public as something of a celebrity provocateur. It's as picturesque as ever.
If Swan's journey on foot started with a stopper, Kelvin Templeton's came to an untimely end. The wounds saw it. That's probably why it's been almost 40 years since his last game to enter the hall of fame.
Templeton started prodigiously. His parents had to drive from the Latrobe Valley to take him to his first game, against Collingwood at Victoria Park. I was 17 years old. He kicked six goals.
At the age of 20, he played for Victoria. Aged 21, he kicked 15.9 in one game against St Kilda, including eight in the final quarter. He made 100 that season, and 91 the following year despite suffering a collapsed lung while in Scotland between seasons.
A strong, nimble and distinctive brand with its often long sleeves, Templeton was simply a gun. When manager Royce Hart moved him to centre-half forward in 1980, he relished the freedom and won the Brownlow.
Kelvin Templeton on Brownlow night in 1980.Credit: archives
He was only 24, but his injuries were already crippling him. In the final six years of his career, two for the Dogs, three for Melbourne after a high-profile move, he played just 54 games.
Fame is certainly harder to earn in the lower reaches. Templeton's career has been somewhat clouded because he played for two old-fashioned clubs in lean times. In their century year, the Dogs finished second. In their Brownlow year, they were last. He played only one final.
This is the cruelty of team sports. The late, great Robbie Flower, a contemporary, did not play one until his final season.
Templeton later spent seven years as chief executive of the Sydney Swans.
Two South Australians who could also be called dual citizens were inducted on Tuesday night. Chris McDermott played 12 seasons at Glenelg, overlapping six at the Crows, the first four as the club's first captain. The win over Hawthorn in Adelaide's opening game is one he will never forget.
Affectionately known as 'Bone', he looked like a footballer and played like one – well enough to win three Australian guernseys. There was scandal in Adelaide when incoming coach Malcolm Blight moved for McDermott in 1996, until the Crows won their first premiership the following year.
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Michael Graham, aka 'The Flash', played football all year round, for Sturt in the winter and St Mary's in Darwin in the wet. He makes his game worth every penny, but he won a host of premierships and medals, and is in the Indian team of the century.
Ray Schofield won West Perth's best and fairest five times in the immediate post-war years – at fullback. His 10-year duel with South Fremantle's Bernie Naylor is still talked about. Schofield's 22 state games included three straight wins over Victoria.
English-born Ralph Robertson played 14 games for St Kilda at the turn of the 20th century before moving to Sydney to work and become a founding father of the indigenous game there, appearing 40 times for NSW.
Who knows how many more there would have been if the warplane he was piloting hadn't crashed into the one next to him in Egypt in 1917, killing him at the age of 34.
Robertson played in just one win for St Kilda, but it was the Saints' first win in the VFL and their only win in the first four years of the competition. Whether that qualifies him for the hall of fame, he is undeniably memorable.
As previously announced, Hawthorn prodigy Jason Dunstall was formally elevated to Legend on Tuesday night.
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