Sydney has been so consistently successful for so long you tend to forget just how hapless were the Swans of the early 1990s. But if anything, their revival was even more unlikely. And nothing will offer a more vivid reminder than when Sydney takes on North Melbourne in Friday night's preliminary final.

When these same two teams met a couple of decades ago, in early 1993, the AFL's first bold venture into then foreign territory was as close to toppling over as it had ever been.

The Swans hadn't really recovered from the "fools gold" of the short-lived Edelsten era, and by early 1993 were a basket case. After 15 straight losses to end 1992, coach Gary Buckenara was sacked after another three beltings to open the new season.

So little cache did the Swans' brand have in its adopted city that a worried AFL would help install a certified legend in Ron Barassi, who hadn't coached for eight years, in the coaching job.

While that deal was being signed off, however, there were games to play, and in the end it was former Swans' centreman and then assistant coach Brett Scott, who was working in a warehouse and only part-time with the club, who drew the short straw.

Scott coached Sydney for two games. In the first, against Fitzroy, the Swans lost by 93 points. In the second, at Princes Park, they took on a North Melbourne team which under Denis Pagan, was building some serious momentum.

The result was humiliation. North slammed on 11 goals to one in the first quarter, and added another 10 in each of the final two quarters to finish with an amazing 35.19 (229), winning by 124 points, Adrian McAdam booting 10 on his own.

If there was any positive from that wretched episode, Scott says now, it was the AFL's realisation that prompt action needed to be taken if theSydney concept was to survive.

"I don't think they did that prior, they'd had a couple of half-goes, but it was like they said: 'Hey, if this is going to be a sustainable long-term project, we're going to have to put a lot of money and energy in and get some really good people involved with the club,' " says Scott. "And I think you can see that attitude now with GWS and the Suns."

Even Barassi's arrival in 1993 would have no immediate impact, Sydney's losing streak extending to 26 games before a sole mid-season victory over Melbourne.

Yet, within three years of that humiliation for fill-in coach Scott and his team against North Melbourne, the Swans, by now under Rodney Eade, would again face the Kangaroos, this time in a grand final.

It wouldn't prove just a novelty, either. In fact, over the past two decades, it isn't Hawthorn or Geelong which holds the mantle of the AFL's most consistently successful team. It's Sydney.

In 19 seasons including 1996, the Swans have appeared in no fewer than 16 finals series, a record not even the Hawks or Cats can match. They've finished top four on seven occasions, won two premierships, and if they get over North on Friday evening, will have made a fifth grand final. That's some transformation.

"What they've done with the club over the last couple of decades in all facets has just been extraordinary," says Scott. "In terms of the administration, the personnel, the list, just the whole way they go about things is up there with the best, and it shows out on the field."

This week sees a reversal of the roles played by North Melbourne and Sydney in that 1996 premiership playoff, the Swans seasoned campaigners and only a few Roos having played more than a couple of AFL finals games.

Back then, North Melbourne was in its fourth successive finals campaign, having bowed out in the previous two preliminary finals. Sydney had imported some serious talent, including the likes of Tony Lockett, Paul Roos and Derek Kickett.

But there remained a core of players who'd known the desolation of just a couple of years previous. Skipper Paul Kelly, Dale Lewis, Mark Bayes, Daryn Cresswell and Troy Luff were members of the 1996 grand final team. All had played on that infamous afternoon against North Melbourne at Princes Park.

"Kelly by then had another couple of seasons under his belt and was the sort of leader they needed, and guys like Stuart Maxfield really helped set a tone that was perpetuated by 'Kirky' [Brett Kirk] and those guys later," Scott says.

The more the Swans succeeded, though, the more the "top-ups" from other teams became the cream on the cake rather than the foundation. The kids who have instead come through the ranks, the likes of Dan Hannebery, Kieren Jack, Luke Parker and Lewis Jetta, have immediately been enveloped in a culture demanding of the highest standards and long used to success.

"There's just an enormous commitment among the whole group, it's probably as simple as that," says Scott, still living in Sydney, involved with the club's past players' group and still good mates with former teammates and pupils such as Dennis Carroll, Rod Carter, David Murphy, Craig Holden and Steve Taubert, the latter still the Swans' ruck coach.

"I think it's been able to endure because they all buy into it. No matter who you are, if you don't buy in, you're out. Any player coming in knows the reputation they have and they know if they're going to be part of it they really have to jump on board, and they do."

Whatever happens at ANZ Stadium on Friday night, Sydney's enduring title as the most consistently high-performing club in the AFL is unlikely to be surpassed any time soon.

And for the likes of Brett Scott, it provides on-going comfort that experiences like that horrendous afternoon against the same opponent 21 years ago were at least stepping stones to something a lot bigger and certainly much better.