Such are the realities at the end of another AFL season. Make no mistake, the Sydney Swans have been the most consistent and enduring team of the past two decades. A third premiership in 12 years is just reward.

Meanwhile, the GWS Giants were only a handful of points away from making this year's grand final an all-Sydney affair. Their time is nigh. The teams of Bondi and Concord will fight many a bruising battle in the near future.

This year has been the game-changer and has delivered the AFL's dream result. Nothing could have been better designed to heighten the game's profile in the nation's biggest city. Meanwhile, just so the stage wasn't totally dominated by the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, the Western Bulldogs stood in the limelight throughout the game's biggest week.

In the end, though, the sentimental favourite couldn't deliver the feel-good result. Once again Sydney is the champion.

Going back a few decades, such a scenario wasn't so much unlikely as preposterous. Back in 1970, old South reached its first finals series in 25 years. By the time of the relocation to Sydney, they had been in the finals twice since the notorious "bloodbath" grand final of 1945. They didn't win a game on either occasion; hadn't won a finals match in 3½ decades.

Then it got worse.

The team that went to Sydney fought bravely, but against the odds. Tom Hafey and some star recruits lifted them briefly, but consecutive strong seasons in 1986-87 produced no better than straight-sets exits.

Then they lost their way totally.

When Rodney Eade coached the Sydney Swans to a win over Hawthorn in the 1996 finals series, it was the Bloods' first finals victory in 51 years.

Fifty – one – years! You could almost say Footscray was spoilt with success by comparison.

As for the indigenous code being popularised in the city of Sydney, well, perhaps there were more remote possibilities. The Patagonia Desert, Timbuktu, and the moon spring to mind. The fact is, when it came to football the two largest Australian cities spoke different languages. They still do to an extent, but steadily the Sydney Swans have captured – perhaps even reshaped – the local Zeitgeist.

They also have learnt to defy gravity. In the 20 years since the AFL became a 16-team competition, the Swans have missed the finals just three times. This is a level of consistency achieved by Jock McHale's Collingwood in the halcyon years, Carlton from the late-'60s, and Hawthorn from the mid-`70s. Modern Sydney is now in historically elite company.

Then there's the comparison with the club's contemporary rivals. The Swans' hit-rate for making the finals over the past 20 years is 85 per cent, with Geelong, Adelaide, and West Coast next best on 65 per cent. Mighty Hawthorn is at 55.

This is Sydney and the bush or, put another way, Bradmanesque in the level of superiority achieved by one competitor over the rest. How would you have appraised the kid who scored 85 per cent in your class exams when no one else could do better than 65?

Having said that, it's important to remind oneself of what is being measured: consistency of performance over an extended period. Constant competitiveness, and hence visibility, is as close to a perfect outcome for the marketing of the game in Sydney as the AFL could have wished for. As Kevin Sheedy used to say, if you keep putting yourself there you'll win one every so often. The Swans now have three flags from this seemingly endless era of achievement.

Why is it so? No doubt the phased-out cost of living allowance helped Sydney maintain good teams and the NSW-ACT Academy is a factor in reinforcing them. But the Swans' ability to choose and develop talent can't be ignored. Among those who collected premiership medals yesterday, Heath Grundy, Kieren Jack, Nick Smith, Dane Rampe, Xavier Richards, Jake Lloyd, and Tom Papley all came via the rookie draft. Josh Kennedy and Ben McGlynn were released by Hawthorn and guess who made them premiership players? Jeremy Laidler left Carlton because he wasn't getting a game at one of the competition's weakest clubs.

A bit of luck helps, too, and this September the Swans enjoyed that. The teams they would have felt most nervous about meeting on grand final day – GWS and Hawthorn – both succumbed along the way. For only the second time in more than 90 years, the ultimate premier avoided a rematch with a team that had beaten it earlier in the finals. That this has been possible only since the introduction of the Final Eight suggests an imperfection in the four-week, eight-team shootout. Not that the Swans will be worrying themselves about that. You can only beat who is drawn against you on the day and they have done it.

Right now they have it all. They have Sydney … the glitzy end of town anyway. They have their fertile academy. They have Buddy. They have hardened stalwarts and blossoming youth. They have team. They have game. And, once again, they have the Premiership Cup.