It’s no wonder Swans coach John Longmire labelled last Saturday’s win over North Melbourne “one of the great wins” … it was the club’s youngest winning side in more than a quarter of a century, and the least experienced of the modern era.

In an encouraging and exciting pointer to the future, the average age of the Swans side that beat North by five points in Hobart was 23 years 208 days.

It was the youngest Swans winning team since Round 4, 1994, when a side coached by Ron Barassi and captained by Paul Kelly beat Richmond by 14 points at the SCG.

That day Simon Minton-Connell kicked six goals for three Brownlow Medal votes, Dean McRae had 16 disposals for two votes and Scott Watters 26 disposals for one vote.

So long has it been since then that Barassi is now aged 83, Minton-Connell, McRae and Watters are 50, and Kelly will turn 50 in July.

Darren Kappler (29) and Mark Bayes (27) were the only players above 25.

The Swans side on Saturday, minus Jarrad McVeigh (34), Lance Franklin (32), Heath Grundy (32), Kieren Jack (31) and Josh Kennedy (30), had 10 players aged 22 or younger: James Rowbottom (18), Nick Blakey (19), Tom McCartin (19), Ollie Florent (20), Will Hayward (20), Ryan Clarke (21), Tom Papley (22), Callum Mills (22), Jordan Dawson (22), and Lewis Melican (22).

It was the youngest side the club has fielded since Round 8, 1997, when a side with an average age of 23 years 30 days, coached by Rodney Eade and captained again by Kelly, lost by 89 points to Adelaide at Football Park.

Only 16 times in 603 games since the start of 1994 have the Swans fielded a side with an average age of less than 24 years. And only three times in those 16 games have they won – twice in 1994 and last Saturday. Details are:

YOUNGEST SIDES SINCE 1994 Rd Season Years Days Result 15 1994 23 20 L 8 1997 23 30 L 17 1995 23 32 L 14 1994 23 87 L 9 2019 23 208 W 17 1996 23 226 L 2 1997 23 244 L 3 1994 23 252 L 6 2019 23 311 L 12 1995 23 313 L 16 1994 23 325 L 4 1994 23 330 W 1 1994 23 339 L 14 1995 23 340 L 21 1994 23 348 W 21 1997 23 363 L

The total experience of the Swans side on Saturday of 1397 AFL games (average 62.6 games) was the lowest since teams increased from 21 players to 22 players in 1998.

It was also the least experienced Swans side since the aforementioned Round 8, 1997 losing side against Adelaide, which had a total experience of 1224 games (average 58.3 games)

Luke Parker (182 games), Dane Rampe (147), Sam Reid (130) and Jake Lloyd (124) made up almost 42 percent of the total experience, while Rowbottom (3), Colin O’Riordan (6), Blakey (8), Dawson (13), Robbie Fox (16), McCartin (22), Melican (26), Aliir (37), Florent (41), Clarke (45) and Hayward (46) short of 50 games.

These 11 players boasted an aggregate experience of 263 games – less than the average of McVeigh (322), Franklin (295), Grundy (256), Jack (252) and Kennedy (235).

The Swans side with the lowest aggregate experience in the last quarter of a century was in Round 3, 1994, when a 21-man side with just 1079 games of experience coached by Barassi lost by 19 points to Adelaide at the SCG.

Mark Bayes (176 games), Darren Kappler (110) and Dean McRae (101) were the only 100-gamers and made up more than a third of the total experience.

For comparison purposes, the oldest Sydney side in the past 25 years was in Round 2, 2013 against the Gold Coast at the SCG. It had an average age of 27 years 79 days and won by 41 points.

Jude Bolton (33), Adam Goodes (33), Ryan O’Keefe (32), Rhyce Shaw (31), Martin Mattner (30) and Ted Richards (30) were the older members of a side in which only Parker (20) was younger than 21.

The Swans side with the highest aggregate experience in the past 25 years played in the 2007 elimination final loss to Collingwood under coach Paul Roos.

It had a combined 3187 games of experience, led by Peter Everitt (275), Michael O’Loughlin (270), Barry Hall (224), Leo Barry (214), Goodes (209) and Jared Crouch (202).

Ed Barlow, in his fourth game, was the only Swans player with less than 45 games of experience.

The youngest Sydney Swans side of all-time was in Round 12, 1963 against Geelong at Lake Oval, when, coached by Noel McMahen, they were beaten 8.12 (60) to 14.11 (95).

The average age that day was 21 years 70 days. Brian McGowan (25), Bob Skilton (24), Clem Goonan (24) and Ken Colvin (24) were the ‘old timers’ in a side which included nine teenagers: Terry McGee (18), Trevor Somerville (19), Alan Self (19), Bill Ross (19), John Rantall (19), Ken Phillips (19), Stuart Magee (19), Bob Kingston (19) and Paul Harrison (19).

Skilton (123 games), McGowan (112) and John Heriot (85) were the only players who had played more than 37 games in a total experience over 20 players of 550 games.