John Longmire
Longmire in June 2017
Personal information
Full name John Longmire
Nickname(s) Horse
Date of birth (1970-12-31) 31 December 1970
Place of birth Corowa, New South Wales
Original team(s) Corowa Rutherglen (OMFL)
Height 194 cm (6 ft 4 in)
Weight 102 kg (225 lb)
Position(s) Full-forward, Full-back, Ruckman
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1988–1999 North Melbourne 200 (511)
Coaching career3
Years Club Games (W–L–D)
2011– Sydney 296 (182–112–2)

2020		 Representative
All Stars
1 (0–1–0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1999.
3 Coaching statistics correct as of round 6, 2023.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

John Longmire (born 31 December 1970) is the current coach of the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL) since 2010, and is the longest serving active AFL coach. As a player, he represented the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) from 1988 to 1999.[1]

Early years

Longmire was born in Corowa, New South Wales.[2] He took up Australian rules as a child and first came into notice when he won the 1984 Thirds goal kicking award in the Coreen & District Football League with Corowa-Rutherglen.[3] In his first season of senior football career with Corowa-Rutherglen in New South Wales, he nearly won the Ovens & Murray Football League's leading goalkicker title in 1987 as a 16-year-old, kicking 82 goals. His ability and size quickly attracted the interest of the North Melbourne VFL club's talent scouts.

Longmire's grandfather is former Fitzroy Football Club player Keith Williams. His uncle, Robert Longmire, is a former Collingwood Football Club player. Walter Longmire (John Longmire’s great grandfather) represented New South Wales v South Australia at the MCG in 1927.[4]

Playing career

North Melbourne

Longmire's physique and size earned him the nickname "Horse". His first match for North Melbourne was in the infamous exhibition match between North Melbourne and Carlton at The Oval in London in 1987. His first official match for North Melbourne was in the 1988 season against Footscray with a four-goal performance, but he struggled after that and near the end of the season coach John Kennedy Sr. moved him to full-back. He did well in that role during the 1989 season, holding Tony Lockett to five kicks in Round 14, but North's lack of key position players in attack saw him moved back to the forward line in August.[5]

The 1990 season saw Longmire jump to the top of the tree: at only nineteen years of age, he kicked 98 goals and won the Coleman Medal as the league's leading goal kicker (and the youngest player to have done so).[1] In Round 2 of that year he kicked a North Melbourne record of twelve goals against Richmond, which he broke twelve weeks later when he kicked fourteen goals in round 14 against Melbourne. Going into the final round Longmire looked likely to reach the 100-goal milestone for the season, however inaccurate kicking against a strong Collingwood defence resulted in two goals and eight behinds, leaving him two goals short. Longmire won North Melbourne's best and fairest award that year and led the club's goal kicking list every season from 1990 to 1994.[6]

At North Melbourne, he formed a powerful goalkicking partnership with centre half-forward Wayne Carey. In six seasons between 1990 and 1995, Carey and Longmire collectively kicked 768 goals (of which Longmire contributed 464), and thirteen times they combined for ten goals or more in a game. Individually, Longmire kicked 5-plus goals in a game 36 times, 7-plus goals 18 times and 10-plus twice, before a serious knee injury forced him out of the game for the 1996 season.[1] When he returned the following year, he played out the remainder of his career in defence and in the ruck.[7]

Longmire missed out on playing on the winning side of the 1996 premiership with a knee injury and just made it back from an elbow injury to make his last career game the 1999 Grand Final, in which the Kangaroos defeated Carlton. This was his only year to also not score a goal, managing only to kick 1 point in 10 games.[1][8]

Longmire played a total of 200 games and kicked a total of 511 goals for North Melbourne from 1988 to 1999,[9] as well as being a member of the North Melbourne premiership side in 1999.[10]

Coaching career

Sydney Swans

Longmire returned to New South Wales to take up an assistant coaching position with the Sydney Swans in 2002.[1][11] In 2006, he was considered to be a front-runner for the St Kilda Football Club senior coaching role, which was made vacant by the sacking of Grant Thomas, however, the role later went to then-fellow Swans assistant coach Ross Lyon.[12] In 2008, senior coach Paul Roos, appointed Longmire the Swans' "coaching co-ordinator". In a succession plan, Longmire replaced Roos as senior coach of the Sydney Swans following Roos' retirement at the end of the 2010 season.[13][14]

Longmire's first game as the Sydney Swans senior coach in the 2011 season ended in a draw against Melbourne, with both teams scoring 11.18 (84).[15] His first win as senior coach came the next week, against Essendon in Round 2, 2011.[16] Longmire had a relatively good start to his coaching career, with only five losses in the first fourteen rounds of the season (albeit against top-four opposition in Geelong, Carlton (twice), Hawthorn and Collingwood).[17]

One of his best coaching achievements was engineering Sydney's upset 13-point victory over Geelong at Skilled Stadium in the penultimate round of the 2011 season. The Swans had not won there in more than 12 years and the home team had not lost at the ground in exactly four years and one day. Also, the Swans were the only team to beat top-four side West Coast at Patersons Stadium during the season. Those two sides won the rest of their home matches during the regular season.[18]

Longmire took Sydney to the finals in 2011, his first year as senior coach in what was the club's 13th finals appearance in 16 seasons. After beating St Kilda in the elimination finals at Etihad Stadium, the Swans were defeated by Hawthorn in the semi-finals ending what was otherwise a promising first season for Longmire in the top job.[19]

In the 2012 season in his second year as senior coach, Longmire led Sydney to third place on the AFL ladder, compiling a 16–6 record in the home-and-away season. He later coached the Swans to a premiership victory over Hawthorn in the 2012 AFL Grand Final by a margin of 10 points with the final score being the Sydney Swans 14.7 (91) to Hawthorn 11.15 (81). Subsequently, his contract was extended until the end of the 2015 season.[20][21]

In March 2014, Longmire signed a two-year contract extension which took his tenure to the end of the 2017 AFL season.[22][23]

In the 2014 season, Longmire coached the Sydney Swans to the 2014 AFL Grand Final, but they lost to Hawthorn by a margin of 63 points with the final score being Sydney Swans 11.8 (74) to Hawthorn 21.11 (137).[24]

In the 2016 season, Longmire coached the Sydney Swans to the 2016 AFL Grand Final, but they lost to the Western Bulldogs by a margin of 22 points with the final score being Western Bulldogs 13.11 (89) to Sydney Swans 10.7 (67).[25]

In round 4 of the 2019 AFL season, Longmire coached his 200th game, a career milestone. Three rounds later, he overtook Paul Roos as the longest serving coach of the club.[26]

On 12 July 2019, Longmire extended his contract for a further three years, to remain the Sydney Swans' senior coach until at least the end of 2023.[27]

In 2020, Longmire coached the All-Stars team in a one-off 2020 State of Origin match which was played on 28 February 2020 at Docklands Stadium.[28]

In the 2022 season, Longmire coached the Sydney Swans to the 2022 AFL Grand Final when they lost to Geelong by a margin of 81 points with Geelong scoring 20.13 (133) to the Sydney Swans 8.4 (52).[29][30]

On 2 March 2023, it was announced that Longmire had signed a two-year extension contract to remain the Sydney Swans senior coach until at least the end of 2025.[31]

Statistics

Playing statistics

[32]
Legend
  G  
 Goals
  K  
 Kicks
  D  
 Disposals 
  T  
 Tackles
  B  
 Behinds 
  H  
 Handballs 
  M  
 Marks
  #  
 Played in that season's 
premiership team
  †  
 Led the league for 
the season
Led the league for the season only
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game) Votes
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
1988North Melbourne43 1121127024945621.91.16.42.28.55.10.20
1989North Melbourne35 16912994114031100.60.86.22.68.81.90.60
1990North Melbourne35 2298†6023061291139104.52.710.52.813.26.30.59
1991North Melbourne35 21915419961260128124.32.69.52.912.46.10.68
1992North Melbourne35 2064371645021490103.21.98.22.510.74.50.50
1993North Melbourne35 207529151592108193.81.57.63.010.54.10.54
1994North Melbourne35 23784617086256120133.42.07.43.711.15.20.68
1995North Melbourne35 2258321577823594102.61.57.13.510.74.30.50
1996North Melbourne35 0———————————————
1997North Melbourne35 25101119610430096330.40.47.84.212.03.81.33
1998North Melbourne35 10745035852840.70.45.03.58.52.80.41
1999#Kangaroos35 10015338912480.00.15.33.89.12.40.80
Career 200511298153963721768871212.61.57.73.210.94.40.633

Coaching statistics

Updated to the end of the 2022 season.[33]

Legend
 W  Wins  L  Losses  D  Draws  W%  Winning percentage  LP  Ladder position  LT  League teams
Season Team Games W L D W % LP LT
2011Sydney24 1310156.3%717
2012#Sydney25 196076.0%318
2013Sydney25 168166.0%418
2014Sydney25 196076.0%118
2015Sydney24 168066.7%418
2016Sydney26 197073.1%118
2017Sydney24 159062.5%618
2018Sydney23 149060.9%618
2019Sydney22 814036.4%1518
2020Sydney17 512029.4%1618
2021Sydney23 158065.2%618
2022Sydney25 187072.0%318
Career 283177104262.9%

Honours and achievements

Playing honours

Team

Individual

Coaching honours

Team

Individual

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Russell Holmesby; Jim Main (1 May 2009). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers: Every AFL/VFL Player Since 1897. BAS Publishing Pty Limited. ISBN 978-1-921496-00-4. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  2. ↑ John Longmire - Australian Football
  3. ↑ "1984 - Coreen & DFL Grand Final Record" (PDF). NSW Football History. Coreen & DFL. 15 September 1984. p. 6. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  4. ↑ "1927 - NSW v South Australia". Trove Newspapers. The Herald. 17 August 1927. p. 5. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  5. ↑ "JOHN LONGMIRE". Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  6. ↑ "JOHN LONGMIRE". Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  7. ↑ "JOHN LONGMIRE". Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  8. ↑ "JOHN LONGMIRE". Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  9. ↑ "JOHN LONGMIRE". Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  10. ↑ "JOHN LONGMIRE". Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  11. ↑ "Longmire locked in". 2 March 2023. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  12. ↑ Fight for Longmire, farewell to Lyon, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 October 2006
  13. ↑ "How an AFL coaching succession plan can work". 7 August 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  14. ↑ "On this day: August 12, 2009 - Swans succession plan". 11 August 2021. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
  15. ↑ Stevens, Mark (27 March 2011). "Hairline decision for rookie coach John Longmire". Herald Sun. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
  16. ↑ Hassett, Sebastian (4 April 2011). "Goodes, Bolton to thank for breaking Longmire's duck". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
  17. ↑ "Timeline: New beginnings (2011)". Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  18. ↑ "Timeline: New beginnings (2011)". Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  19. ↑ "Timeline: New beginnings (2011)". Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  20. ↑ Longmire's flag win bonus - AFL.com.au
  21. ↑ "Timeline: Another success story (2012)". Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  22. ↑ "Sydney Swans coach John Longmire re-signs with the club for another two years". Herald Sun. News Ltd. 24 March 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  23. ↑ "Timeline: The quest continues (2013 - current)". Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  24. ↑ "AFL grand final: Hawthorn Hawks go back-to-back with win over Sydney Swans". 27 September 2014. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  25. ↑ "Western Bulldogs defeat Sydney Swans in 2016 AFL grand final". 2 October 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  26. ↑ "The numbers behind Longmire's rise to record". Sydney Swans. 3 May 2019. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  27. ↑ "Longmire extends contract". 12 July 2019. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
  28. ↑ Cleary, Mitch (15 January 2020). "Mate v mate: How the Vic v All Stars teams will be picked". Australian Football League. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  29. ↑ "As it happened AFL grand final 2022: Brilliant Cats smash meek Swans to clinch 10th flag, Smith wins Norm Smith". 24 September 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  30. ↑ "'We buggered it up': Shattered Longmire concedes error on Reid selection". 24 September 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
  31. ↑ "Longmire locked in". 2 March 2023. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  32. ↑ John Longmire's player profile at AFL Tables
  33. ↑ "John Longmire's coaching profile". AFL Tables.


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