THE experience of following the Swans is quite different from supporting any other club. The Sydney fan lives under permanent anaesthetic: he never feels pain.

The multitudes who jumped on board with Plugger Lockett in 1996 have not felt the misery of bottom-four finishes, of patient rebuilds and sniping by malcontent past players. They've been shielded from the malign forces that have unravelled every other team over those 12½ seasons.

In part, that's because they're in a city that leaves them alone. The only time the Swans descended into the kind of irrational chaos that besets "normal" clubs was when the fans stormed the barricades in 2002 to ensure the appointment of Paul Roos over Terry Wallace. What other club would succumb to mass hysteria and succeed?

Sydney has missed the finals only twice since it rose to the grand final under Rodney Eade, and even in its worst season, 2002, it still managed to win 9½ games — an average season for Fremantle or Richmond.

It has achieved a metronomic consistency that rivals Glenn McGrath in his prime, with similar flair. In the five completed seasons under Roos, the Swans have made two grand finals and a preliminary final, won a flag and have not failed to play finals. In year six, they're on track for another crack at the top four.

There's always one or two younger, sexier teams on the scene — this year, it's Hawthorn and the Bulldogs. But the Swans are a constant, unwavering presence in the top eight.

Like the good platonic friend, their steadfast reliability and integrity doesn't set pulses racing. But, if it appears plainer than potato, this club is actually highly individualistic. The Swans do it their way.

They have a unique game style, based on restricting the opposition, negating and forcing contests, and they have their own unconventional approach to recruiting. They don't like the risks of the draft, and manage their list as if directed by an actuary.

Sydney averages 93 stoppages a game, the most in the competition.

St Kilda, supposedly a Sydney clone under former Roos lieutenant Ross Lyon, is right on the AFL average for ball-ups and boundary throw-ins (82); Collingwood has the least (75 a game).

The Swans have maintained high stoppage numbers, while conceding the fewest uncontested possessions and points against. In 2005, the opposition scored an average of just 71 points against them.

In 2006, they gave up 75 a game. Last year, the number was 71, despite new rules that seemed aimed at stopping Roos-ball.

And while scoring has risen in 2008, the Swans remain defensively immune. This year's average points against is, yep, 71. They keep pitching at the off stump, just short of a length.

Their physical, man-on-man game style requires strong bodies. Thus, it begets a recruiting system that defies the view that teams should hold on to their early draft picks.

In a competition in which half the clubs are rebuilding, the Swans assure themselves of finals, and maintain their fickle city's affection.

No other club in its right mind would give up its first pick for Teddy Richards — an Essendon fringe dweller — and none would cough up its first choice for Darren Jolly when he was a so-so second ruckman at Melbourne.

The Swans traded in (Adelaide's) Marty Mattner for a second rounder last October, effectively swapping him for Adam Schneider (St Kilda).

Around the time Andrew Demetriou bagged Sydney's game style, there was a chorus suggesting that the Swans should go backwards to go forwards, taking their lumps near the bottom. They refused.

What is most intriguing about the Sydney blueprint is that, with the partial exception of St Kilda — and the Saints have only borrowed bits of the Roos-Andrew Ireland methodology — there's been little imitation.

Most clubs see the Geelong and Hawthorn models — get kids, rebuild, trade away non-core senior players, take the pain — as the preferred approach, and no one has truly aped the game style.

Sceptics argue that other clubs can't copy Sydney's 20% higher salary cap, which makes it easier to keep adding mature players at above-award rates. Fair call.

The Swans outlayed nearly $2 million more than Hawthorn on player payments last year. The weakness of the Sydney system is twofold. One, whereas the mature recruiting plan keeps it thereabouts, there will always be a more talented team — or two — on the back of elite youngsters (Hawthorn, Geelong).

To win the flag, therefore, the Swans need everything in their favour, and some misfortune or mismanagement by others.

Second, while protected from misery, the Sydney fan will never know the excitement and anticipation that comes when a team drafts precocious talent, brings them through as a group and watches them turn into men one September.