OPINION
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As the Sydney Swans look to bring their second flag in three years back to the heart of league territory, it wouldn't hurt Dragons fans to look a little closer and take some comfort.
It takes only a casual glance to see the similarities between Paul Roos's rise from caretaker to full-time boss and that of Dragons coach Paul McGregor.
Like Roos, McGregor - a club great - was reluctantly thrust into an interim role after the mid-season sacking of his predecessor Steve Price.
The Dragons, like the Swans, courted the services of a more experienced coach - 2010 premiership winner Wayne Bennett - with talks progressing to the playing roster and coaching staff.
Bennett's eleventh hour backflip to return to former club Brisbane saw McGregor appointed on the back of support from fans and players.
It's a scenario that mirrors the rise of Roos, who was also the board's "second round pick" after Rodney Eade fell on his sword following a dismal start to the 2002 season.
Negotiations with former Western Bulldogs and Richmond mentor Terry Wallace were well advanced before the board bowed to the overwhelming push from fans and players to appoint Roos to the top job.
It was clear Roos "got" Sydney and had the special passion for the jersey that could be understood only by those who wore it. But most importantly, he saw a club, in the midst of a 70-year premiership drought, in desperate need of a culture shift.
He implemented the co-captains model, scoffed at at the time, but later copied by Craig Bellamy at the Storm and Michael Maguire at the Rabbitohs. The "leadership group" is now a fixture of every team in every code in the country.
It was the start of the famous Bloods culture implemented by the coach but driven by the players that's taken the Swans to six preliminary finals in 11 years and set the benchmark for every sporting franchise in Australia.
But it hasn't all been about culture. In the cut-throat results-driven business of professional sport, clubs will live and die by their recruitment and the Bloods era has also been built on shrewd recruiting.
Roos delved into the recruitment market, seeing value where others didn't, swapping draft picks for players he thought could address deficiencies in his roster that culture alone couldn't address.
Teddy Richards, Rhyce Shaw, Josh Kennedy and Ben McGlynn, all traded to the Swans during the Roos era, will play on Saturday as part of the Swans' leadership group four seasons after Roos departed.
John Longmire's smooth succession produced another premiership (2012) and the continuation of that culture, bolstered by the recruitment of controversial figures Buddy Franklin and Kurt Tippett.
Both were expected to test the club's famous "no dickheads" policy but are now firmly woven into the fabric of the Bloods and ready, it seems, to deliver the Swans their third flag in nine years.
McGregor also finds himself at the helm of a club in need of a culture change and a roster overhaul after three straight years without finals football.
The fact fans were split on the possible return of seven-time premiership winner Bennett indicates a general feeling that the club needs to make a clean break from the past glory of 2010 and start anew.
McGregor acknowledged as much on the day he was appointed, telling the Mercury: "I need to have a really good look at what needs to change ... if tough decisions need to be made for the future of this club, then I'm comfortable making those decisions."
In Gareth Widdop, Josh Dugan and the reborn Benji Marshall, the Dragons have the makings of title contenders. The challenge is building a roster to take them there.
McGregor's taken the first step in appointing recruitment guru Peter Mulholland and with him will tackle the task that will inevitably bring some short-term hurt.
Time will tell if the pain was worthwhile.