Longmire's path to coaching greatness began in pain

John Longmire's path to a modern master coach began in old-fashioned anguish - physical and mental. In 1996, Longmire was playing in a trial match against the Brisbane Bears when he wrecked a knee. What was to have been the ninth season for a player at the peak of his powers was over before it started. Instead of kicking goals in a North Melbourne premiership season, Longmire was sidelined. His coach Denis Pagan, recognising Longmire's angst, tried to keep the star forward busy by deploying him in the coaches' box as an opposition analyst. Longmire was in the box when his teammates won the '96 grand final; in the rooms he was a jumble of emotion: one minute, overjoyed for his mates; the next, in tears he missed out. At that time, the man they called Horse - the politically correct version is because of his strapping build - was a bona fide star of the competition. At the end of 1987, Longmire was a lump of a 16-year-old lad from Corowa on the NSW side of the Murray River who was invited on North Melbourne's trip to London for an exhibition game. The game turned into the infamous 'Battle of Britain' when North's Alastair Clarkson belted Carlton's Ian Aitken, turning the match into an exhibition of thuggery. Longmire showed promise in his debut season with the Kangaroos, kicking 21 goals from 11 games. Just two seasons later, he entered the last home-and-away game with 96 goals to his name - and, spooked by the looming magical century milestone, booted 2.8. Longmire's next five seasons were laden with goals - 91, 64, 75, 78 and 58 - as he and Wayne Carey steered North to the promised land. But when they got there, winning the '96 grand final against Sydney by 43 points, Longmire was in the coaches' box. His goalkicking exploits never again reached any great heights after his 1997 comeback and in '98 he was overlooked for selection for the grand final which the Roos lost to Adelaide. In 1999, on his last legs as a player, Longmire played only 10 games: but one was a grand-final win - and he promptly quit. Longmire went into player management until then Sydney coach Rodney Eade lured him back to the box as an assistant coach. He has been at the Swans ever since. Longmire took over from Paul Roos as senior coach in 2011. And he remembered Roos' opening words to the Swans when he started his coaching reign in the early 2000s. "I'm not going to treat you all the same, I'm going to treat you all fairly, but I'll treat you as individuals." That message has been a cornerstone of philosophy of Longmire, who coached the Swans to the 2012 premiership. Four grand finals followed - all losses - as Longmire reached the finals in an astonishing dozen of his 14 seasons as head coach. Last season, Longmire's team was belted by Brisbane in the premiership decider. "I didn't know at that point," he said on Tuesday when he announced his resignation as coach. "Sometimes you just need a bit of time to work it out. "My last game as a player was a premiership and I pulled the pin after that. "I didn't know whether that would be my last game or not, I wasn't 100 per cent sure. "I just felt like I needed to stop and rest and reset and regenerate - and it's very hard to do that when you're coaching and so I didn't know at that particular point in time. "The decision to go forward for this footy club was really important so I needed to make the right call."