When former Footscray and South Melbourne player Peter Morrison took over as Stratford coach for the 2011 season, the club was at the crossroads.

''The volunteers, who spend so many hours around the place, had started to lose a bit of enthusiasm,'' Morrison recalled. ''People were worried that the club wasn't going to survive, and that was in the back of my mind too. Eventually, if you have no success at all, that's what's going to happen.''

Stratford was struggling to compete in the North Gippsland league and by the end of Morrison's first year in charge the senior team had won just 10 games in eight years.

But a switch to the Bairnsdale-based East Gippsland league has worked wonders for the club, which sits at the heart of a 2000-strong community located 230 kilometres east of Melbourne. Prior to Saturday's game against Lindenow, the Swans were second on the ladder with a 5-1 win-loss record.

The last time Stratford was flying this high was when it won consecutive premierships in the Riviera league in 2002 and 2003. But the club's problems began when that competition was disbanded following the 2003 season and the Swans were forced to return to the higher-standard North Gippsland league (Stratford had previously played in the NGFL between 1974 and 1988).

Although Stratford's junior teams were usually strong, the club's senior team struggled badly against powerful new foes such as Heyfield and Churchill. From 2004-2011 it was rarely able to climb up the ladder.

Before Morrison's arrival in 2010, a number of players and supporters began agitating for a move to the East Gippsland league. But after Morrison was appointed coach, they decided to have one last crack at being competitive where they were.

The result was a season punctuated by 20-goal thrashings. ''It didn't affect me personally,'' Morrison said. ''My concern was always with the footy club. I didn't want to be the last person to coach them.

''I focused on making things as simple as possible for the players, and we focused on having a good time as a group. We didn't have much success football-wise, but socially, as a group of people, we did have a good time.''
Nevertheless, when the 2011 season came to an end, just about everyone involved with Stratford agreed that something had to give. The question of whether to change leagues was put to a vote and the vast majority voted ''yes''.

Morrison then set about moulding his list of players into a team that could match it with clubs such as Lindenow, Lucknow, Wy Yung and Orbost-Snowy Rovers. Thanks to Stratford's hat-trick of under-18 premierships between 2008 and 2010, he had plenty of youngsters to work with. The issue was that he had few experienced players to run out alongside them.

Nevertheless, the Swans revelled in their new surroundings. Key forward Joshua Kiss, who played eight under-18 games during the year but ended up winning the club's senior best and fairest and goalkicking awards, was among the teenagers who led the way. His efforts helped Stratford win six games and play out a draw against top side Lindenow.
The Swans' second victory came in unusual fashion. They were a point in front of Lucknow when one of their players suffered a dislocated ankle. The injury was so severe that the game was held up for more than half an hour. Stratford's officials believed the match should have been called off there and then, but the umpires thought otherwise, and the final minutes were played under dim training lights with a yellow ball.

When the final siren rang, the scores were tied. To Lucknow's dismay, Stratford appealed the result, believing AFL Victoria's rules stated that matches were supposed to be called off if delayed by more than 30 minutes in the second half. The Swans were subsequently awarded the four points.

There has been no such controversy this season, with Stratford's climb up the ladder fuelled by some canny recruiting and yet more improvement from its band of youngsters.

Kaine Kerton, Lewis Bolton, Nathan and Nick French, Dylan Cartwright, Jarryd Clohesy, Taylor Tatterson, Liam Lemon, Nick Channing and Tim Hawkins are among the home-grown players who have become dependable members of the senior team. Hawkins drives home from Melbourne each weekend to play, while two of the others commute back to Stratford from an off-shore oil rig.

With the Swans entrenched in the top four, many of their supporters are beginning to dream about what might be possible in September.

''Some success would be great reward for everyone who has stuck by the club,'' Morrison said. ''But, for the moment, the players and coaches just have to keep a bit of a lid on it.''

By Adam McNicol

Article first appeared The Sunday Age, June 2, 2013

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/swans-flying-high-again-20130601-2niuv.html#ixzz2V1b8zsqQ