Paul Williams wore the colours of five AFL clubs as a player and coach but, publicly at least, he is a totally neutral fan. He has no choice because he sits on the AFL tribunal.

But the 2005 Swans premiership player, who joined the club in 2001 after 189 games at Collingwood from 1991-2000 and before coaching stints at Melbourne, Western Bulldogs and Carlton, will always have a special bond with the Swans.

It’s what premierships do. Especially when you add the 2001-02 Bob Skilton Medals, a 2003 All-Australian blazer and Hall of Fame membership in 2013 to a career of 117 games from 2001-06.

Seventeen years on from his last game in red and white the now 50-year-old doesn’t deny an irrevocable bond to the club, just as he does with Collingwood, who gave him a chance to play in the AFL. But publicly he’s neutral.

A key player in the 2005 grand final win after an even better preliminary final, Williams is one of the most prominent members of the Sydney/Collingwood common players club and will have one foot in each camp in during the Swans’ Round 8 clash with the Magpies at the MCG on Sunday.

It will top off a big week for the brilliant midfielder, who now has a sixth AFL club loyalty about which he can be as public as he likes without upsetting anyone. At least until 1928.

Drafted from North Hobart with pick #70 in the 1989 Draft and a member of the Tasmanian Team of the Century, Williams was ‘absolutely rapt’ to see Tasmania awarded the 19^th AFL licence.

“It’s long overdue and I’m both happy and jealous … happy for all the people in Tasmania who have wanted a team of their own for so long, and jealous it didn’t happen in my days. There was a fair chunk of Tasmanian talent playing in the AFL back then, but it’s definitely slipped a bit and hopefully this will help rejuvenate the local competition. I’ll will definitely be at the first game,” he said.

Happy to keep a low profile these days while serving on the tribunal, Williams is something of an awkward case with those in charge of tribunal matters given his five-club background.

“A lot of ex-players are on the panel and they don’t let you sit on cases involving clubs you have a connection too,” he said with a laugh.

Williams’ recruitment by the Swans, in exchange for picks #8 and #39 in the 1990 draft which were tied up in Collingwood’s recruitment of James Clement and Brodie Holland from Fremantle, was a masterstroke. And yet it happened almost by accident.

“I just felt I needed a new everything. I knew a couple of Swans players – Daryn Cresswell and Andrew Dunkley – and through them I knew Paul Kelly. I went up there really just to have a look and over a chat and a beer it fell into place. I just felt really comfortable there,” he recalled.

He played 117 games in the Swans’ #10 jumper from 2001-06 before an injury-enforced retirement mid-season ended a phenomenal 16-year career of 306 games. He coached at Melbourne (2007-08), Bulldogs (2009-11) and Carlton (2012) before joining the tribunal in 2014.

In life away from football the father to two 20-something daughters is enjoying life as a sales director with Fuji Film Upstream Solutions after becoming engaged last year to will-be second wife Karina.

His other passion is Karina’s business known as ‘Karina Di Angeli’, which he describes as “a high-end boutique on Chapel Street in Melbourne’s South Yarra, which specialises in designer wear from Italy”.

Williams, caretaker coach of the Western Bulldogs for three games in 2011 after Rodney Eade’s exit, also boasts two rare places in football history. He holds the AFL record for the biggest win by a player in his 300^th game in 2006 – a 118-point win over Richmond at Marvel Stadium – and until 2008 he held the record for most games before a premiership at 294.

“Shane Crawford beat me in his last game … it was something I was happy to get rid of,” he said, having taken the record previously from the Western Bulldogs’ Matthew Boyd (282 games in 2016), who had taken it from Brisbane’s Marcus Ashcroft (268 games in 2001).

Williams is one of 44 players in the 21^st century who are like Swans royalty. Premiership players in 2005 or 2012. Twelve of them were imports who moved from opposition clubs to play in a flag in red and white.

Nine of the imports came from nine different clubs, and three share a common pathway. They hailed from Collingwood. Williams, Nick Davis and Rhyce Shaw.

While Williams is the ‘dux’ of the group, each is significant in their own way.

Especially Davis, a Sydneysider from age four, played 71 games as a father/son pick at Collingwood from 1999-2002 before a much-celebrated 97 games with the Swans from 2003-08, which included a pivotal role in the 2005 flag, headed by four astonishing goals in the final quarter of the preliminary final win over Geelong.

And Shaw, whose family is among Collingwood’s most famous, left behind 94 games with the Magpies from 2000-2008 to play 143 games with Sydney from 2009-15, finishing runner-up in the Skilton Medal in 2009 and 2011 and being among five players aged 30-plus in the 2012 premiership.

The other nine ‘imports’ who became Swans premiership players were Craig Bolton (Brisbane), Barry Hall (St Kilda), Darren Jolly (Melbourne) and Jason Ball (West Coast) in 2005, and Josh Kennedy (Hawthorn), Marty Mattner (Adelaide), Mitch Morton (Richmond), Shane Mumford (Geelong) and Ted Richards (Essendon) in 2012.

Jolly later joined Williams, Davis and Shaw on the Sydney/Collingwood common players list when he played 71 games with the Magpies (2010-13) after 48 games at Melbourne (2001-04) and 118 games at Sydney (2005-2009). He claimed VIP status in the group when he won a second premiership with Collingwood in 2010.

There are four other players who have played for Sydney and Collingwood since 2000.

Jesse White played 71 games with Sydney (2008-13) before 56 games with Collingwood (2014-17), and Tony Armstrong, now a popular media figure and winner of the ‘Most Popular New Talent’ Award at the 2022 Logies, followed 14 games with Adelaide (2010-11) with 15 games at Sydney (2012-13) and 16 games at Collingwood (2014-15).

The other two are current Collingwood players. Darcy Cameron, currently on the injured list, played one game in three years with the Swans (2017-19) before moving to Collingwood, where he has played 55 games. And 2018 Brownlow Medallist Tom Mitchell, who played 65 games with Sydney (2012-16) and 106 games with Hawthorn (2017-22) before crossing to Collingwood this year.

Mitchell, who had a 4-3 record in seven games against the Swans with Hawthorn, will play against his original club for the first time on Sunday afternoon.

The form guide says Mitchell sits third on the Collingwood possession list this season with 178, trailing Nick Daicos (247) and Josh Daicos (195) and ahead of Steele Sidebottom (158) and John Noble (152).

The comparative Sydney list has Chad Warner (168) at the top from Jake Lloyd (166), Luke Parker (160), Errol Gulden (155) and Callum Mills (151).

Brody Mihocek leads the 2023 Collingwood goal-kicking with 14 from Bobby Hill (10), Jordan deGoey (7), Beau McCreery (7), Ash Johnson (6) and Nick Daicos (6). Tom Papley (16) leads the Sydney goal-kickers from Logan McDonald (14), Will Hayward (9), Isaac Heeney (7) and Lance Franklin (7).

Nick Daicos is a runaway leader in the AFL Coaches Association Player of the Year award, having polled 45 votes in seven games to head deGoey (28), new captain Darcy Moore (22) and Josh Daicos (15). Sydney’s leading vote-getters have been Warner (24), Mills (11), Papley (10) and Parker (10).