Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Only one team had fooled Sydney after Round 6 this season. Hawthorn fooled them twice at the SCG and MCG and the Hawks did it the same way both times.
But it wasn't shame on the Swans. It was shame on the rest of the competition for failing to copy the Hawks' method.
But Chris Scott's Geelong fooled the Swans on Friday night and ended their year.
Scott will be hailed a genius for the moves he made. He admitted he had erred with the non-selection of Dan Menzel in the qualifying final and Menzel's contribution against the Swans was invaluable. Patrick Dangerfield playing deep full forward, as he had done in a virtuoso performance against the Hawks earlier this year, yielded 4.3 from eight shots at goal in a staggering first half display. Mark Blicavs blanketed Swans skipper and talisman Josh Kennedy to just nine disposals in the first half. Harry Taylor doing the job on Lance Franklin after Tom Lonergan was a late withdrawal with food poisoning.
But as Scott said during the week in reference to Geelong's poor finals record at the MCG, such analysis and praise would be skin deep.
Geelong found the Swans' kryptonite. The same kryptonite Hawthorn had used, as former Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade explained on SEN earlier this week.
"With Sydney, if you handball too much, especially through the middle, Sydney's eyes light up," Eade said.
"You're actually drawing the pressure. That's what they live on. So you've got to try and take that pressure away. Even though they're a one-on-one side, try and get them in a one-on-one situation with (foot) passes and width, so they can't get men to support each other. Hawthorn did it extremely well. I remember the first time (in Round 10) even on a small ground (at the SCG) they went around the boundary and they moved it quickly.
"Sydney couldn't defend them as well as they have in the past."
Hawthorn had 100 more uncontested possessions, 61 more uncontested marks in Round 10 and committed just 62 turnovers. In Round 19 the Hawks committed just 60 turnovers, had 27 more uncontested possessions and took 56 more marks in total.
On Friday night, Geelong bravely copied the blueprint despite recent failings. The Cats committed 85 turnovers in last year's preliminary final loss to the Swans and 84 to Richmond last week.
But they won the contest and then spread the ground just as Hawthorn had done. At half-time the Cats led by 36 points on the scoreboard having had 56 more uncontested possessions and 19 more contested possessions. They had 18 more uncontested marks and had taken nine contested grabs to just one. The Cats had committed just 32 turnovers to the Swans' 39. In the end it would 68 turnovers to 81 and the Cats won by 59 points.
Dangerfield playing out of the goalsquare pulled the Swans' defence apart. Twice the spare defender was so conscious of supporting Dangerfield's opponent Dane Rampe, that Rhys Stanley and Zac Smith bobbed up for marks in bad mismatches inside 50.
Save for a clutch goal from Jarrad McVeigh, the Swans would have been goalless for the second term and Franklin had just three disposals for the half.
It was an extraordinary performance in greasy conditions, after all and sundry had written the Cats off and given them no chance following the drubbing they received from Richmond just a week earlier.
"The coach set the standard last Friday night," Geelong captain Joel Selwood said in the rooms after the win.
"As soon as we came in he said, 'we've got to get over it quick and we've got to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and get to work'.
"He was the best player tonight, the way that he set up the week. I'm really proud that he and the rest of the coaching staff did the job that they did and we just went out and performed the way that we needed to."
While the Cats advance to Adelaide, the Swans go home. They had looked invincible for most of this year, with the exception of the Hawks, who were no longer in their path.
It shows the value of the double chance in finals. The Swans' 0-6 start to the season had left no room for error. Their one false step came in a cut-throat final. They got fooled again.
They will likely rise once more next year and there will be minimal changes to the squad over the off season. But they cannot afford to start as slow as they did. One win in their first six and they would have claimed the double chance. The Swans will rue losses to Carlton and Collingwood.
But the blueprint to beat them has been laid out for all to see. Knowing it and executing are two different things, as Eade will attest.
But given the quality of the Swans' list and the mix of experience and youth they possess, they can ill afford to get fooled again.