The same philosophies that ended Sydney’s 72-year AFL premiership drought will be front and centre in Saturday’s preliminary final: pressure, discipline, hard work and self belief.

Fremantle coach Ross Lyon and Swans counterpart John Longmire are very much their own men, but the mark left on the pair – and their respective game plans – by former mentor Paul Roos is still telling.

Longmire and Lyon both served their apprenticeships under Roos, the two assistants learning much as Roos moulded the Swans into the fiercely competitive beast that won the 2005 premiership.

“We spent a bit of time travelling together, doing some opposition analysis. We had some interesting times on the road,” Longmire said of his time with former colleague Lyon.

They were both interviewed for the St Kilda post in 2007; Lyon was successful and had the Saints in a grand final by his third season.

Longmire had a longer wait, but stepped up seamlessly at the Swans in 2011 after Roos stood down and won a premiership in his second season.

Results, as was the case under Roos, have underlined the post-playing careers of both men; of the current AFL coaches, only Geelong’s Chris Scott has a better record.

On the park, their two sides are among the most unyielding in the competition.

Fittingly the two teams battled to a draw in their only meeting this year.

“It’s funny how similar these blokes are. That’s the thing that sticks out,” Roos told News Corp Australia earlier this year.

“They’re very similar in a coaching sense but different personalities.”

To the public, that’s most obvious in their dealings with the media.

Take for instance how both dismissed Saturday’s intriguing sub-plot in their own way.

“We (coaches) just help navigate and guide … once the ball is bounced, it’s all about the players really,” Lyon said.

Longmire agreed it was “not about him and I. It’s about the boys on the ground” but not before conceding that when “you go up against someone you know quite well. It’s an interesting experience.”

It’s been interesting and generally quite close to date.

Before their round-eight draw, Lyon and Longmire’s head-to-head battles all went the way of the latter – by 13, 25 and 15 points.

“It’s just going to be about who can do it better and longer”, Swans on-baller Josh Kennedy said of Saturday’s pressure-laden contest between the two immovable objects.

The two coaches’ tactical nous is legendary, but they have more in common than just that.

Both Lyon and Longmire are arguably the best in the league at extracting the most from their respective lists – take a quick look at the struggles with injury to key personnel that both Sydney and Fremantle have dealt with this season.

They’ve got the timing and combination of carrots and sticks down to a fine art. Just ask Swans co-captain Jarrad McVeigh – pick No.5 in the 2002 draft.

“He was hard and tough on me,” McVeigh said of Lyon.

“Which was good. I learned a lot from him about the game.

“He wanted me to be the best player I could be and really didn’t want me to take shortcuts and stuff like that.

“I really rate him as a coach, but hopefully he doesn’t coach too well against us this week.”