Magpie Girl
Premium Platinum
There was an interview with Swanny in today's Spectrum section of the Age newspaper
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainm...-not-as-bad-as-you-think-20161212-gt9doj.html
A really enjoyable read.
As we all know there is so much more to the man than football.
He reveals his love of fine and exotic food, fine wine, and his love of musicals, his favourite being Mary Poppins.
One of the things I found interesting to read about was his attitude to the game.
Here are a few excerpts
"I made a decision reasonably early on: Do I want to get the best out of my career, or do I want to sacrifice a bit out of my career and get the best out of my life? I chose to get the most out of my life," he says.
Swan's career achievements are substantial – Brownlow, premiership medal, club best and fairest (three times), All Australian (five times on the trot) – but some people will inevitably wonder what he might have achieved if he'd chosen to couple his natural ability with a stronger work ethic, a more committed approach to looking after his body. To them, he has a simple message: don't waste your energy.
"Who knows whether I sacrificed being better than I was? No one can ever know, but those breaks – going out when I shouldn't have, eating burgers instead of salads – mentally, that helped me. I needed to get away from footy."
At any rate, if he had taken that route, "I could have been worse. If I'd stuck to the rules and did everything right and trained my arse off and didn't go away on the end-of-season trips but stayed and trained and got fit, I could have burned out five years ago. I could have thought it's getting to me, I'm run down, I've f---ing had enough. My body might have been cooked."
"I love footy and I would have played it for free if I wasn't good enough to play AFL," he says. "But it wasn't my whole life. It came third, after my family and friends."
These statements raise a few questions:
Do we expect too much from these young men, many still boys, when they join a football club?
Does the regimen put too much pressure on them?
There certainly been a few that have decided to go home 'for personal reasons' etc
Is the required attitude too intense, too focused just on footy?
Swanny was a maverick and got away with a lot that others wouldn't. Does this in itself build some kind of resentment, or jealously, or tension amongst teammates?
Food for thought.
ps I hope the link works
http://www.theage.com.au/entertainm...-not-as-bad-as-you-think-20161212-gt9doj.html
A really enjoyable read.
As we all know there is so much more to the man than football.
He reveals his love of fine and exotic food, fine wine, and his love of musicals, his favourite being Mary Poppins.
One of the things I found interesting to read about was his attitude to the game.
Here are a few excerpts
"I made a decision reasonably early on: Do I want to get the best out of my career, or do I want to sacrifice a bit out of my career and get the best out of my life? I chose to get the most out of my life," he says.
Swan's career achievements are substantial – Brownlow, premiership medal, club best and fairest (three times), All Australian (five times on the trot) – but some people will inevitably wonder what he might have achieved if he'd chosen to couple his natural ability with a stronger work ethic, a more committed approach to looking after his body. To them, he has a simple message: don't waste your energy.
"Who knows whether I sacrificed being better than I was? No one can ever know, but those breaks – going out when I shouldn't have, eating burgers instead of salads – mentally, that helped me. I needed to get away from footy."
At any rate, if he had taken that route, "I could have been worse. If I'd stuck to the rules and did everything right and trained my arse off and didn't go away on the end-of-season trips but stayed and trained and got fit, I could have burned out five years ago. I could have thought it's getting to me, I'm run down, I've f---ing had enough. My body might have been cooked."
"I love footy and I would have played it for free if I wasn't good enough to play AFL," he says. "But it wasn't my whole life. It came third, after my family and friends."
These statements raise a few questions:
Do we expect too much from these young men, many still boys, when they join a football club?
Does the regimen put too much pressure on them?
There certainly been a few that have decided to go home 'for personal reasons' etc
Is the required attitude too intense, too focused just on footy?
Swanny was a maverick and got away with a lot that others wouldn't. Does this in itself build some kind of resentment, or jealously, or tension amongst teammates?
Food for thought.
ps I hope the link works
