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Toast Gary Rohan

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Loving the new look GR. It's like getting an inform top ten pick just before the finals.

Actually - that's exactly what it is :)
 
ntomby said:
Imagine how good he would have been had he not had the leg break
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I posted something similar about Rohan earlier this year, but Voss broke his leg as a promising unknown. But he had the commitment, the support and the talent to forge a wonderful career. I'm thinking Gaz has all the elements in place to do the same if he's prepared to take it on.

I'm not suggesting Rohan is Voss, but the fact that his best footy will still be before him is something we should all be excited about.

Love the Gaz. I was sitting with a view straight down the ground. To see him break the lines and just sprint up the corridor was goose bumps stuff. Not everyone can do some of things he does on a regular basis.

And to that flog on the main board the other week talking about him as being a liability, I hope you were watching on Friday. :D
 
Such a great move by the coaches to switch him to half back in the reserves. Will be a top 10 player in our team by the end of next year. We have so many exciting young players coming through. Holy s*** the future looks so good.
 

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Borgan said:
Such a great move by the coaches to switch him to half back in the reserves. Will be a top 10 player in our team by the end of next year. We have so many exciting young players coming through. Holy s*** the future looks so good.
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The future is brilliant. Really we have 4 players who are close to retirement age and they are Goodes, Richards, Shaw and Pyke with a couple more like Malceski and Grundy who are older. None of our midfielders are anywhere near retirement and we have 3 potentially great midfielders coming to the Swans in the next 14 months. The Swans most pressing need at the moment is finding a replacement for Richards and possibly Pyke as we are going to be able to cover the other retirements. If well managed there is no reason why the Swans cannot be competing for premierships until 2017.
 
Gary Rohan has his own Cobden cheer squad at AFL grand final
By MARY ALEXANDER
Sept. 26, 2014, 4 a.m.
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When a certain red-haired Sydney Swans player runs on to the MCG for tomorrow’s AFL grand final, his very own cheer squad will be waiting. Cobden’s Gary Rohan has no bigger fans than (front) neighbour Amy Howarth and niece Nara Rohan and (back, from left) neighbour Graeme ‘Bugs’ Howarth, brother Ash Rohan, dad Jim and mum Belinda, sisters Jess, Stacy and Bec and neighbours Colleen Murfitt and Matthew Howarth. 140925LP02 Picture: LEANNE PICKETT

THE excitement is palpable down Cobden way.

One of their own will enter Australia’s biggest stadium tomorrow for Aussie Rules’ toughest sporting contest.

With him go the blessings of hundreds of locals and the pride of a tight-knit community.

He’ll be an easy spot in a field of green at the MCG. There’s no camouflaging the red hair, quick pace and face wrought with determination.

Gary Rohan is a country lad through and through. Despite a career-best performance in the Swans’ AFL preliminary final, the athletic defender hasn’t forgotten his simple rural upbringing and how it helped shape him into an elite footballer.

“It hasn’t gone to his head,” mum Belinda Rohan told The Standard this week. “If it did, his brother (Ashley, 20) and three sisters (Stacy, 25, Rebecca, 17, and Jessica, 15) would quickly pull him into line.

“When he comes home he pulls on his rubber boots and gets back in the tractor on the neighbour’s farm.”

It’s been a big week for the Rohan family. Belinda and husband Jim flew to Sydney to watch their oldest son in action in last Friday night’s match against North Melbourne.

They couldn’t have been prouder. “It was just amazing. Even though the game wasn’t that close, it was unbelievable,” Belinda said.

“It was the best he had played in his life.” The 23-year-old met up with his parents in the change rooms after the match, enveloping Belinda in his muscled arms with a giant cuddle.

“I had a sook,” Belinda admitted. “I just think all the emotion caught up with me.”

Her faith in her son has been rock-solid despite the many challenges he has faced in his short career.

Rohan worked hard through his junior years to make the Geelong Falcons under 16 squad but was then axed.

Belinda knew her son was a sure talent and it was only at her insistence that he agreed to have another go. He made the grade, eventually representing Victoria Country at the 2009 AFL Under 18 Championships, where he won the team’s most valuable player award as well as All-Australian honours

He was drafted to Sydney in 2009 but injured his hamstring in 2011 and then broke his leg in a horrific incident in 2012.

Rohan returned to the field to a standing ovation towards the end of the 2013 season.

Belinda said his recovery was due to a lot of hard work and persistence and the support of the Swans.

“They are absolutely fantastic. I couldn’t speak highly enough of them,” she said.

Belinda said Gary’s mentor and teammate Rhyce Shaw was “absolutely amazing”, helping to restore her son’s confidence when he was going through a low patch last year and thought he would have to return to Cobden.

“I thought maybe he wouldn’t come back as good after he broke his leg and I never dreamed that he’d play as well as he did (last Friday night),” she said.

“But he’s pretty pig-headed. I’d have to say he gets that from his father. If someone says that he can’t do something, he’ll go all out to prove them wrong.”

The Rohans have decked out their Curdies-Leitchfield Road house in red and white and the neighbours have helped by colour-co-ordinating their sheep and goats.

The family’s Transit van will be full when it heads down the highway to the city today for the grand final parade.

The Rohans, along with Stacy’s partner Nicholas Mills, her daughter Nara, 5, and neighbouring friends Graeme “Bugs” Howarth, his wife Colleen and three children, will then head to the big game tomorrow before turning out for a reception at the South Melbourne ground on Sunday.

“We’ll just go with the flow,” Belinda said. “We couldn’t be prouder. Win, lose or draw, he’s got to a grand final.”

But there has also been sadness this week for the Rohans. Jim’s uncle Terry Rohan died in Warrnambool early Saturday morning after succumbing to cancer.

Gary Rohan was very fond of his great-uncle, who he knew as “Tex”, and flew from Sydney to visit him in hospital during the Swans’ week-long finals break.

Gary texted Terry's wife Noni on Saturday morning and told her he would be playing for his great uncle in the grand final.

He couldn't make it to his funeral on Thursday due to grand final training commitments but Belinda said Terry would have completely understood.

"No doubt he'll be watching down on Gary on Saturday."

saw this in the local paper hope you swannies enjoy it, all the best for tomorrow
 
So keen to see Gary Ronan pins out. 100% rehabilitated, 50games experience and a full pre season.

Looking good.

I don't think the broken leg has reduced his ceiling.
 
Dan87 said:
So keen to see Gary Ronan pins out. 100% rehabilitated, 50games experience and a full pre season.

Looking good.

I don't think the broken leg has reduced his ceiling.
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It's good to see him still wanting to play as well. Injuries like that can mentally screw you
 

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Dan87 said:
So keen to see Gary Ronan pins out. 100% rehabilitated, 50games experience and a full pre season.

Looking good.

I don't think the broken leg has reduced his ceiling.
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Well he just completed the toughest test of his life{his words not mine}
Lawn bowled all day and spent a long trip back to Cobden on a bus,with no complaints.{some beers involved}
 
It's been brought up on the board already, but a timely bump ahead of his 50th game. He's had to overcome a lot to get to this point but he's made it, and playing some pretty good footy too, although his value isn't always reflected by the stats.
 
RW said:
It's been brought up on the board already, but a timely bump ahead of his 50th game. He's had to overcome a lot to get to this point but he's made it, and playing some pretty good footy too, although his value isn't always reflected by the stats.
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Great call mate, got to love the Ranga
 
Oh, I'm just stirring, I'm not always Mr Serious Mod.
 

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RW said:
It's been brought up on the board already, but a timely bump ahead of his 50th game. He's had to overcome a lot to get to this point but he's made it, and playing some pretty good footy too, although his value isn't always reflected by the stats.
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Chased down everyone on Saturday like a kelpie bred to do it, and kept it up all game. Great effort and amazing fortitude to come back from the broken leg.
 
Loving the way he has developed this year.
Becoming one of my favourite players.
Worthy of an avatar change ;)
 
Sir Swans said:
Love this goal He always looks like he is loving playing

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Hopefully conjure another one like that against the Cats this weekend.

Which reminds me, wasn't that a great feeling when we beat them by 110 last year? A comprehensive demolition of the vestiges of one of the great teams of the modern era. Would be quite happy to feel that sensation again.
 

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