The illusionist

[Dave The Man]

DANE Swan will never be called a magician.
He doesn't conjure goals like Peter Daicos and Darren Jarman, or dazzle like either of the Gary Abletts.
But he could be considered an illusionist, in the sense that he is not what he seems.
Swan seems to be an ordinary, run-of-the-mill midfielder.
He isn't.
Swan doesn't appear to be quick, since his unorthodox running style is more waddle than Usain Bolt stride.
Shortly after his arrival at Collingwood, the club toyed with the notion of correcting his ungainly gait.
Yet, he is fast.
He's been timed at 2.9 seconds for 20 metres, and his instinctive awareness makes him even quicker in footy terms.
"However I run, funnily enough, it feels comfortable for me."
Swan's not rippling with muscle and obvious strength, but he's among the strongest handful of players at Collingwood, his 90 or so kilograms concealed mainly in a powerful lower body and torso.
And he's not the first name that springs to mind when contemplating the better overhead marks.
Yet, Swan is one of the best grabs for a player of his - again, deceptive - height (185 centimetres) in the competition.
Swan is Collingwood's most prolific, consistent and durable midfielder.
But because he isn't graceful, with an untidy, socksdown appearance, his impact on a game can be sold short.
He is, for instance, one of few midfielders to have overcome the suffocations of Geelong's supersnuffer Cameron Ling.
Swan is Collingwood's version of the no-name supermarket product.
Not as pretty as the brand name, but on closer inspection, the content is no different, or worse.
It just lacks the fancy package.
And it's cheaper.
In a match this year, Malcolm Blight suggested that Swan might be among the top 20 players in the competition, a rating far above his perceived station.
Even though he polled 20 Brownlow votes last year, no one was, or is, accustomed to the notion that Dane Swan might be an elite player.
Swan nominates his major assets as "ball-getting and marking", adding: "I'm probably a bit versatile - I can go forward and try to get on a lead up on the wings.
That's probably something I've tried to improve in my game.
You know, my goalkicking's been better over the last month.
I got the yips ... a bit there in the middle of the year."
Swan's deceptive playing ability is accompanied by a willingness to speak his mind, in a plain, matter-of-fact manner that you would expect from the son of a dockside worker and ex-Port Melbourne champion.
He is laid-back, yet there is an articulate bite in his words.
His father, Billy Swan, was one of the VFA's Sunday matinee idols at Port and Williamstown and "a true centreman".
Billy, who still works on the docks and was himself the son of a dock worker, has clearly imparted not just ball-magnetism, but some of the old-school values of the port, such as standing by your mates, and "one-in, all-in".
"He grew up in Port Melbourne and then moved out to Broadmeadows ... Dad used to have a lot of help from his teammates.
They used to be pretty tough down there ... he'd get belted every now and then, you know, his teammates would come in and help him."
So, it follows that he defends his teammates, Alan Didak and Heath Shaw, against the tide of criticism following their clumsy cover-up, and sticks up for what has become known as Collingwood "rat pack" of mainly mid-20s boys who've found trouble on occasion - Didak, Heath and Rhyce Shaw, Swan and Ben Johnson.
He credits Johnson and ex-teammate Chris Tarrant as "massive" influences in his career salvation.
"People can say what they like," Swan said.
"I've never been one to worry about getting called in the rat pack.
If that's what they want to call my group of friends in the footy club, well, that's what they call us.
You know, until that incident, everyone in the rat pack was probably just about the best five or six playing.
They were (in) our best four or five footballers for the year.
So obviously they were doing something right."
Swan defends his mates, while simultaneously acknowledging his bias and the fact that the whole messy episode has given the playing group impetus.
He won't weigh in to the debate about whether they should be brought back (they won't) on the sensible grounds that it isn't his call.
"I try to stay away from it because, if the footy club asks me, I'm kind of biased about it because they're mates of mine.
It's said it affects people, but it didn't really affect me.
I just went on and went about what I did.
I didn't treat Alan or Heath any differently.
They're still my mates, still came in the next day and, you know, act like nothing happened.
"I thought that was the best way to go about it, and that's what I did.
And what I still have.
And I'll give them all the support they need.
They're fine now, they've been amazing around the footy club.

They've been out training just as hard as ever ... And they haven't cracked it, they haven't sooked once.
They've copped it on the chin."
SWAN views the response to Didak- Shaw as one of club solidarity - side by side, they stick together.
"We're all one Collingwood, we don't kick anyone out, you know, leave them ostracised on their own.
We're one whole club, we stick together, and that's what we've done so far and that's what we'll continue to do.
If anyone else plays up here, we'll continue to stick by them ... that's just Collingwood."
It's understandable that Swan would take that view, given that Mick Malthouse and the club stuck by him earlier in his career when he was on the brink of the sack following his own well-chronicled misdemeanour involving a security guard at Federation Square.
The story was referred to so often, in connection with other Collingwood incidents, that Billy Swan was recently moved to phone up 3AW and complain about the constant exhuming of his son's early career mishap.
"When I went through all that trouble and I was going through the courts and that, he supported me - you know, he called me a ******** for what I'd done - but, you know, everyone's got their opinion on what I did and I'll stick by what I've done.
But Dad will support me no matter what I do."
Swan is now a poster boy for what the Magpies want from Didak, the Shaws and indeed any player who has stuffed up after hours.
He had the nearsack epiphany, knuckled down and with - another surprising admission - the help of Tarrant and Johnson, discovered the link between training and performance.
Besides hanging "around with my mates", Swan has no idea what he would have done, vocationally, had his career ended prematurely, though he probably had the option of the docks.
"But playing AFL is what I wanted to do.
I realised that I needed to work a lot harder than I was.
"Ben and Chris were probably the two massive keys in, even though apparently the boys have played up a bit there, they're probably the two that have helped my career the most.
You know, Chris got me in the weights and Johnno sort of said, 'Just run behind me pre-season', and he's, you know, real fit ... for the first couple of years after that, I just ran behind him for as long as I could.
" While Swan says he enjoys a beer and going out, "there are certain times when you should and you shouldn't".
His temperance has been encouraged by the presence of an American girlfriend, Taylor, with whom he tends to nest at home, watching the English Premier League.
Whereas Didak and the Shaws had been without girlfriends in recent months - a state that traditionally propels footballers into more pubs and bars - Swan, now 24 and an elder statesman in a youthful team, spends more time at home, recovering from the game's rigours.
"Yeah, you're probably a bit more settled, I suppose, in your life, if you've got a girlfriend."

Story Here

 

[Dane Swan 4 brownlow]

Just read that great read btw and also Dane is a very good footballer and club man good luck today swanny

 

[DJ Black @ White Blood]

I love the bit how Taz got him into weights and Johnno said if you want to improve your running speed just run after me through the pre season.

 

[The Royal Sampler]

Nice article. I wonder if Jake had been reading my Swan thread before referring to him as Collingwood's "poster boy" for what the Magpies want from Didak and the Shaws etc.

 

[Snag Breac]

Nice article. I wonder if Jake had been reading my Swan thread before referring to him as Collingwood's "poster boy" for what the Magpies want from Didak and the Shaws etc.

No doubt. BF is now an authentic source for journos. I suspect that threads here often inspire stories. The comments in Collingwood stories in the papers can be eerily familiar.

 

[Optimax]

That man should be our next captain, he is collingwood to the core.

Thanks DTM

Snag do you know jake niall? he is a very good journo

 

[Footy guru]

Great story, when is he going to make all Australian - some of the midfielders got in on their name. Dane has finished fourth this year on AFL statistics on final siren website and third last year. Will pile again in brownlow and will be a crime if he doesnt win Copeland. Go swannie!!!

 

[Snag Breac]

That man should be our next captain, he is collingwood to the core.

Thanks DTM

Snag do you know jake niall? he is a very good journo

I don't know anybody, Opti; well, nobody who might be useful in September.

 

[Optimax]

I don't know anybody, Opti; well, nobody who might be useful in September.

lol snag fair enough

 

[Bay Pie]

He doesn't get all the credit he deserves because he doens't do the freakish or flairing things that others do from time to time.

That Mark Thompson just puts Ling onto him without a thought says as much about Swan as anything.

Bloody glad we have him.

 

[Daicos Mullets]

I would not be at all surprised if Swan is captain in 2010, particularly having seen how he played & spoken over the last few weeks.