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Dane Swann doesn’t hesitate to point out the fork in the road that takes him on the road to brilliant AFL career and ultimately induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
“When I Was Arrested” Collingwood cult hero said at Tuesday night’s induction ceremony.
“That was fun.”
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A self-confessed ‘m***er’ during his teenage days who defied authority figures, Swann initially believed football was all about fun and games off the pitch when he first arrived at the biggest club in the country.
“I thought playing AFL was about getting drink cards on a Saturday night,” he said.
“I would put in a lot of effort; it was all on saturday night.
“There was no effort on the day and I didn’t deserve to be on the AFL list.
“I walked into that blue, got in trouble and thought I was going to get fired.
“You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. It’s very cliche, but it rang true to me.”
Swann was arrested for brawling with batsmen in late 2003, his second year at Collingwood.
His father Bill Swan, a Victorian Football Association great, told the young player to leave if he wasn’t interested in an AFL career.
Club leaders, including legendary coach Mick Malthouse, sat Swann down and told him some brutal home truths while urging him to repay their faith.
He turned things around and moved on and became a great player for the Magpies, featuring in the famous premiership in 2010 and winning the Brownlow Medal a year later.
Swann was an All-Australian for five consecutive seasons (2009-2013) and won Collingwood’s best and fairest three times (2008-2010).
“I was just very, very lucky,” he said.
“There were so many players who came in who were better, harder working, faster, fitter, stronger and all that sort of thing.
“I just have no idea why I was detained; I was like a cockroach, they just couldn’t kill me.
“Mick (Malthouse) obviously saw something in me.”
Swann credits former teammates Chris Tarrant and Ben Johnson, among others, for keeping him upright – or at least upright.
The pair were part of a 35-strong entourage at Tuesday’s induction ceremony, along with fellow Collingwood Rat Pack members Heath Shaw and Alan Didak.
“Those three or four years when you’re with your best friends, like the ‘rat pack’ that are here today, it felt like six months,” Swann said.
“You play at the biggest club in the country, you have one of the bigger profiles, I was going well, we played hard, we partied hard and we just had a great time.
“We barely lost and those are the moments you want to get back.”
Malthouse hailed Swann as one of the best big-game players of his generation.
“His performance in finals and Anzac Day is quite remarkable because of the game, the big stage,” the Premiership coach said in 2010.
Ever the stirrer, Swan pointed out during his acceptance speech that he is not yet a member of the Collingwood Hall of Fame.
“You obviously don’t rate me as highly as the AFL (does),” he said.
“But they know I can be bribed and bought quite easily, and they bought a table for my friends tonight, so we’re at ease.”
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