Merrigum is planning to “cash in” on the one-off appearance of controversial Collingwood Brownlow Medallist Dane Swan when he becomes a Bulldog for a day on June 17 in the Kyabram district league fixture against Avenel.
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Preparing to add a hint of black and white to the usually red, white and blue colours that adorn the walls of the Merrigum headquarters, club president Andrew Parkinson admitted to being “very excited”.
“I was a little starstruck when I first spoke to him, being a Collingwood supporter, but he is really down to earth and was just keen to make his visit as big for the club as he could,” Parkinson said.
Parkinson said the event could provide the club with the sort of financial injection that could set it up for the season.
Tables for the game-day sponsor’s luncheon and Saturday evening sportsman’s event at Kyabram P-12 College’s Fischer St assembly hall have been selling well, but Parkinson said the club was hoping to make this its biggest ever fundraising day.
“We want to make it a sell out and have as big a crowd as we could imagine to watch him play,” Parkinson said.
The son of a former Merrigum legend will host the event — former Richmond star and ageless Kyabram forward Kayne Pettifer.
His father Mick, who tragically died when Kaine, brother Drew and sister Sara were very young, was a hugely respected figure at the club.
“The Pettifer family are certainly no strangers to the Merrigum Football Netball Club,” Parkinson said.
One thing is for certain, anyone who buys a ticket to attend either the luncheon or after-match function where Swan will be the star attraction will be getting value for money.
By the time I’d finished reseaching the post-AFL activity of the AFL’s best player of 2011 I was almost exhausted.
And there aren’t enough pages in the humble Kyabram Free Press to pay homage to the headlines the 258-gamer has made before, during and after his decorated AFL career.
Since retiring from football Swan has played football for clubs in five states, Victoria, South Australia, NSW, Queensland and Tasmania.
But not even his transition from the AFL into playing a series of one-off games for fortunate country and suburban footy clubs has been easy.
His AFL career, in a fashion typical of the storyline that was to follow him from 2002 to his final game in 2016, ended with a car-crash-like injury to his lower leg.
Swan started out with recruiters questioning his attitude and commitment, unsure whether to take a punt on a kid who had been described as a “larrikan” before the 2001 national draft.
Collingwood was the club that stuck its hand up at pick number 58, recruiters later explaining they had punted on the fact Swan’s genes would see him make the grade.
Swan’s father, Billy, may be known to people of a certain vintage (50-plus) who watched the ABC television coverage of the VFA when they had nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon.
Swan Sr played 302 games for Williamstown and Port Melbourne, after walking out on Carlton in the early 1970s once he had completed Under-19 and reserve-grade duties with the Blues.
He won the JJ Liston Trophy as the best player in the VFA on back-to-back occasions (the second a year before his son was born in 1984), won four premierships with Port Melbourne and then a fifth after joining Williamstown as a 32-year-old.
Swan Sr worked on the wharves of Port Melbourne while his son was growing up and remains the VFA games record holder.
Back to the escapades and achievements of his now 39-year-old son, who with partner Taylor Wilson has three children under the age of three.
His son Tate was born in February 2021 and twin girls, Sage and Scout, arrived to him and his US-born wife in January this year.
Not the kind to be a “stay-at-home” dad, Swan has been on the road this year continuing a trend of appearing on country and suburban football grounds and increasing gate takings exponentially on most occasions.
He does have a home base when it comes to football, calling an end to his travels mid-season every year and regularly (in recent times at least) returning to play with St Kilda City in the Southern Football League.
I had a chuckle when I discovered the home ground of the St Kilda City team is known as The Peanut Farm and Swan had combined with former Carlton great Brendan Fevola to lead the team to a 32-point win against the then-ladder-leaders in July last year.
The pair were due to take part in a AFL-themed fight night, Fevola against Cameron Mooney (the Hairy Cut ended up fighting Tom Bellchambers last week) and Swan against another Brownlow Medallist, the famous “burger-ring carrying’’ Adam Cooney.
While Swan keeps his hand in playing for St Kilda City, he has this year already played with the Shellharbour City Suns (in the AFL’s NSW South Coast competition), having earlier in the year played with Nangwarry Saints in South Australia’s Mid South Eastern Football League.
He passed through the area only a couple of months ago when he made a one-off appearance for the Mathoura Timbercutters in the Picola league.
He kicked a goal for the team, which has only won the one game this season after almost going into recess not so long ago, which lost to Picola by just a goal.
Swan would have a closet full of jumpers if he had kept the colours of the clubs he has represented since he started his post-AFL career two years after playing his last AFL game.
Even that was shrouded by controversy, after he had cashed in a $400,000 cheque made as compensation for the injury that ended his career. The insurance payment came through an AFL-linked company and was attached to conditions that he would not play for five years.
He negotiated his way through the ruling and gained the support of the AFL to play two games with his original club — Westmeadows.
It was in true Dane Swan fashion that he found a way of getting around the rules.
Since then he made a commitment to play in the Northern Territory Football League, but cut his hand at a Sydney function and had to withdraw.
He has played with East Gippsland club Lucknow, with Hume League’s Billabong Crows (which had never seen a bigger crowd), in south west Sydney, with Old Hobartarians Association (OHA) in Tasmania and at Mornington Peninsula league club Hastings.
Wherever he goes fun and frivolity follows, along with plenty of yarns and the associated laughter worth the price of admission.
His presence makes the Merrigum event a certain success, even if his comments often cause shocked facial expressions and offer daily newspaper fodder when they appear in social media of various descriptions.
A podcast he was involved in came under extreme scrutiny and only four months ago he copped international backlash for tweeting a photo of products he thought were male tampons.
He has, however, always had an amazing football record to fall back on — pointing to the scoreboard if you like.
Swan played a very small part — initially at least — in the 2001 “super draft’’, where Luke Hodge (two Norm Smith medals, four AFL premierships — three as a captain), Luke Ball (Collingwood premiership player) and Chris Judd (dual Brownlow medallist and West Coast Eagles premiership captain) were taken one-two-three.
In all that draft produced an extraordinary haul of seven Brownlow medals.
After Judd’s selection another Brownlow Medallist went at number eight, Jim Bartel and Gary Ablett Jr (who won a pair himself) was selected by Geelong as a father/sun pick at number 40.
Before Swan’s name was called out another Brownlow Medallist, Sam Mitchell, was picked. For the record Rochester’s Ash Watson was taken at pick 14 in the same draft, after playing in a grand final with Bendigo Pioneers.
Swan didn’t make his debut until 2003 and played just 30 senior games in his first four seasons.
He finished with 211 goals from his 258 games, polled a then-record 34 votes to win the 211 Brownlow and averaged 35.3 disposals a week that season,
He won five all-Australian gongs, won the Copeland Trophy (Collingwood best and fairest) on three occasions, the Bob Rose Trophy (for the Pies best finals player) three times and two Anzac Day medals.
One of those came after he had been described a week earlier as “fat” and famously rubbed his belly at one point in the game where he picked up 42 possessions and kicked three goals.
Oh, and he also finished runner-up in the 2017 version of the reality television show — I’m A Celebrity, Get me Outta Here.
He was in the jungle with the eventual winner, singer Casey Donovan, along with radio “shock-jock” Steve Price and Olympic swimmer Lisa Curry. American actor and comedian Tom Arnold was voted out first in that series.
Off the field Swan has had an interesting array of “friends” and was part of the famous Collingwood Rat-Pack with the Shaw brothers (Heath and Rhys), Alan Didak, Dale “Daisy” Thomas and Ben Johnson.
His eclectic tattoo collection, covering most of his body, has always been a talking point and his after-dark escapades have also made headlines at different stages.
All in all a wonderful formula for an entertaining, eye-opening and exciting evening of sitting back and enjoying the hospitality of the Merrigum Football Netball Club.
Hopefully the evening will follow Swan having helped the team to a victory against, yes, you guessed it — The Swans.
– Doors will open for the sportsman’s night and memorabilia auction at 6.30pm, with the function kicking off at 7pm at Kyabram P-12 College assembly hall (77 Fischer St).
Seated tickets are just $75 each, with the event almost a sellout only a couple of weeks out from the event. Tickets can be purchased at https://www.merrigumfnc.com.au/index.cfm?module=event
A ticket will include wood-fired pizza and drinks are at bar prices and more information is available from president Andrew Parkinson on 0428 552 624.
A limited amount of tickets for the sponsor’s luncheon will be made available to the general public. If people are interested they should contact Andrew, with the lunch from 12.30pm on game day and viewing space to watch the game afterwards.
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