Dane Swan didn’t disappoint in his return to his junior club Westmeadows at the weekend.
The former Collingwood champion and Brownlow medallist pulled on the boots for the first time since a foot injury ended his AFL career in round one of 2016 and he was greeted by a big crowd at Willowbrook Reserve.
Swan is keen to help out his junior club and play a few games with them this season, but for a few hours on Friday it didn’t look he would get out on the field because of his injury payout from the AFL.
After some hard work by Tigers’ high performance coach and former AFL player Corey McKernan, Swan was given permission to play.
The Tigers lost 15.15 (105)-10.5 (65) but Swan said it was “awesome” to be on the field.
“It was awesome to come down and give something back to a club where it all started for me.
“It looked a bit dicey at one stage, but thankfully common sense prevailed and they’ve let me come down and do my thing and hopefully the footy club gets something out of it. It’s disappointing we didn’t get the win.”
Swan started forward before moving into his usual position in the midfield. He finished with 24 possessions though he didn’t think he used the ball well.
“I think footy has passed me by,” he joked after the game. “I started a bit rusty … first kick went sideways.
“I was a bit nervous at the start. I didn’t get nervous playing AFL, apart from my first game, [but today] I was thinking, gee I hope I haven’t lost it.
“It felt awesome to be back out playing sport, I haven’t done that since I hurt my foot.
“I didn’t get smashed off the line and apart from the legs and lungs, it felt OK.”
Swan said he enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of playing local football and he was impressed by the standard of the competition.
Swan was king of the people after the game signing plenty of autographs and posing for photos. His
Footy Show mates Sam Newman and Shane Crawford, who were there the entire game, were also crowd favourites.
Swan doesn’t have long to recover, with the Tigers facing Glenroy on Anzac Day But that game clash could be his last – the AFL only granted approval for him to play two games.
“I’d love to [keep playing]… We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
