- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
I was fortunate to have met Tom Hafey at a conference I attended. Hafey was engaged to provide motivational talk, and he delivered in spades.
An incredible man, he talked about his daily routine of swimming Port Phillip Bay, millions of push ups, squillions of sit ups, and how he allowed himself the luxury of adding water to his Weet-Bix.
The conference was held in Melbourne and the audience hung off every word Tommy had to say. He held a captive audience, and not before long his motivational speak had swayed from a motivational speech to a AFL open mike chat.
Hafey was a wealth of knowledge and readily recited the career stats of current and past players. The man is an ornament to the game and a genius.
I know he is a genius because he coached Richmond to a flag!
The aforementioned introduction is for the benefit of my fellow Sydneysiders, who claim to prefer the Sherrin to the Steeden.
Yes, your beloved Swans are flying high, but the cream is yet to rise to the top. Or in the Swans case, the scum is yet to settle.
Perhaps some of you may recall that Hafey used to coach the Swans. Sydneysiders should hang your heads in shame that Hafey never received the due credit he was entitled too. You see, the code as it is and always has been in Sydney is nothing more than a gimmick.
In the 1980s when the Swans relocated, the club’s foundations have were all gimmick.
Dr Edelsten, dancing girls, Mike Willesee, the list goes on. In essence, the Sydney Swans have always been promoted as an alternative to NRL.
The people of South Melbourne have had their hearts ripped out and transplanted to another person.
The original Bloods are surviving in a Zombie like state and the attempts to re-connect by having SMFC on the back of the guernseys is a new low in marketing tactics.
If you have ever been to a Swans game and you are from outside of Sydney, you will no doubt be a little underwhelmed.
The support is loud only when the Swans are in front. Parallel to a fixture in Victoria and the atmosphere is electric from bounce to siren.
Supporters will cheer and critique their own team with equal gusto. If the Swans are behind, there are no suggestions from the outer on how to remedy this.
Swans supporters opt to sip on their latte instead.
How to identify a Swans supporter? They mostly hail from the bohemiam, alternative, cino wearing eastern suburbs of Sydney.
They wear scarves with short sleeve designer shirts. Now, while scarves may be acceptable in the cooler climates, they are more of a statement in Sydney as opposed to serving any practical purpose.
Swans supporters are reliant upon the Sydney Roosters NRL team’s fortunes, i.e. if the latte sipping Roosters are doing bad, Swans numbers will increase and vice versa.
They like to think they are backing a winner and are quick to dessert when struggling.
The Swans were in the thick of it when they introduced the terms “playing groups”, “leadership groups”, “focus groups”, “think tanks” and all this other clichéd rubbish. They used to spruik this language on our TV screens while holding a straight face.
I wonder how Mark ‘Jacko’ Jackson would have reacted to all this polished Swans seriousness. Memo to Swans: if it wasn’t broke, don’t try and fix over 100 years of footy with your polished media image.
Swans fans do not understand that to win the flag you have to win at the MCG.
This is something the Swans are not capable of.
There is no real passion for the game in Sydney. The SCG only provides manufactured passion. Tell a West Australian they have a chance of beating the Vics and they will start to froth.
A South Australian takes real pleasure in gloating how they are better than the Victorians and the Victorians will not consider the Australian Rules exists beyond Victoria.
What is there in Sydney to produce similar real life, non-orchestrated passion? Swans versus Greatly Woeful Sydney?
I’ll concede the original Bloods were battlers. The only true blue battlers in today’s world are the Fremantle Dockers, since 1995.
One thing Tom Hafey mentioned in his chat was his principles for success was the 4 Ds: Desire, Dedication, Determination and Discipline.
If the Swans think they endear themselves to the greater public of Sydney, then they are delirious.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.