Old Royal foe now a proud Bulldog

A FAMILIAR face has been running around the South Fremantle Football Club in 2014 in the form of former long-time East Perth captain and 171-game WAFL star Michael Swan, but it's not as a player and he is proud to join the Bulldogs given his family link to the club.

Swan retired from WAFL football after the 2013 grand final and finished his career with 170 WAFL games at the Royals including 90 as captain plus a Foxtel Cup appearance and one match for Western Australia.

That was after time in the VFL with Port Melbourne and AFL with the Sydney Swans.

After a glittering playing career, Swan wasn’t sure what the future held for him in football but did know that he wanted to dedicate plenty of time to further building his physiotherapy career.

When the opportunity came up to become the head physio for South Fremantle in 2014 it was something Swan was quick to accept especially with the chance to again work closely with Mike Vega, and to work at the club where his wife's grandfather is a legendary figure – Clive Lewington.

"In terms of not playing myself, I'm not missing it too much which is a good thing. I love being involved still in WAFL football especially here at the South Fremantle Football Club because I do have a bit of a family connection through my wife," Swan said.

"It's really good to be able to contribute to a footy club in a different fashion so I'm really enjoying the role as a physiotherapist down here at South Fremantle, and working with a new bunch of guys.

"They are a fantastic bunch of players and it's really good to try and facilitate their performance just by trying to help them with any injuries they might have. It is actually quite rewarding to treat a player and to get them back out on the field, and watch them perform as they should."

Swan knew that his tremendous playing career would always likely end at the end of the 2013 season, and that finish came in East Perth's grand final loss to West Perth.

The 32-year-old has been working hard on building his career as a physiotherapist and while down the track he would be ideally suited to coaching given the leadership he had at East Perth as a player, for now he would like to focus on building up his career.

"I hadn’t really thought too much about what I would do when I finished playing football. I did want to stay involved especially at WAFL level and I wanted to further my skills as a physiotherapist, and my career by taking up this role," he said.

"I potentially could have looked at coaching, but I thought that just at the moment I wanted to take a step back from the football side of things and focus on my career as a physio because that has been neglected a bit whilst I was still playing football. This has been very enjoyable so far and stressful at times."

On top of Swan's family link to South Fremantle through his wife, strength and conditioning coach Mike Vega is someone he worked closely with when they were together at East Perth, and he was keen to team up with him now to start his physio work inside a football club.

"He was definitely a big factor because he passed on my details to Gary Davidson (football manager) and Stuart Kemp (chief executive)," he said.

"We then sat down with them and I presented to them what I thought would be the best way for a WAFL physiotherapist and medical staff to be conducted. I've seen what is effective and what isn’t effective over the years so I drew on my experience to present to Gary and Stuart.

"So we spoke about a lot of different issues and I said that if I was going to do it, I had to be fully committed. To do it properly, I had to be here every night and be just as committed as the players or I wouldn’t provide an efficient service to the players."

Swan could have played many more than his eventual 171 WAFL games had it not been for injury troubles, particularly with his groins.

The experiences he went through helps him now treating players and it also helps them listen to him given he was one of the very best leaders in the WAFL throughout his career, one of the most intense competitors and most respected figures in the game.

"It definitely helps when players talk about symptoms and signs of a particular condition, quite often I have experienced that myself and that helps give me that insight as to what the actual injury is, and what they need to do to rehabilitate and the time frame of that injury," he said.

"I think the players are also a bit more receptive because they know I have been in their situation so they have been very respectful of my advice and treatment I give them."

Swan has had long-running battles with some of the South Fremantle players he is now working closely with, particularly Kris Miller and Craig White, but what has stood out to him about the inner workings of the Bulldogs is the similarities he sees with some of the characters from East Perth.

"Every football club tends to have a similar group of players, just with different names. I recognise a lot of similarities with players that I knew back at East Perth so it has been good from that point of view to see inside another football club. Some of the guys I played against tease me from time to time, but it's all in good jest and is good fun," Swan said.

"I remember playing on Kris Miller in my fourth or fifth game of WAFL football and he was very good with his body and skills even back then, and he always had skills and co-ordination. He was an outstanding player and still is, and for him to play 300 games of WAFL football is an achievement that I don’t think will ever be completed again.

"It's just a testament to himself and his family that he can perform at such a high level over so many years. The commitment it takes is huge and that support network for him must be outstanding so full credit to him and his full family. Craig White is a great leader around the club and is a really good bloke too."

Swan's wife Shannon also hasn’t given him a hard time about not taking a break from football after retiring at the end of 2013, and the fact that the intensity he played his career with isn’t needed now in his new role is certainly helping with that.

"She has been very, very supportive because in this role I don’t have the same social constraints as when I'm playing," Swan said.

"So in terms of dietary requirements and just being able to go out the night before a game and catching up with friends or having a drink with dinner, we can do that and I don’t have to be in bed.

"Psychologically I was quite intense when I used to play so from that side of it I have been a lot more relaxed around the house, and have probably been contributing around the house with the chores as well because I haven’t been as physically tired."

However, the news isn’t all good for Swan. He and Shannon took the chance to go on a holiday to North America over the Australian summer, and he was excited to see snow and go skiing for the first time.

However, that excitement was short-lived after he crashed while skiing, injured his knee and has now had to undergo a knee reconstruction. Despite the long list of injuries throughout his playing career, it is the first time he has had any knee problems.

By Chris Pike