A player who represents one of football’s most remarkable rags to riches stories, Dane Swan wasn’t always destined to become a Life Member of the Collingwood Football Club.

Taken deep in the 2001 National Draft, Swan was considered to be little more than a battler with limited ability after his first four seasons at Collingwood.

With a laid back approach to the game, the boy from Melbourne’s north-west was on the verge of the football abyss before a heart-to-heart with coach Mick Malthouse and some strong leadership from teammate Ben Johnson helped reshape his attitude ahead of the 2006 season.

In the years that followed, Swan made incredible improvement to the point where he became the 2011 Brownlow Medalist, and earned the label of ‘untaggable’ from many commentators.

A strongly built midfielder who was dangerous if released to half forward, Swan’s unique ability to repeatedly out-sprint his opponents, allowing him to power from contest to contest, made him Collingwood’s most consistent player of the Malthouse-Buckley era. Criticised early on by some for his occasionally errant kicking, Swan’s disposal was soon considered to be as good as any other.

His barrel chest meant he could hunt down the ball at the stoppages and explode away from them courtesy of his deceptive pace. But he was far from a front runner, as an average of 84.4 tackles per year between 2007 and 2011 can attest.

Swan also had ability to make himself a threat in attack, be it around stoppages, outrunning his opponent when his side was in possession or when isolated one-out, where his underrated ability overhead made him the complete package.

Years of consistency tied in with his colourful tattoos, quirky one-liners and a maverick’s approach to the media made him one of Collingwood’s favourite sons, and it wasn’t long before the rest of the game’s followship cottoned on.

An injury-plagued 2014 left some predicting the end was nigh, but Swan, as ever, bucked convention with a stellar 2015 season, running second in the Copeland Trophy and polling 17 Brownlow votes.

He began the 2016 campaign well, starring during the pre-season competition, only for a rare foot injury suffered minutes into the season opener against Sydney to end both his season and his career.

It was an abrupt stop to an adventure that spanned 15 years in the Black and White stripes, but he was fittingly showered in praise upon his retirement, and now takes his rightful place on the honour boards as a Collingwood Life Member.



Dane Swan celebrates one of his four goals against Essendon on ANZAC Day, 2014.