Collingwood legend Dane Swan has takeb footy fans inside his huge Australian Football Hall of Fame party, which saw him celebrate with some of the AFL’s biggest names until well into the next morning.
Swan was the fourth inductee at Tuesday night’s gala event in Melbourne and he lived up to his reputation as one of the AFL‘s true larrikins when he had the room in stitches with several wild anecdotes.
Much-loved by a legion of fans from the Magpie Army, Swan was a leader of Collingwood’s famous ‘rat pack’ during their successful period under coaching legend Mick Malthouse and his successor Nathan Buckley.
Swan delivered a masterful speech and had the room in hysterics as he reflected on his many off-field controversies.
Collingwood legend Dane Swan has revealed he was up until 7.15am the following day after his Australian Football Hall of Fame gong
Swan had the room in stitches with several wild anecdotes at the event
After the ceremony wrapped up, attendees gravitated towards Swan’s table, where he was well on his way to a good night with fellow ‘rat pack’ members Heath Shaw, Chris Tarrant, Ben Johnson and Alan Didak.
The group seemingly had a big night as Swan apologetically called AFL bosses on Wednesday to politely withdraw from that morning’s media duties.
On Thursday morning, Swan revealed more about what went on at the after-party which finished at 7.15am the next day.
‘I was meant to do some media,’ Swan told radio station 3AW.
‘I texted the AFL at about 7.15 and I was certainly still awake… It was a solid night.’
Asked which rat pack members partied with him the longest, Swan said, ‘Me, “Taz” (Chris Tarrant) and Ben Johnson.
Swan was forced to cancel media duties on Wednesday morning
The Pies legend (pictured taking a mark in 2015) described it as a ‘solid night’ and said he, Chris Tarrant and Ben Johnson partied the hardest into the early hours
‘Proabably the three. Yep, they were the three that carried the rat pack name.’
Swan was also quizzed about why he thought he was in trouble when he got a phone call from AFL chairman Richard Goyder to tell him he was being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
‘Every time the AFL has called me it’s never been for something good,’ he revealed.
‘It’s nice to be on a list for something positive for once.’
Swan was arrested for getting into a fight with bouncers at the end of 2003, his second year at Collingwood.
His father Bill Swan, a Victorian Football Association great, told the young player to walk away if he wasn’t interested in an AFL career.
Club leaders, including legendary coach Mick Malthouse, sat Swan down and told him some brutal home truths while urging him to repay their faith.
He turned it around and went on and to become a Magpies great, starring in the famous 2010 premiership and winning the Brownlow Medal a year later.
Swan was an All-Australian for five consecutive seasons (2009-2013) and won Collingwood’s best-and-fairest award three times (2008-2010).
