A few minutes with the champion Sydney Swans forward
Barry, do you have an all-time favourite movie?Yeah, I have. I'd say Braveheart. It was a pretty inspiring sort of movie.Do you get any lookalikes? Michael Klim. Early days especially, in Melbourne when I first started, I used to get a lot of Michael Klims … the poor bloke!Can you swim like him? Definitely not!What about your favourite game of VFL/AFL footy from your childhood? Are there any games that you remember in particular that stick as being special? I think it was the '89 grand final, Hawthorn and Geelong. That one was pretty good.What about music? What are you listening to? I love Wolfmother. Grinspoon, Coldplay … nothing too hard, but hard enough.What about Roosy? How do you know when he isn't happy? When he's sarcastic! When he's sarcastic you know he's pissed off.What about on your days off? What do you like doing when you get some time to yourself? We haven't got a lot of it. It sounds pretty boring but I love just grabbing the paper and going down the beach, grabbing a coffee and chilling out. Having a bit of 'my time'.What about when you retire? Have you thought about life after footy at all? Not yet. I'm starting to think about it a little bit but not too much yet.Do you think you'd like to coach or do you think you'll get away from footy? I'll probably get away from footy, I reckon, at this stage.Do you think you'll go back to Victoria or stay up here when you do eventually retire? That'll depend on opportunities and that sort of thing. I'd like to stay up here, that's for sure.What do you think about State of Origin football? I think it should return. The last year it was played I was only a young man and I was in the squad. I didn't get picked but it was awesome just to be in the squad with all those good players.Who's the person most responsible for helping you reach where you are today? I've probably got a couple. One would be Paul Cleary, from back home. He's Phil Cleary's brother.Was he a junior coach or something? Yeah, pretty much. I wasn't playing footy at all, and he came down and got me out of a rut and said, 'Come and have a kick'. If he didn't do that I wouldn't have started playing again. I was only 16. I'd given away footy, I wasn’t interested in playing at all. They were short of numbers and he came and grabbed me and said, 'I reckon you can go all right', so it all happened from there. That was for Avenel. He was coaching Avenel, so then I got picked for the rep squad and it sort of went on from there. It happened pretty quick.And the others? Phil Mullen's a pretty big one, particularly up here. He's our welfare officer, but he's a bit more than that.And if you weren't a footballer, but if you could be anything in the world, what do you think you'd like to be? I'd want to race cars. My dad's a mechanic, and I've got a couple of drag cars at the moment.What do you do with them? Just tinker with them in the garage or do you have the time to race them? We just play around with them, and we race them as much as we can. I've got a car in Melbourne and a car up here. Out at West Sydney there's a track out there, so you can go out whenever you want. It's good fun.
Hear from Swans Head of List Strategy Chris Keane as he goes over our second and final day of the 2024 AFL Draft.
02:06
Highlights of Ned Bowman
A small glimpse of what to look forward to from our new recruit.
01:58
Highlights of Jesse Dattoli
A small glimpse of what to look forward to from our new recruit.
02:09
Swans play footy in Maningrida
The 'Kick The Habit' Footy Festival was a resounding success, and the weekend was made all the more special when our AFL and AFLW players had a kick with the local community.
The Sydney Swans have taken Joel Hamling, Aaron Francis, Ben Paton and Blake Leidler in the 2024 Telstra AFL Rookie Draft which took place on Friday afternoon and concluded the three-day draft period.
Loyal 12-year member wins Volkswagen T-Roc CityLife
The 2024 Volksgiving competition has come to a close and a 12-year member is our lucky winner of a Volkswagen T-Roc CityLife.
Off-season with the Swans
The 2025 preseason is just days away. See what the squad got up to in the break.
Hall of Fame Bio: Daryn Cresswell
As we reflect on the club's 150 year history, which began in South Melbourne in 1874 and then to the Harbour City in 1982, we are highlighting the greats in the Swans Hall of Fame.