Champion defender Ted Richards could have been lost to a world leagues away from Australian Rules Football had it not been for some inspiring words from a self-help book.

It was 2010 and Richards had once again found himself on the outer at a football club.

He had previously battled his way to 33 games over five tough years at Essendon before being traded to the Sydney Swans.

It was supposed to be a fresh start and it was at first with Richards managing to play 86 games over the next four seasons, including the 2006 Grand Final.

A punctured lung against Carlton in 2009 spelt the end of that purple patch as the then 26-year-old struggled to regain his place within the team.

In and out of the side the following season, Richards arrived at the crossroads.

He approached a university in Sweden at the midway point of the year and contemplated leaving the game he had fought so long to conquer.

His brother, Xavier, was living there at the time and it seemed both an enticing and logical path to follow.

"I had a plan. I'd spoken to Stockholm School of Economics about applying," Richards said at Thursday night's Club Champion Dinner.

"With AFL footballers not being in demand in Sweden that I'd need to look other opportunities so I thought I'd study to become a personal trainer because I could get a job over there.

"I was well and truly on the way to moving over there."

Fortunately, Richards never made that flight to Sweden.

A book, written by American teacher and author Jim Collins, would ultimately strike a chord and turn his career around.

Richards has always been known as someone who thinks outside the square so it shouldn’t come as any surprise the soon-to-be mainstay of the Sydney Swans’ defence could relate a publication about companies making the leap to big business to his waning football career.

“It really changed my mindset towards how I viewed myself,” Richards added.

“One thing I took out of the book was that I started telling myself that if I wasn’t picked, then there was going to be a gaping hole in this team.

“It might be a funny thing to say by someone who was a fringe player at the time but I started that self-talk and following through with it.”

Richards amassed 261 games over a 15-year career, the veteran leaving the game a premiership player and All Australian (both achieved in 2012).