JOSH Kennedy wrote a great blog recently in his JPK Files, telling us why he wears the number 12 on his back. It turns out it was a number he came to like when he was about 16, after an opportunistic meeting with Nick Riewoldt, who was visiting Josh’s cousin, then St Kilda player Luke Ball.

It’s a great story and if you haven’t read it, then I highly recommend you do. (Take a look under the Fanzone tab on this website, and go to JPK Files).

But don’t worry about any of Josh’s other articles… they’re just gibberish.

Numbers are important to players. Sometimes they carry Club history, or in other cases, players like wearing a number on their back that’s been lucky for them in the past. In Josh’s case, it’s the number of a player he admired as a junior.

At clubs such as Port Adelaide and Richmond, the captain always wears the same number. When I was at Essendon, I learned Sheeds created a tradition where players were given a number according to their physical attributes and the position they play. So key forwards often wear the number 18 (Van der Haar, Lloyd, Hurley) while ruckmen usually wear either number 27, 19 or 3 (Madden, Somerville, Salmon, Hille, Gumbleton, Laycock).

When I arrived at the Swans I had a look at what numbers were available and the number 25 stood out to me. It was a number that has a proud history, with several champion Swans players having worn it. The number 25 has been worn by two team of the century members - former captain, coach and 1933 premiership player Laurie Nash, and former captain, best and fairest winner and Brownlow Medallist Barry Round.

However, there was another reason I liked the number 25. It had become vacant at the Swans due to the retirement of Andrew Schauble.

I had closely followed Andrew’s playing career because we both went to the same school in Melbourne, Xavier College (Dan Hannebery and Josh Kennedy also come from this school).

When I was in Grade 5 at school, Andrew Schauble was the school captain. I really didn’t have much to do with him but from a young age I looked up to him.

He, like me, moved to Sydney for a fresh start after starting his career off at another club (Collingwood in his case). Schauble had an immediate impact on arriving in Sydney and won the best and fairest in his first year at the club.

I felt that Schauble and I had a lot in common with both coming from the same school and moving to Sydney for a fresh start in our careers. Also, the impact he was able to achieve in his first year was exactly what I wanted to emulate. On top of this, two team of the century members wore the number throughout their careers. It’s not hard to figure out why I wanted to wear the number 25.