In an appearance on Fox Footy’s Open Mike, the former North Melbourne champion described the feelings that came with playing in his first premiership.
“For that 30-minute period you are on the AFL’s equivalent of Mount Everest and everything else, and everyone else is irrelevant and you can sit back and savour in the moment.”
PRESS PLAY above to watch the full interview
Schwass reflects on the 1996 Grand Final fondly, when in his 164th game the Kangaroos prevailed on the biggest stage.
“27-years of hard work had gone into that for me personally…. the reward, the satisfaction.
“The other thing that stays with me today, the Shinboner Spirit is synonymous with that football club.
“I finally understood what that really meant in its rawest sense when we went back to Arden Street that night and you would have a five-year-old kid or an 87-year-old person with tears running from their eyes, and a person who’s closer to the end than they are the finish puts their hand on your shoulder and says ‘thank you’.”
North Melbourne, captained by Wayne Carey was one of the most successful teams in the 90’s, and Schwass speaks glowingly of the inspirational leader.
“I played with a really good team that had a lot of great players, none better than the bloke (Carey) that I regard as the greatest player ever to have played, in the modern era certainly, but perhaps in the entirety of the game.
“The amount of times where we needed something and he gave us something… he was the greatest player I’ve ever seen by a comfortable distance.
“I grew up as a Hawthorn supporter and I loved Leigh Matthews, and I’ve seen a lot of his football, but Duck did things I’ve never seen people do a consistent basis, against some great defenders too.”
