I was in a group with Jarrad McVeigh, Kieren Jack, Taylor Gilchrist and Lewis Roberts-Thomson.
Jarrad was introducing us one by one and he pointed to me and said, ‘Who’s this?’, and kids yelled out ‘Paul Bevan’, and then a couple of kids yelled out, ‘Ryan O’Keefe’.
All the boys found it pretty funny and I was bit annoyed at the time. But then I found out later that virtually at the same time, on the other side of the field, Paul Bevan was more annoyed than me, because the same thing happened to him!
When Mummy (Shane Mumford) introduced him and was saying, ‘Who’s this?’, the kids were all saying, ‘Hanners!’ So I was annoyed at being called Paul Bevan - but not as disappointed as Bevo was for being called Hanners!
He is a premiership player and has played a lot longer than I have and been a great player for the club….I’ve been here for hardly any time and done not much!
But it sort of proved what a lot of people think - that quite a few Swans players look alike, or as Ted Richards said in his blog, it's all about doppelgangers
Ed Barlow was saying that every time he played a senior game he counted at least once when the commentators would call him Craig Bolton. Craig was not happy about it and was going to take it up with the commentary teams at Fox Sports and Channel 7 and Channel 10!
People say Adam Schneider and Amon Buchanan were always mixed up when they were playing here too. And Kizza (Kieren Jack) and Bulldog (Jarred Moore) are also pretty similar.
My family says it’s hard, if they can’t see our numbers on the field, that they can get confused between me, Paul Bevan, Ryan and Bolton and Barlow when they are playing. So maybe they think I’m getting more of the footy than I actually am, so that’s a good thing!
But the junior clinic was really good and we have a responsibility to make sure the kids enjoy it and to take care with what we do and say.
I went to junior clinics when I was a kid. I remember when I was in under 11s or 12s, it was at my junior club in Melbourne, Kew Rovers, and Alan Didak and Rhyce Shaw came along, when Rhyce was still playing for Collingwood.
I remember Shawy was bombing the ball up about 100 metres and we were all trying to catch it and a couple of my mates nearly got knocked out. I mentioned it to Shawy and he didn’t remember it, but it’s pretty funny that it has turned out that I’m playing with him. So that’s pretty cool.
As a player now, I realise how much kids get out of the clinics and the contact with us. I remember how much I looked up to AFL players when I was a kid and how I hung on their every word.
