Like Mike? The Swans do

ANY neutral observer who watched Sydney Swans ruckman Mike Pyke play his first five minutes of AFL football against Richmond could be forgiven for thinking he’d grown up with the sport.

A courageous contested mark in the backline was followed by a textbook centre-square tap down the throat of his skipper Brett Kirk, who delivered the ball to Michael O’Loughlin for a goal.

It was heady stuff for any player in his first senior game, let alone a former rugby union international from Canada.

“Obviously the adrenalin was going and you’re just thinking about going out there and trying to do your job,” Pyke said after the game.

“The most important thing for me is that the guys had confidence in me.

“If I had been going on the field and didn’t feel like I had the confidence of the players around me, it would have been really difficult.

“It’s a privilege to play in front of so many people and so many good fans here.”

Pyke, who finished with four handballs, one mark and 10 hit-outs from about 50 minutes of action, said he treated the pre-game build up like any other match he’d played.

Not even his mother, who had flown all the way from Canada to watch her son’s debut in a foreign sport, could distract the 25-year-old from the task at hand.

“She knocked on my door about 9am. I was in the middle of my pre-game routine and I told her to go away, actually,” he said with a laugh.

“I sent her to a coffee shop up the road. It’s nice to have her here and have her support.”

With considerable experience in the art of tackling, Pyke had high praise for the game-saving effort of teammate Marty Mattner on Richmond forward Jack Riewoldt in the final term.

“It was unbelievable. That was just a special effort. I think everyone on the ground thought it was going to be a goal except for Marty. It’s really special to watch,” he said.

“That sort of effort is what we pride ourselves on. It’s hard to duplicate all the time but there’s always someone stepping up and willing to dig really deep and that’s what keeps the whole machine going.”