Ex-SANFL star John Schneebichler positive about his cancer battle and Brighton Bombers’ chances of causing a grand final upset
Ex-SANFL star John Schneebichler is battling cancer with the same positivity that he is approaching the division two Adelaide Footy League grand final. His Brighton Bombers face unbeaten St Peter’s Old Collegians tomorrow – and Schneebichler expects to win.
EVERYTHING is beatable.
That is the approach ex-SANFL star John Schneebichler is taking to both Brighton’s division two Adelaide Footy League grand final on Saturday and his own cancer battle.
Schneebichler, a 259-game player at South Adelaide and Glenelg and five-time state representative, has been fighting the disease since May last year after learning he had a tumour on the outside of his bowel.
The cancer has spread to his liver and led to six months of chemotherapy this year, but it has not stopped him from volunteering in his long-time role as the Bombers’ football director.
On Saturday, he will be at Thebarton Oval as Brighton seeks back-to-back flags with victory against St Peter’s Old Collegians – a team that has won all 19 of its matches this season and is coming off a 57-point victory against the Bombers in the second semi-final this month.
Schneebichler, 61, is staying very optimistic, saying the club’s success is helping his outlook.
“Everything is beatable and your mind plays a big part,” Schneebichler says.
“(Battling cancer) is a hiccup in life and we all go through different challenges.
“I’ve had a couple of rough days, no doubt, but overall I’m positive.
“There’s a lot of good stories in the cancer world and, in my mind, I’m going to be one of those good stories.
“(The club) is a really important part of my life and it gives me great strength.
“When you go to a place where it’s a winning environment and people are happy, of course it makes you feel good too because you’re part of that and part of making it successful.
“We’ve got great belief at the club and that’s the beauty of Brighton – we expect to win every week and this week’s no different.”
Schneebichler has been at Brighton for 12 years, mainly as football director, but also as coach, an assistant and a supportive parent during his son Leigh’s playing career.
Bombers president Kym Steer calls Schneebichler the club’s “heart and soul”, and admires him for doing more than his share since his diagnosis.
Schneebichler has missed only a handful of training sessions over the past two seasons, ringing coach Joel Tucker to say “I feel a bit sh***y tonight, I can’t make it.”
Even while on a four-week holiday to Croatia, Portugal and Greece with his wife, Jenny, and friends during the season, Schneebichler texted Tucker every few days to discuss team news and live-streamed Brighton’s games.
“I couldn’t stay away from it,” he says.
“Footy is always a good out for people and I have a lot of friends around the footy club, so I haven’t taken a backwards step at all and nor do I intend to.
“There’s been some nights I’ve gone out there feeling not too good but I haven’t shown that.”
Schneebichler had a stomach stitch in May last year after eating sweet foods and thought he might have had an allergy, only to learn it was a tumour.
A month later, doctors removed 20cm of his bowel but it did not stop the cancer from moving to his liver.
Schneebichler is now taking six tablets a day in his latest stage of oral chemotherapy.
Daily exercise, including 4km beach walks with Jenny, 40 minutes in his home gym and 20 minutes in his pool, is helping him in his fight.
“If people saw me in the street, they probably wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with me, except apart from losing a bit of my hair, which I’ve been doing for years anyway,” he says.
This year is Brighton’s second back in the amateurs after spending 1997-2016 in the Southern Football League, before leaving to play in a more even competition.
The Bombers, who will be promoted to division one in 2019, are set to play their sixth grand final in nine years on Saturday and are chasing their third flag in that time.
“It’d be the pinnacle to win the premiership and it’s there to take – the challenge is there,” Schneebichler says.
“Being underdogs suits us down to the ground.”