Dane Swan early favourite but says he’s not sure if he’s got an advantage on I’m A Celebrity

DANE Swan reveals what his plans are for his “gap year” from a “normal life” and defends himself against claims he’s a “troublemaker bad boy”.

DANE Swan is making the most of what he is calling his “gap year” after retiring from professional sport.

The AFL legend says it is too early to say whether his years playing AFL will give him an advantage in the South African jungle, a day in from potentially six weeks roughing it as a contestant on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!

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Unemployed: Dane Swan has time to be on a reality TV show now that illustrious AFL career has finished. Picture:Wayne Ludbey

Cricketer Freddie Flintoff and AFL player Brendan Fevola won the first and second seasons of I’m A Celebrity with many claiming their team sports backgrounds helped them to secure the crown.

“I am unemployed, so I’ve got nothing else to do,” Swan told News Corp before heading into the jungle.

“The sportsmen have obviously done well in this thing so if I get kicked out first, I’ve either been an absolute arsehole or I’ve got a really bad personality. The only advantage I guess I would say is every day for work for the last 15 years I’ve had to deal with 45 different personalities in a locker room. Whether that is an advantage will remain to be seen.”

Sportsmen have won the first two seasons of the Australian version of the show. Will Dane be the third? Picture: Alex Coppel

Brownlow Medal winner Swan retired from Collingwood Football Club last year.

“I like being unemployed. This is my gap year so I‘m taking a break from normal life and in 2018 we will see what happens.”

Swan, 32, is considered a ‘bad boy’ of AFL, heavily tattooed and in his recent autobiography spoke of his drug and alcohol use.

“I hate the word troublemaker bad boy type of thing because I have tattoos and I’ve been in trouble for drinking with the footy club,” he said.

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Swan hates the ‘troublemaker’ tag he was given during his footy career. Picture: Instagram

“I like to have a good time but I don’t think I’m necessarily a trouble maker. If you go around trying to fix what people don’t like about you, you are going to be running around for a very long time so I’ve never really worried about that. I just do what I do and whether people like it or not.”

Of his drug revelation in his recent book, Dane Swan My Story, he added: “I wrote a biography, I didn’t write a how to make it in the AFL book, I didn’t write a self-help book. I wrote a book that happened to me and I did it. I tell it like it is. It happened. I’m not ashamed of it. I don’t hide from it.”

Swan’s fellow campmates include Steve Price, Tom Arnold, Casey Donovan and Natalie Bassingthwaighte and while some detoxed before the show, he did the opposite.

Dane Swan is looking forward to his time in the jungle. Picture: Supplied/Nigel Wright for Ten

“Before I came here I was sat on the couch eating, drinking, on the internet and the phone as much as I can. I wanted to get as much as possible to get sick of it and it didn’t happen.”

While Swan is looking forward to losing weight — he says he’s been in a “pretty good paddock” since he retired — he is worried about the food.

“I don’t eat eggs,” he declared. “I figure when I was a kid, I ate with my eyes and my nose, not literally, and eggs to me stink and don’t smell nice so I just never ate them. I’ve never eaten one, so I don’t know. Maybe in cakes and stuff but I’ve never eaten an egg as it is.”

And in another revelation, Swan told of his most recent tattoo he got on a trip to Bali in October when he and three mates had C**T inked on their bottoms.

“It says C U Next Tuesday,” he said. “I didn’t initiate the tattoos, it was the other boys. I’m trying to get the side of my head done too but I ran out of time before I came over here.”

* The journalist is in South Africa as a guest of Channel Ten.

Originally published as Dane Swan early favourite but says he’s not sure if he’s got an advantage on I’m A Celebrity