Mark Blicavs wants to finish his career remembered as a footballer not the steeplechaser experiment

MARK Blicavs is big on bucket lists - trekking Everest, major sporting events and Dutch ice-skating marathons - but his biggest goal is to be the Geelong star who once dabbled in athletics, not the steeplechaser-turned-footballer.

Mark Blicavs wears the Cats’ heritage jumper. Picture: Michael Klein

MARK Blicavs is big on bucket lists.

And we’re not talking about playing 200 games at Geelong and winning a premiership, although we’re tipping that would have featured on a list at some stage.

Blicavs wants to see the world so he’s come up with a plan, most of which he won’t be able to execute until after football.

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On his bucket list are the seven ancient wonders of the world, the seven natural wonders and the seven man-made wonders.

Plus all of the world’s major sporting events including Tour de France, NBA Finals, NFL Superbowl, Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, the Monaco Grand Prix and Wrestlemania.

It’s an extravagant plan but one that Blicavs is already making inroads having trekked to Everest base camp last year.

Mark Blicavs in action against Essendon. Picture: Michael Klein

“I love travelling and I could easily see myself post footy having a year off to do just that,” he says.

“We’re pretty fortunate to have two months off a year, over October and November, so I try to do at least a six-week trip somewhere and tick something off the bucket list.”

Blicavs and three school friends trekked to Everest base camp in Nepal in the name of charity, raising awareness to mental health issues and funds for the Kai Eardley Fund.

The foundation, which began following the death of Kai the previous year, is a cause close to Blicavs’ heart after he spent two seasons on the Cats playing list with Kai’s brother Cam.

It was an exhilarating experience, albeit one which tested him physically and mentally, and raised more than $6000.

“It’s unbelievable, I mean you’re on top of the world,” Blicavs explains.

Mark Blicavs and friends in Nepal.

“The base camp is 5300m up and in a valley with a lot of summit peaks around it so you sort of don’t feel so high.

“But then we went up to Kala Pattar at 5600m and you’re above the clouds, you’re seriously on top of the world and there you are with your mates and there’s no one else around.

“You just feel like you’ve done something special.”

Despite his elite physical fitness Blicavs was struck down by altitude sickness during the 12-day trek.

“My head was throbbing, it was like a real bad hangover feeling and towards the end I was getting a bit dizzy,” he says.

“I would get out of my chair and my heart rate would be through the roof. I couldn’t get my heart rate down, it felt like it was at 140 to 150 for three days straight.

“I probably only had an hour’s sleep in 60 hours, I just couldn’t sleep.”

His first trip to America is planned for this off-season but Blicavs is always on the look-out for the next adventure and has found a new potential target with his partner in crime Lachie Henderson.

(From left) Lachie Henderson, Jackson Thurlow, George Horlin-Smith, Mark Blicavs, Joel Selwood and Scott Selwood after swimming the Pier to Pub in Lorne.

“Hendo and I found this 200km ice skating festival race down the canal rivers in the Netherlands which they can only race in their winter when it freezes over a certain amount the whole way down,” Blicavs explains.

“It hasn’t been done since 1993 because the conditions haven’t been right. It’s held in January and they call it just 48 hours before it’s on.

“You get to skate through 10 cities and Hendo and I have a joke that we’re going to get some ice skates and put them in a locker at Melbourne airport so if it’s on, we’re ready to go.”

Back to the football bucket list and we’re tipping a multi-million dollar five-year contract (signed last month) wasn’t on it when Blicavs arrived at Kardinia Park as a Category B rookie in 2012.

Then he was an experiment, a runner who for most of his teenage years had dreamt about competing in the 1500m, or the steeplechase, at the Olympic Games rather than kicking a Sherrin around.

The story is well known from then with Blicavs making his debut in the opening round of the 2013 season and quickly becoming one of the most versatile players in the game, culminating in the Cats best-and-fairest award in 2015.

A rule change to stop the third-man up in ruck contests took away the 198cm Blicavs’ major weapon last year and he lost his way as he plugged holes playing back, forward, ruck or as a tagger while also dealing with a nagging knee problem.

This season Blicavs, 27, has been a revelation in a rejigged Geelong defence.

Geelong's Mark Blicavs at GMHBA Stadium. Picture: Michael Klein

“I sort of got lost with playing a lot of different positions,” he said.

“In terms of the last two months I’ve been able to lock down, have a routine, see similarities in each game with how things happen.

“Now I’ve been playing in defence and had that consistency, I’ve realised I haven’t really had that before and now I’m able to pick similar trends in each game and understand it better.

“The game is in front of me so it’s a bit simpler plus and at the moment I’m confident with my body again, I’m bending down, jumping, changing direction and it’s amazing when that happens because all of a sudden your decisions become quicker.”

One thing on his football bucket list is to lose the “steeplechaser” tag which has been a favourite line of commentators from the moment he entered the AFL.

“I hope by the end of my career he’s not a steeplechaser that dabbled in footy, I hope I’m a footballer that once did athletics,” Blicavs said.

“Maybe a few more years of consistent footy and we’ll see how we go (getting rid of it).”

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