‘He just brings the energy’: The soundtrack to the Swans’ September march
By Vince Rugari
There aren’t many things the Sydney Swans would be keen on replicating from their grand final experience of two years ago when they got battered on the AFL’s biggest stage by Geelong. But there’s one aspect Errol Gulden is glad has returned: the soundtrack.
The theme song to Sydney’s run to the 2022 decider was, courtesy of mad Liverpool fan Gulden, ripped straight from Anfield’s famous Kop end: a chant dedicated to their captain, Virgil van Dijk, sung to the tune of the Pogues’ Dirty Old Town.
Errol Gulden (in the blue boots) as the Swans sing their team song after beating the Giants earlier this month.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Introduced to the rest of the group by the then-20-year-old while they were on the beers one night, it happened to catch on and became one of a few Liverpool songs that Swans players would belt out in the rooms after a win.
While the lyrics are hardly relevant to the particulars of an AFL club on the other side of the world - “He’s our centre-half, he’s our number four, watch him defend, and we watch him score” - if it works, it works.
Mothballed last year during a leaner run of form for the Swans, that same playlist is back, with a heartwarming twist.
These days, the van Dijk chant is led by Adam Grabovac, a Swans (and Liverpool) diehard with Down syndrome who has been running water for the team at training this season as part of the club’s diversity action plan. He’s hoping it’ll be ringing out of Sydney’s rooms again on Saturday afternoon at the MCG.
“He’s a massive Liverpool fan, so he’s actually been leading all the chants,” Gulden said.
“He knows every word. It’s crazy. He’s literally got his shirt off in the rooms after games, singing all the songs. He just brings the energy after a game, so it’s been awesome.”
Gulden’s perspective on life as an AFL footballer is filtered through a round-ball lens. He walked into Sydney’s headquarters on Sunday for their open media session wearing a Liverpool jersey with the number 66 on the back in honour of his favourite player, the often-maligned Trent Alexander-Arnold.
“The amount of scrutiny and pressure he’s under week in, week out, I think he does an amazing job,” he said.
Football fanatic … Errol Gulden has a crack at the beautiful game at Swans training.Credit: Getty Images
“I’m a massive fan of the football club, so I can have a lot of sympathy and respect for our fans as well, and what it means to them. When I go out and play on the weekend, and when we go out and play this weekend, we have to keep the fans at the forefront of our mind as well because at the end of the day, we’re playing for them as much as we’re playing for ourselves. That’s probably something to take from it as well.”
There are parallels, too, that Gulden can see between his boss John Longmire and Jurgen Klopp, who recently left Liverpool after a nine-year, six-trophy stint in which he became not only the face but the heart and soul of the club.
“The best coaches are built for a long period of time,” Gulden said.
“Their ability to change the way the game needs to be played, obviously in-game, whether that’s changing what you took into the game with your game plan over the course of a few years or, in Horse’s case, 12 or 13 years - that’s obviously why he’s been the coach he has.
“His ability to keep it fresh every week, to learn from the mistakes we make and take the learnings going forward, but also to reward us when we do things right, and the things that the team needs, and making sure that we get the due recognition for that internally, is massive.
“I love Arne Slot, too, by the way.”
But there’s one famous Liverpool moment that Gulden has no intention of putting his own spin on. Preferably not this Saturday, anyway.
“Last night, I was watching Liverpool play, and they were talking about the 2005 [UEFA] Champions League final,” he said.
For the uninitiated: down 3-0 at half-time, and following the loss of Harry Kewell to injury after just 23 minutes, the Reds came back to level the scores at 3-3 before beating AC Milan in a dramatic penalty shootout.
“I was just thinking, what would the equivalent of that be in football? It’s probably been down by six or seven goals in a grand final - so hopefully we don’t have to do that on the weekend.”
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