Collingwood great Anthony Rocca opens up on cancer battle ahead of Coates League season as Northern Knights coach

Anthony Rocca would spend his chemotherapy treatments studying vision to make his Northern Knights players better. The Collingwood great opens up on how football helped during his cancer battle.

In the midst of a cancer battle last year, former Collingwood champion Anthony Rocca couldn’t keep himself away from his football passion.

Rocca announced that he was stepping down as coach of Coates Talent League side Northern Knights last July, after being diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

But even during two days of chemotherapy treatment at the start of each month, his mind remained focused on helping to develop his young players at the Knights as they worked to achieve their AFL draft dreams.

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“When you’re actually doing chemo treatment, there’s nothing you can do except sit back and intravenously have the fluid and everything put in,” Rocca said this week.

“I’m sitting around there for two hours, three hours. What else are you going to do? I’d watch vision and take notes from vision. I just tried to help out where I could.

“When I was feeling pretty good, I was down at the club and I wasn’t taking the lead but I was helping out other coaches and giving advice to the players as well.

“I absolutely love it (the talent pathways). I enjoyed my time in the AFL system, but just to see young kids who have got aspirations and pretty much hang off every word that you say is pretty special.”

Anthony Rocca coaching Northern Knights. Picture: Ian Currie

Rocca celebrates a goal during his playing days.

The chemotherapy took its toll, with Rocca experiencing some of the common symptoms including putting on weight, suffering indigestion and being extremely fatigued at times.

However, there were positive signs that the drugs were working in December and full test results came back in February confirming that the 47-year-old was in remission.

“Just before Christmas, he (the oncologist) believed I was in remission, but until you get all the tests back, that’s when you breathe a bit of a sigh of relief,” Rocca said.

“But all along I was quite positive. If you’re going to have any sort of lymphoma to battle with that is very curable and very treatable, it was the one that I had.

“I know of people who knew people who went through it and they gave me some really good advice and said that some of them had it 20 or 30 years ago and they’re ticking along pretty well. So it was quite reassuring.”

The Knights had three players drafted to the AFL last year in Jesse Dattoli (pick 22, Sydney), Thomas Sims (pick 28, Richmond) and Zak Johnson (pick 70, Essendon).

Johnson, who served as a co-captain last season, praised Rocca’s influence in the days after his selection last November.

“He’s a tough man, Anthony,” Johnson said at the time.

“He had his own issues going on, but he was always there for me and got to as many games and trainings as he could while going through that.”

While he continues to improve his energy levels and build back his strength, Rocca has returned to coaching full-time at the Knights this year and will be back in the coaches’ box for the club’s first match of the season against the Eastern Ranges on Sunday.

“It’s exciting for me and it’s exciting for everyone who is going to play their first game of footy as well,” Rocca said.

The 242-game AFL forward still has two years of immunotherapy treatment to go through, but is continuing to look forward with a positive mindset.

“Even if there’s a quarter of a glass of water, I’ll still see it as half full,” Rocca said.

“Everyone around me has been super supportive – my kids and particularly my wife.

“I don’t let things get me down when I hear bad news or things like that. I just think about a way to get through it.”

Originally published as Collingwood great Anthony Rocca opens up on cancer battle ahead of Coates League season as Northern Knights coach