Swans tell Rohan to keep on running

Sydney dasher Gary Rohan has been urged by teammates to keep running and chancing his arm despite his error-marred first half in Saturday’s AFL qualifying final win over Fremantle.

Speedy Rohan’s trademark runs and his bad luck with injuries have made the 23-year-old a popular figure with Swans supporters.

He tested their patience on Saturday with errors which led to Fremantle’s first two goals and two wildly inaccurate shots for goal in the second quarter.

Rohan was a much more productive player in the second half, as he continued to back himself after getting the support of his teammates.

“We just told Gaz to run as fast as he can and hope for the best,” fellow half back Rhyce Shaw joked on Sunday.

“We want Gaz to break the lines and that’s what he’s in the team for.

“Those skill mistakes they will come. I used to make a thousand of those when I was younger, so it doesn’t really matter.

“You get over that and you mature as you go along.

“But at the moment we want Gaz to defend and to break the lines and he was doing that.

“That’s really important for us.”

With an injury cloud over another rebounding half back, Nick Malceski, 23-year-old Rohan’s ability to run out of defence could become even more important in Sydney’s remaining games.

After playing just 27 games in his first four seasons, Rohan has notched 14 appearances in 2014, his most in a single year.

“I’m really proud of the way he has come along this year,” Shaw said.

“The way he has finished off has been fantastic and he’s doing a really good job for us.”

Shaw said it would be pretty special for Swans spearhead Lance Franklin if he ended up playing in a grand final against his former club Hawthorn, but cautioned against looking too far forward.

“I’ve been involved in footy a long time and those kind of things are left to the imagination at the moment, because we’ve still got a game before the grand final day, so you never know what could happen,” Shaw said.

Stay up to date with the latest sports news
Follow our social accounts to get exclusive content and all the latest sporting news!