- Dane Swan responded to Nick Riewoldt
- Riewoldt claimed ‘rat pack’ undermined Nathan Buckley
- Swan says the great saint is misinformed
Dane Swan has criticized Nick Riewoldt after the St Kilda legend criticized former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley.
Pies Great Swan, 40, was part of Collingwood’s infamous ‘Rat Pack’, which consisted of Ben Johnson, Heath Shaw, Chris Tarrant and Alan Didak.
The quintet often found themselves in trouble and Riewoldt claimed that Buckley’s unfortunate spell as Pies manager was largely due to his inability to manage the group.
“The reason he has a bad reputation as a coach is because a certain segment of Collingwood players like to hang it on him from time to time, the ‘Rat Pack’, they like to hang it on the Bucks,” Riewoldt. he said as he backed Buckley to coach the AFL’s new Tasmanian team.
“(But he) would be a great acquisition: (a) footballer, a great personality and he is very balanced as a person.”
Nick Riewoldt (left) and Dane Swan (right) have become embroiled in a war of words.
Swan mocked Riewoldt for losing the grand final after he made a comment about the ‘rat pack’
But Swan hit back at Riewoldt, claiming he doesn’t know what he’s talking about before attacking the Saints great.
‘With all due respect, what the hell would Nick Riewoldt know about Nathan Buckley being a coach?’ he said.
‘I don’t know if he’s trying to get us… the ‘Rat Pack’ beat him in a grand final. The suffocation of Heath Shaw, one of the main leaders, suffocated him and cost them their grandmother.
“Unless Bucks gave him that, how would he know?”
Swan added: “I have no doubt the Bucks would be a better coach now than when he started because he has learned.”
Thomas and Shaw also discussed Riewoldt’s comments on the upcoming Footy Talk podcast.
“That has nothing to do with why he has a bad reputation as a coach, (it’s) because his record wasn’t that good as a coach most of the time,” Shaw said.
Thomas said: “I think the general public thinks they (the ‘Rat Pack’) don’t like him because he’s not Mick Malthouse. But also because we thought there was a chance… to be in contention for three or five years.” like the Tigers.
“A lot of things have to go right, we all know that, but we thought we were in a window, so a lot of frustration and talking about it is behind it instead of making it a personal agenda.”