THIS week sees Sydney Swan Jude Bolton play his 200th game for the Harbour City club. And while he’s happy to reach the milestone, his excitement does not even begin to match that of his family, who will travel to Canberra for the round 13 clash against Melbourne.
“Mum was ringing me last week to organise tickets for this weekend and I was saying ‘Mum, I’ve got to get through this week’s game first, don’t even worry about it yet’,” Bolton laughs.
While Bolton is delighted that parents Rosalie and John will be in attendance, the guest of honour will be his grandmother Molly Bolton.
“She’s never flown to Canberra before so it will be good to get here up there,” he says.
The proposition of Bolton playing 200 games with the club didn’t always look like a certainty. With the Swans active in last year’s trade week, the 28-year-old was one of a few names identified by the media as having been floated in negotiations. He says that tales of his imminent departure were exaggerated.
“I think it’s been blown out of proportion a little bit. Obviously we sat down at the end of last year and we knew we had to freshen up our list. That was where it was at. We needed to re-inject some life into our list. Other clubs were interested so there were a number of factors. I’m just rapt that I’m still here.
“As it turned out it was really sad to see two of our premiership players go in Sean Dempster and Adam Schneider. But we’ve managed to freshen up the list and the club’s benefiting from that.”
As far as Bolton is concerned, trade week speculation is now a distant memory. With the Swans having gained a top four position, they are rapidly proving their critics wrong, few of whom even placed them in the top eight this year.
“I think a lot of people underestimated our depth at the start of the year. A lot of the younger players have really stepped up. Guys like Jarrad McVeigh, Kieran Jack and Jarred Moore are having good seasons. Also some of the older guys are really in form. Michael O’Loughlin’s playing some good footy and Ryan O’Keefe is in All-Australian form also. So the guys are really starting to get some chemistry together and get a bit of momentum going.”
What’s more Bolton believes that the team has not yet reaped the full benefits of Barry Hall’s return from suspension. Hall kicked two goals in the club’s victory over the Saints at the weekend.
“It was great to get our structure back. It will take awhile to get it back working exactly how we want it but it’s just good to have such a prominent target up there and take the heat off the rest of the forwards.”
Despite the optimism in the camp, Bolton isn’t making any rash statements about the club maintaining a top four ladder position.
“We’re only looking at this match against Melbourne. We’ve got a break after that. We just need to focus ourselves and get ourselves to nine and a half wins which would put us in a great position for the second half of the year. We’ve got a really tough job ahead so it’s going to be a really big ask.”
