The 291-game veteran who spent ten seasons at St Kilda and four years at Hawthorn before moving to the Harbour City in 2007, is embarking on series two of his travel show The Great Australian Doorstep where he will be taking elements of the Bloods culture with him around the country.
“My greatest memory was just going there and experiencing and being proud enough to play for the Swans,” Everitt said.
“Definitely looking at it and seeing a Club like that operate, from the talking that I do it’s so handy if you know your opposition and don’t allow them what they want.
“It is probably one of the biggest things and it doesn’t matter if you’re in business or if you’re in sport, it’s a vital ingredient.
“I didn’t know to what extent until I got there (to the Swans) but they were way above anything I had seen.”
The history behind the Swans being referred to as the Bloods originates from the South Melbourne days when the Club wore a bright red sash on their white guernseys.
The name has stuck with the Club ever since and was more colourfully coined after the brutal 1945 grand final between Carlton which saw ten players get suspended for a combined total of 69 games.
The ability of the Club to sacrifice for their teammates has been the foundation of the Swans to date, albeit without the violence, and it is this strong culture which makes the Club so unique and special.
“They have a lot of belief, they believe in where they are heading, the people they’ve got there and what they want to achieve, and on any given day they believe they can match it with the best,” Everitt said.
“It was a feeling that they were professional but at the same time being quietly confident that they can achieve what they want to.
“Just looking at the way the Club is run from the top to all the way down, the communication between them all, they listen, they don’t just listen and then leave it, they actually act upon it. I have taken a lot away.”
The promising sign for the Swans is that there is scope for the Bloods culture to live on for many years to come.
“You rely on blokes like Brett Kirk and Craig Bolton and these guys to prove it or show it at the moment but even the young guys like Jarred Moore and Kieren Jack, these kinds of guys are definitely going to develop and learn and continue down the same path,” he said.
