Wayne Schwass (born 27 November 1968) is a former professional

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

. He is notable as being the first

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

–born AFL player known to be of

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

heritage. He holds the record for matches played by a New Zealand–born player, with 282. Schwass has long been a great supporter and ambassador for

Australian rules football in New Zealand Australian rules football in New Zealand is notable as the first colony outside of Australia to take up the sport as early as the 1860s and was home to the first club formed outside Australia in 1876. The sport's official name was changed in 189 ...

, and he realised his dream of representing his country in 2012 as part of the

New Zealand national team New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

, becoming the first home-grown AFL player to play, captain and coach a country other than Australia in the sport.

Early life

Schwass was born in

Christchurch, New Zealand Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, to mother Rae and Māori father Colin. They moved to the

Warrnambool Warrnambool ( Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Warrnambool had a population of 35,743. Situated on the Princes Highway, Warrnambool (Al ...

area in

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Au ...

, when Wayne was three years old. He began playing Australian Rules at the

South Warrnambool Football Club The South Warrnambool Football Netball Club, nicknamed the ''Roosters'', is an Australian rules football and netball club which competes in the Hampden Football League. It is based in the regional Victorian city of Warrnambool and have played ...

at the age of 10. An outstanding talent, Schwass was recruited by

Kangaroos Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

as a junior and captained the North Melbourne under-19s to the premiership in 1987 and took out the

Morrish Medal The Morrish Medal is an Australian rules football award. Formerly awarded to the best and fairest player in the VFL Under-19 competition (known as the Thirds prior to 1959), since 1992 the award has been given to the best player in the Victori ...

as the best and fairest in the under-19s.

AFL career

Following his senior debut in 1988, Schwass became a champion wingman, known for his blistering pace, courage, and accuracy on his left foot. Schwass won the club champion award, the

Syd Barker Medal The Syd Barker Medal is awarded to the North Melbourne Football Club player who has been judged the best and fairest of the footy season. The award has been given out continuously since 1937. Before then it was known as the Syd Barker Memorial Tr ...

, twice at North Melbourne, in 1994 and 1995. He was one of the best in the Kangaroos' 1996 premiership side against Sydney and was named vice-captain to

Wayne Carey Wayne Francis Carey (born 27 May 1971) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the North Melbourne Football Club and Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A dual-premiership captain at North Melbou ...

. In 1998 in the twilight of his career, North Melbourne traded Schwass to Sydney in exchange for a young

Shannon Grant Shannon Grant (born 19 April 1977) is a former Australian rules footballer who was a midfielder in the AFL. He began his career at the Sydney Swans in 1995 before moving to the Kangaroos in 1998 and being a part of their 1999 premiership side ...

. At the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...

the following year, Schwass was an instant leader, taking out the club's best-and-fairest award and earning

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

selection. He would retire a few seasons later, playing just short of 100 games with the Swans, ending his serviceable AFL career.

Post-AFL career

In 2012, Schwass was a player-coach for the New Zealand representative AFL side, the New Zealand Hawks, against the Australian AIS-AFL Academy team. He has long been a great supporter and ambassador for

Personal life

Schwass is now founder and CEO o
PukaUp
a social enterprise who states their vision is "to create the environments for every person to have authentic and genuine conversations about mental health and emotional wellbeing." A regular on the public-speaking circuit, Schwass also hosts th
PukaUp Podcast
with

PodcastONE LiveOne (formerly known as LiveXLive) is a music streaming platform that combines audio and (sometimes live) video available in the US and Canada. Users can access the service on the web through mobile apps on smartphones and over-the-air device ...

. Schwass is still involved with AFL as a commentator for

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 40 radio stations broadcasting a mainstream rock music format and 5 digital radio stations. The network dates back to th ...

on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons.

Statistics

:Wayne Schwass' player profile at AFL Tables
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1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

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1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 22 , , 14 , , 10 , , 265 , , 177 , , 442 , , 40 , , 51 , , 0.6 , , 0.5 , , 12.0 , , 8.0 , , 20.1 , , 1.8 , , 2.3 , , 10 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 15 , , 7 , , 6 , , 173 , , 121 , , 294 , , 27 , , 27 , , 0.5 , , 0.4 , , 11.5 , , 8.1 , , 19.6 , , 1.8 , , 1.8 , , 3 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 21 , , 8 , , 10 , , 306 , , 147 , , 453 , , 75 , , 46 , , 0.4 , , 0.5 , , 14.6 , , 7.0 , , 21.6 , , 3.6 , , 2.2 , , 13 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 14 , , 7 , , 5 , , 209 , , 91 , , 300 , , 41 , , 37 , , 0.5 , , 0.4 , , 14.9 , , 6.5 , , 21.4 , , 2.9 , , 2.6 , , 2 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 19 , , 14 , , 5 , , 313 , , 124 , , 437 , , 32 , , 49 , , 0.7 , , 0.3 , , 16.5 , , 6.5 , , 23.0 , , 1.7 , , 2.6 , , 14 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 24 , , 15 , , 13 , , 353 , , 177 , , 530 , , 54 , , 61 , , 0.6 , , 0.5 , , 14.7 , , 7.4 , , 22.1 , , 2.3 , , 2.5 , , 19 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 25 , , 19 , , 14 , , 381 , , 171 , , 552 , , 77 , , 50 , , 0.8 , , 0.6 , , 15.2 , , 6.8 , , 22.1 , , 3.1 , , 2.0 , , 13 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

† , style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 17 , , 3 , , 5 , , 214 , , 89 , , 303 , , 46 , , 33 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 12.6 , , 5.2 , , 17.8 , , 2.7 , , 1.9 , , 6 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 20 , , 7 , , 5 , , 264 , , 89 , , 353 , , 53 , , 46 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 13.2 , , 4.5 , , 17.7 , , 2.7 , , 2.3 , , 8 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 22 , , 23 , , 6 , , 380 , , 127 , , 507 , , 61 , , 38 , , 1.0 , , 0.3 , , 17.3 , , 5.8 , , 23.0 , , 2.8 , , 1.7 , , 15 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 23 , , 9 , , 9 , , 429 , , 184 , , 613 , , 98 , , 49 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 18.7 , , 8.0 , , 26.7 , , 4.3 , , 2.1 , , 19 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 22 , , 12 , , 14 , , 347 , , 195 , , 542 , , 102 , , 65 , , 0.5 , , 0.6 , , 15.8 , , 8.9 , , 24.6 , , 4.6 , , 3.0 , , 8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 22 , , 12 , , 8 , , 295 , , 152 , , 447 , , 79 , , 54 , , 0.5 , , 0.4 , , 13.4 , , 6.9 , , 20.3 , , 3.6 , , 2.5 , , 7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 2 , , 9 , , 1 , , 1 , , 75 , , 55 , , 130 , , 14 , , 15 , , 0.1 , , 0.1 , , 8.3 , , 6.1 , , 14.4 , , 1.6 , , 1.7 , , 0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 282 ! 154 ! 115 ! 4099 ! 1933 ! 6032 ! 820 ! 641 ! 0.5 ! 0.4 ! 14.5 ! 6.9 ! 21.4 ! 2.9 ! 2.3 ! 137

References

External links

*
500 'Puka Up' and bring issue of suicide out into the light in Wangaratta community walk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwass, Wayne 1968 births VFL/AFL players born outside Australia Sydney Swans players North Melbourne Football Club players North Melbourne Football Club Premiership players Victorian State of Origin players South Warrnambool Football Club players Bob Skilton Medal winners Syd Barker Medal winners All-Australians (AFL) Australian people of German descent Australian rules football commentators Living people New Zealand emigrants to Australia New Zealand players of Australian rules football Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Australian people of Māori descent New Zealand Māori sportspeople One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players