http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 65,00.html
PETER Everitt scoffs at speculation his ruck partner Darren Jolly may be playing his last match for the Swans tomorrow night at the MCG and is contemplating leaving.
"He won't be going anywhere, Darren . . . ," Everitt said yesterday. "Trust me, he won't be going anywhere.
"He is only 26, he is up there with the other All-Australian ruckmen going around and he has still got a good seven seasons in him.
"He has been great to work with and the future at Sydney is all going to be built around Darren."
Jolly comes out of contract on October 31 and with the season over for eight clubs, four of whom are Victoria-based, rumours this week that he wants to return to his home city of Melbourne have been circulating.
Swans football operations manager Andrew Ireland, in Melbourne ahead of their elimination final against Collingwood, will meet Jolly's manager Michael Quinlan today.
"It (the contract) is not at the point of falling over at all," Quinlan said.
"When they are coming out of contract, there is also interest from the state where they are from. He is very attached to the Swans and is looking at re-negotiating his contract at the Swans and moving forward."
Which is good news for the Swans and their imminent flag aspirations, given that the combination of Everitt and Jolly is potentially of premiership-winning calibre.
Be it Dean Cox and Mark Seaby for West Coast last year, Brendan Lade and Dean Brogan at Port Adelaide in 2004 or Clark Keating and Jamie Charman for the 2001-03 Lions, two quality ruckmen has been the cornerstone of the AFL's most recent premiers.
From the time Jason Ball retired at the end of 2005, the Swans knew they needed another top ruckman to work in tandem with Jolly if they were to defend their premiership. History proved that to be true, despite the outstanding efforts of unheralded ruckman Stephen Doyle against the brilliant Cox and Seaby in the Swans' one-point grand final loss.
Through last year's grand final, Peter Everitt, whose transfer to Sydney was delayed by a year by Hawthorn's hardball tactics at the draft, watched on from a Melbourne pub.
Now though, with Sydney about to launch their bid for a third straight grand final, their prized ruck combination is in place and ready to go.
Finals football had been a big carrot for Everitt in his decision to switch to the Swans. "It is everything you play for and if you are starved of that throughout your career . . . you haven't achieved what you set out to achieve," he said yesterday.
Everitt broke his collarbone in the first quarter of the first final when playing for St Kilda in 1997.
The Saints went on to play in the grand final and although hot favourites, lost to Adelaide.
In 1998, St Kilda had another big season to earn the double chance only to exit from the finals in straight sets.
"For me it got more frustrating every year that you get older and didn't play them," Everitt said.
"It takes a lot of self-motivation to get yourself up every year when you are finishing 14th, 15th or 16th.
"And looking back to 1997 and 1998, I was pretty much young and dumb and you don't appreciate finals like you do now."
The Sydney-Everitt marriage so far has been a fruitful one. Everitt has been a major player in Sydney reaching the finals. And the Swans are beginning to show signs of once again producing their best in September.
"(The perception from outside) is that everyone wants to be like them (the Swans)," Everitt said.
"They are disciplined, they play a one-on-one brand of footy.
"You could say the best brand of footy over the past couple of years because it has worked.
"They weren't full of big names but you know you couldn't let anyone of them off the hook.
"You always gave yourself a chance against them but you never won."
Tomorrow night Everitt and the Swans meet the team that has troubled them as much as any other this year.
Collingwood, driven by a coach who has revered the game plan of Paul Roos even in times when it was condemned, have caused Sydney problems playing a brand of football based on principles like their own.
But Everitt is confident the Swans can reverse their past three results (two in 2007 and one loss last year) against Collingwood in what would finally be a final for him to remember.
"We have to just improve our ball movement towards our forwards," Everitt said.
"Collingwood is very good at the one-on-one footy, we have to try and beat them at that."
