I was stunned at how many wankers there are in the general public who have a crack at him publicly. I was genuinely stunned. I was unaware how deeply he was affected by the photo scandal. I always associated Gilbo with it and saw himself and Dal as collateral damage.
I found myself wiping tears from my eyes reading about his sister and her last few months. Sounded incredibly tough. Was amazed that he had the mental toughness to play the season and play so well.
Loved reading about how he met his wife and the lengths he went to in Las Vegas to impress her.
I loved some of his anecdotes. My favorite. When he was living in Sth Melb with his mates and his future wife Cath moved over from Texas. Roo and the boys sitting at home lounging around hanging crap on each other just talking s*** and Cath walks in after working all day. 'What are we doing about dinner?' she says. Roos mate "if you're not going to say anything funny, get out!" I laughed out loud at that story for some reason. I laughed even harder at the footnote to it - 3 weeks later the boys moved out after Cath had a quiet word to me.
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
I was almost as interested as to what he said as to what he didn't say. Spent a lot of time talking about all his coaches and their influences on his career - except one.....
He also pointedly made mention that it was impossible to be friends with all 42 players in a squad. That he had played footy with some guys for 10 years and didn't respect them for their lifestyle choices and didn't necessarily like them. Roo being Roo spent a lot of time talking about who he did like at the club. BJ (obviously) Kosi, Lenny, Bally, Milney, even Gwilty. Micky Gardiner got a mention.
Maybe it was just me but I was surprised that the only mention of Chips in the book was the story of Chips trying to call him on the night when the s*** hit the fan with Andrew Lovett... and Roo wouldn't take his call, because he thought they were just trying to get him back out on the gas. The other notable absentee for mine was Grammy. Lovett was at his house when that occurred. It was obvious by Roo's tone that he has no time for Lovett and what he dragged our club through.
All in all a great read I thought. Summed up by a mate at work who's a bomber fan. - "I always thought that Riewoldt was a bit of a wanker tbh. After reading the book it's obvious he's a good bloke. Hard not to like him."