This is from a Facebook site VFL Rewind Radio Program about David Schwarz, one of my favourites, a player who could have been anything, give or take an ACL or three. And when he came back from his surgeries, he was still a champion.

David Schwarz - 173 AFL Games. Melbourne BNF winner, One of the great centre half forwards of the 90’s. Very strong & Powerful.

David signed at Melbourne Demons at just 14.

David was a star at a young age playing junior footy for Sunbury before Melbourne invited him to come play and he first began in the under 19’s before making his AFL Debut in 1991.

Image today one of the brightest AFL stars quitting to go work in a country town, well David did it at the back end of 91. He decided momentarily that footy wasn’t for him and spent a good part of quarter the year away from footy.

Thankfully he was talked out of it and came back in round 2 in 1992.

92 was a breakout year for the Ox playing 22 games and averaging 16 disposals a game.

93 was a challenging year but 94 is when we seen his best. He kicked 60 goals in 94 and looked like he was about to challenge Wayne Carey to be one of the great centre half forwards of the game for years to come.

This is unfortunately where the word knee enters the conversation. David first did his ACL in early 95 and defied the odds and came back 16 weeks later. In that return game he kicked 3 goals but sadly the week after he ruptured the ACL again.

After taking the rest of 95 off he headed to Albury to play a practice game and did his knee again, resulting in missing the entire 96 season.

It was a different time back then with knees. It’s not like today where we know it’s a 12 month absence including rehab, players often came back earlier but run the risk the ACL ligament hadn’t repaired fully.

Round 11 1997. Pretty much 2 and a half years of no footy and David come back and performed well kicking 18 goals from 10 games.

From then on David became a regular again until his retirement in 2002 with 1999 arguably being his best year after the knee injuries winning the Melbourne Bnf.

In 2000 in Queens Kings Birthday Vs Collingwood he had a grear game kicking 2 goals and having 20 disposals. In 2000 David wouid take his Dees to a grand final and he had a great year kicking 31 goals

He was a leader on the field, leading by example with his toughness.

David retired in 2002 on 173 games. In his prime he was one of the toughest players we ever seen, injuries sadly stopped us from seeing his best but it was great he got to 173 games and finish his career off.

Well done on a great career David

Late post!

Still my all time favourite. Loved how he came back from the 3rd reco, adjusted to the limitations in his body and won a B&F.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Somereset

He's had an amazing life. When he was something like 10 he witnessed his father being murdered. Obviously that would affect someone and ended up with a crippling gambling addiction that almost destroyed everything including friendships and relationships. Thankfully he conquered that and turned his life around.

I also remember one night that he was on the Footy Show. Melbourne were that week/month were the laughing stock of the league and Schwarz sat there taking all the barbs. Then that f****** Sam Newman congratulated Ox about his 150th game and walked over to him with a gift in a box. Schwarz could so easily have retired after all the slings and arrows way earlier so his milestone was a big deal. Then this happened .....

https://youtu.be/HBw2XjG5eKA?si=96jXI6nesYsJ1DN4

29 minutes ago, Somereset said:

Still my all time favourite. Loved how he came back from the 3rd reco, adjusted to the limitations in his body and won a B&F.

Very Jack Dyer like in this regard!

Up until the knee tragedies by far the best key forward i had seen at the Dees .Just so powerful in the air and mobile for his size .An inexpressible talent.