BENDIGO'S Rowan Warfe has endured mixed emotions this week as his former side prepares to play in the AFL grand final this afternoon.
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The Sydney Swans will play the West Coast Eagles today and had Warfe opted to play on for one more season with the Swans, he could have been running onto the MCG for the biggest day on the football calendar.
"It's mixed emotions; you really want them to go well, but you just wish you were there," Warfe said yesterday.
Warfe ended his 110-game career last season, moving back to Bendigo where he took on the position of assistant coach and development officer with the Bendigo Pioneers in the TAC Cup.
Both Warfe's heart and head say Swans' coach Paul Roos and captain Barry Hall are going to be holding aloft the premiership cup at 5 pm this afternoon.
"I reckon they are the form side; the culture that is instilled into the club now, it's a never-give-in attitude," he said.
"If West Coast win, they will only just win, the Swans will never get flogged, but I just think Sydney is a confident bunch and they won't give up their chance."The man who will be calling the shots for the Swans in the coaches box will be Roos, with whom Warfe spent two-and-a-half years under.
"He is a different sort of coach to what I have been coached by in the past," Warfe said.
"He has some sort of arrogance about him where he is very confident and instills a lot of confidence in the players, which is what modern-day coaches need to have.
"You don't want to shoot your players down and lose their confidence.
"He is very footy smart and knows a lot about finding ways to get around opposition teams and coaching tactics."Warfe is unsure whether he will travel to the MCG to watch the game live or watch it on the television, but wherever he finds himself at 2.30 pm this afternoon, he will be keeping a close eye on West Coast's Adam Selwood.
Selwood will become just the third Bendigo Pioneer graduate to play in an AFL grand final, joining Collingwood's Chris Tarrant and Essendon's Dean Solomon.
A knee injury has forced Selwood's team-mate, and another ex-Pioneer, Michael Braun, out of the biggest game of the year.
"It's great for Adam; that's what the Pioneers' program is all about, developing the young players so they can go up and play," Warfe said."It would be the chance of a lifetime for anyone to play in a grand final, so Adam would be absolutely stoked at the moment.
"Unfortunately for Michael Braun, he is on the other end and I feel really sorry for him, but apparently he has taken it fairly well and I suppose there will be an opportunity for him next year."