Old Scotch co-captain Jonty Swallow rates his involvement with the New Horizons Club as highly as anything he's achieved on the footy field.
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Set to play his 100th game on Saturday, the 25-year-old builder has enjoyed an incredibly successful career at the Thistles, winning a reserves premiership in his first year at the club before playing key roles in the 2014, '15 and '16 senior flags.
Asked to assess the highlights of his career to date, Swallow was quick to nominate his involvement with last year's AFL Inclusion Carnival in Launceston.
"I've helped out the New Horizons state football team - that was good fun," he said.
"I just helped them out on a Wednesday night with training and I definitely regard that as one of the highest things I've done in footy I reckon - it's probably one of the most rewarding.
"My mother Karen said they needed a hand and I just put my hand up and made my way down here and it's just gone from there.
"A few of them come to most of our home games and support us which is awesome - I've actually built some really good friendships through that so it's been awesome."
Into his second year as captain, Swallow's football CV also features Tasmanian representation in 2016 with the state under-23 team.
The former Queechy High and Launceston College student credits his success in football to a range of figures including former coaches and his mum.
"Tom Pedley the co-captain, he helped me out a lot last year and this year he's been awesome," Swallow said.
"Kim Curtis helped me out a lot when he was down here, and [coach] Shaun Muller he's pretty supportive of me being captain and he's all for going forward so we're pretty happy with how we're tracking at the moment."
Old Scotch meet Evandale at the NTCA Ground at 2pm on Saturday.
SWALLOW STATS
- Debut: 2013
- Games: 99
- Flags: 4 (2013 [reserves], 2014, 2015, 2016)
- 2019 games: 8
- Times in best: 6