The unusual former life of Sydney Swans defender Will Edwards

“I never really thought about being delisted or anything like that because as soon as those thoughts come into your head, you probably lose the passion a little bit,” Edwards said. “But there were times sitting in hospital, and I don’t mean to sob or anything, but you sort of go ‘am I ever going to play again’.” But since making his debut for the Swans against the Western Bulldogs in April (with two of his former funeral home colleagues in attendance and Bolton watching from home), Edwards has already begun to make up for lost time. He’s played in every game since and won’t need any more funeral home shifts any time soon. Which is lucky considering he’s kept his former life hidden from his teammates. “I think I’ve told a few of them in development meetings a couple of years ago, especially [former player and assistant coach] Brett Kirk was quite intrigued.

But, I think I keep that one a bit under wraps, I think they’d get a bit freaked out by it,” he said. Although, Edwards will bring some of what he learned in North Ryde with him to the Sydney Cricket Ground ahead of Saturday’s clash against Richmond. “That job requires a lot of respect, a lot of emotional awareness and things like that,” he said. “It was probably a bit of an eye-opening job. [It’s] not super easy and I guess sort of set me up for a little bit of emotional awareness.”