What to do when the side you coach is enduring an excruciatingly painful season, in which each week the pile of misery gets higher until the steam emanating from it can be seen from Gunnedah?
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For Swans coach Paul Kelly – who manages to stay sanguine when lesser mortals would have gouged out their eyes – the answer lies in the country music song Fried Chicken by the Zac Brown Band.
His son Cooper, who plays for the Swans, recently added the tune to the playlist on Kelly’s phone.
“You know I like my chicken fried, cold beer on a Friday night, a pair of jeans that fit just right, and the radio up …”
You would image Kelly listened to the song a lot following the winless Swans’ 33.21-219 to 0.3-3 away loss to Inverell last round.
Ahead of Saturday’s clash against the Kangaroos at No.1 Oval, Kelly said: “I just try to keep a smile on my face – go to a happy place. It is hard.
“A country song. I just put that on. It’s on my phone, and I go to that song now when things are starting to stress me out. That sort of puts a smile on my face.”
Kelly, in his second year at the helm, will endure. He insists the pain is worth it, that even amid the rubble of a season the future is being curated through the development of younger players.
Still, he can’t get over what he says is the worst luck he has seen a footy side endure.
“Every time a player gets injured it’s season-ending or a long-term one … Hopefully we’re having all ours now and next year we’ll be right.”
Yep. There’s always next year.
