So they loaded the car, rounded up his sisters Stacy, Rebecca and Jessica, brother Ash and cousin Nara and drove from Cobden to western Sydney.

"I think they left around 7pm on the Friday night and got here to Sydney around 8am on the Saturday morning," Rohan said this week of his family's Griswold-like, 1050km journey.

After that amount of effort, the Rohans weren't about to blend in unnoticed at the game.

So, with almost 10,000 fans packing the ground, they decided to show their support by donning Ronald McDonald-style wigs to match the flaming locks of the 18-year-old Swan draftee.

"Yeah, it's true, they had the wigs on," Rohan said with a smile.

"They just thought they might start something up just having those wigs on.

"It was pretty good and after spending more than 12 hours getting here, they should be allowed to do whatever they wanted to."

With his red hair, you would imagine Rohan would always stand out, but a lack of confidence was always a problem for the youngster.

Three times he tried out for the Geelong Falcons junior squads and each time he failed to make the cut.

"I was just fed up and, to be honest, I was close to chucking it in, " Rohan said.

But Belinda Rohan had seen another footballer regret giving it away too soon many years earlier, when Jim pulled the plug after playing in St Kilda's reserves in 1985 and '86.

She suggested Gary give it another shot and, despite his feelings, he decided to heed his mother's advice.

Fourth time around, the Falcons saw a different Gary Rohan. This one was no longer the shy kid standing in the background.

The Falcons snapped him up and in time he became a star for the club, excelled for Victorian Country in the under-18 championships and made recruiters take notice at the national draft camp.

At the same time, he excelled at the Victorian track and field championships, clearing 193 centimetres to win the 18-20 years' high jump title and finishing second in the 200 metres in 22.55 seconds.

A month later he was selected by the Swans with their first pick (sixth overall) in the national draft.

"Yeah, it is good to show those people who thought I wasn't good enough that I actually can play," Rohan said.

''I've been pretty surprised how much game time I've had already.''

There's still two weeks to round one, but maybe the Rohans had better think about packing their red wigs for another 13-hour drive.