Vale Adrian Gerard Schwager (18 Feb 1965 – 20 Mar 2025)

Written by Nick Garling

Brothers,

I penned this note to you all yesterday (Weds 19 March) in the present tense.

We knew Schwags has been going through the fight of his life to beat this bloody lymphoma. It’s been absolutely gutting to watch the great man laid low and struggling, and to see the rapid toll it’s taken on his health. But he took it front on, with humility, respect and honesty, and he was prepared in his inimitable dogged and boisterous fashion to stop it anyway he could. Kind of a metaphor for his approach to his cricket.

It would be utterly remiss of me right here to not state, that he was stoic and moreover his family have been too. Their generous spirit has been evident through being wonderful open communicators in their private sadness and grief to share Schwags with us all, in such a crushing time for their tight knit family. The reverence with which Adrian spoke about Natalie and the kids and ‘what trouble he was putting them through’ was awesome. He said to me ‘Natalie comes in every day looking great and smelling fresh as a daisy and she is my rock. All she does is support me and help me through this.’

We all have our own struggles with family and health and sadly, some people just get an incredibly unlucky draw. There is no rhyme or reason to it. Adrian’s rapid decline into fighting for his life against this bastard disease has left us feeling helpless and wondering how we could support him, the way he’s been such a great mate and support to so many of us. It has been extremely gutting news to sit by and accept. And it’s raced up on us so very quickly we’ve hardly had a chance to take it all in and accept it, let alone to say our goodbyes – a goodbye none of us believed we’d have to say so soon.

Much has been written on these cricket chat groups from so many cherished team mates of Schwags. As many of us are attesting here, he’s truly an exceptional guy. They are not mere words. Schwags was a one in a million. A good mutual mate said to me this morning, ‘the saddest thing is to see a great human struck down right in his prime’. So many of you guys have different stories of interacting with Adrian and that is because, he was a guy that left no stone unturned into getting to know you and find out on and off the park what made you tick. He was far happier talking about YOU that talking about HIM. Because he held a genuine interest in what made things work, in what made people tick, why the ball was swinging, why some guys couldn’t score on some tracks and some could. He had a great quest for understanding things and an enquiring mind.

He is a really special person possessing genuine empathy, who has always taken the time to touch on family issues and funny stories from your own past. Schwags also possesses a great sense of humour, and could be reluctantly (!!) self-deprecating, as much as he could take the piss out of you. But that was always to your face and with love and compassion. Not angrily or sneakily. We know him to be a complete cricket and rugby tragic, who was happy to discuss the finer points of both games to the wee hours, and often!

The Old Iggies mob have had the good fortune to play a fair bit of cricket in Sydney with him the past 6 years or so and he's just so well loved in our Club – quite apart from his exceptional stats. But really, the love comes towards his energy and his full on approach to camaraderie within a Club, first at functions and matches. His on-field and in shed quirks, such as his famous wombat rolls to warm up, his meticulous packed kit, an even more carefully packed esky with cut sambos, cut fruit, sweets, and all the gear for the day. His habit of folding down chips and Cheezels packets so everyone could easily grab a handful. Supplying beers, which were also packed with military-grade precision in his various coolers. On field, his approach to being a good sport and the ‘spirit of cricket’ was second to none. I have often been amazed by how incredibly fair minded he’s been in the heat of battle. Whilst he’ll be dogged and try to bat all day and throw himself around the field, encourage everyone out there, and chase leather, he was never mean-spirited towards his opponents.

Outside of our Old Ignatians’ Club in Sydney, he’s also spread himself far and wide in the bush and at the various regional, interstate and even overseas soirees, and that’s where many of Port Jackson Vets and NSW Vets guys will know him. Of course, for many of the regional lads, their relationship goes way back to when they were kids playing on malthoid or coir at Merah North, Tamworth, Lightning Ridge or Inverell. It’s hard to over-emphasise just what an important presence Adrian is to so many guys in our wider cricketing group and a number of vets teams and organisations across NSW. And that's just cricket. Let’s not get started on his mates across country rugby circles too. I found over the years that Schwags was always laughing, always up for a gag, happy to make his ‘I’m just a little bloke from the bush somewhere speech’, exceedingly generous with both his time, his company, and his shouts... Selfishly, it seems totally unfair we can have a teammate ripped away in this fashion.

On my way back from Tamworth 55s recently, after the cricket festival had ended, and I was wearily just on my way back down the New England towards Sydney, around about Willow Tree, the phone rang. It was Schwags. He was on the blower from St Vinnie’s in Darlinghurst for the full lowdown on the tournament. JJ, Hally, Wilso and crew had been good enough to organise and set-up a Frogbox Go-Pro thing for Adrian’s personal viewing pleasure. But such was his thirst for being there, he called and wanted the inside skinny on how his mates had performed (both on and off the park). He asked me probing questions about how blokes like Sarge, Shirl, Wilso, Hally x2, Dippa, JJ, Ric Howard, Brooksy, Hardo, Lewi, Fabio had gone! He was particularly interested in the Port Jackson v Central North match on the final day, and I knew deep down that he had a foot in each camp. Many of the blokes he’s played junior cricket and footy with for decades were playing for Central North. And on the other hand, he would have been first guy picked in the Port Jacko’s team had he been fit. Short of sending him the bloody scorebooks, I couldn’t give him much more inside running! I felt like a bookie at the Gunnedah races.

Once he’d gained the latest skinny on the Tamworth 55s, the caring side of Schwags came out. He knew it was a long drive back to Sydney after 4 days on the p1ss and out on the paddock, so he kept chatting away for another two hours or so about the best routes, the state of the highway, watch out for kangaroos, some discourse about how he was going to take this treatment front on and ‘play a very straight bat as he wanted to bat a long time’. Schwags told me on that call, that Vets cricket and its growth over the past decade or so has been central to his social being... he’s loved every minute of it. He emphasised to me just what we all mean to him and how privileged he feels to have caught the uplift of it all.

In my opinion, (and anyone who has managed to read this far will agree I think), Adrian Schwager is a guy who has definitely ‘stopped to smell the roses’ over his lifetime. He has never stopped entertaining us with his quirks, his wit and his unstinting generosity. He has always talked with immense pride about his kids, their interests, their joint travels, their rugby pursuits and their life pursuits including their home and farm-life. But in my experience, Schwags has always reserved a special tone and reverence for anything in conversation regarding his wife Natalie.

A few weeks ago, he surprised us with a visit to our home ground on a Sunday. He was at great pains to point out that our Club in Sydney and the lads that play there had been so generous to him. I found that slightly puzzling as I was thinking when he said it – (actually the opposite is true)!! He has given us far more than he ever received in return. Period. When he came along in 2018/19 as a newbie fill-in with our Skipper Pete Thomas, I thought to myself “oh yeah righto, a Joeys mate of Pete’s hey”. Well, when he retired first dig on 40*, I was starting to warm to him, and pretty quickly. Then we shared a few ice-cold beers and I thought to myself – “this bloke is welcome back, he passes the written in stone no fkwit policy with flying colours”.

In the ensuing seasons, he’s gone on to compile a bazillion runs, averaged 50+ for us, but most importantly, Schwags has brought his incredible energy and character to share with us. And I know he’s done the same for Port Jackos and NSW Vets as have been in many of those sides and tournaments with him. Schwags, in my opinion, will be best loved and remembered for his positive life-force, his kind spirit, and his mateship. Absolutely no-one was below him in life, and he just wanted to find out about you, to get to know you and as a result, we came to love him. He told me recently; ‘in all seriousness Garlo, cricket and the mates I’ve been lucky enough to play with on and off the park have been a huge part of my life”. And that really sums Adrian Schwager up for mine. I know he has told a diaspora of other close mates that he’s been greatly buoyed by the camaraderie, support and friendship shown to him since he got crook.

And now Adrian has been taken. He’s out of pain and in a better place. He has left us with a paradigm, roadmap and legacy of what really matters in life - family, kindness, mateship, joy and bloody commitment. Thank you Schwags.

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