Cyggy, the Sydney Swans’ mascot, spent Grand Final day jumping up and down and taking photos with fans. Inside the mascot suit, a diehard footy fan’s heart was breaking. Cyggy is really a Hawk. 

By BEN POLLARD

EVER wondered who wears those oversized AFL mascot suits?

Yes, they’re people, just like you and I.

Jumping around, dancing, taking photos with fans, fighting other mascots and generally going bananas – a lot of fun, as job descriptions go.

But not always. Sometimes, playing the role of an AFL mascot can be emotionally taxing.

Take Campbell Corser.

Campbell is the man behind Cyggy, the Sydney Swans’ mascot. For seven years when the Swans have come to Melbourne to play, Campbell has donned that oversized swan suit.

You’d have been forgiven for thinking that as the Swans steamrolled the Hawthorn Hawks in the dying moments of the thrilling 2012 AFL Grand Final, the man behind Cyggy would also have been going bananas.

Campbell, though, is a diehard Hawks supporter.

The irony of the situation is enough to make you laugh.

At first, Campbell was laughing too. When he realised his two teams would be facing off on footy’s biggest stage, he simply saw a way to overcome a Hawthorn member’s uncertainty about scoring a Grand Final ticket.

“I thought: ‘How good’s this? There’s a really good chance I’m going to get some free tickets here!’” Campbell says.

But by the final siren on Saturday, this “extremely passionate” Hawthorn fan was feeling less enthusiastic.

The words “numb” and “disbelief” are mentioned. “Not fun” is used to describe Sydney’s last-quarter comeback.

Luckily for Campbell, Cyggy wasn’t required to roam the boundary during the game. One can only imagine having to celebrate wildly in a giant swan outfit while fighting the urge to sob uncontrollably.

Campbell had already fulfilled his Grand Final duties.

He spent much of Friday as Cyggy at Federation Square with Hawka, the Hawthorn mascot, breaking for the Grand Final parade through the streets of Melbourne.

And he took to the MCG prior to the big game for the usual shenanigans, having helped choreograph a fight between Cyggy and Hawka.

“That all went to pieces when we got on the ground and I think we both just went ape-shit at each other,” Campbell says.

The winner of this mascot brawl?

“It would have to be me,” Campbell says. “And I’m not just saying that, because I ripped his head off. His identity was revealed.”

“I’d say that constitutes a victory for me.”

A sign of things that were to come, perhaps.

Later, after the Swans had broken their own employee’s heart, Campbell had the opportunity to join the post-match celebrations in the Sydney rooms.

“I could’ve [joined them], but I couldn’t,” he says.

“When they won their 2005 premiership, I was like ‘Hey, how good is this?!’ I jumped into the suit and did a lap of honour with them, running around singing and dancing.

“But the thought of putting on a suit that I had been in for seven hours in the last two days and sweated the equivalent of 60 litres in, it wasn’t that enticing.”

Despite his job being Cyggy, Campbell’s true allegiance has never shifted away from Hawthorn.

Yes, there’s a person inside each of those oversized suits. And now Hawka isn’t the only Grand Final mascot exposed for who they truly are.