There wasn’t much Paul Chapman didn’t achieve during his 280-game AFL career.
A trio of premierships, multiple All Australian selections, a Norm Smith Medal and a Geelong Best and Fairest speak for themselves.
But since retiring, Chapman has done something he’d never imagined.
“The loss of my brother, bringing that up and going through it all in such depth obviously hurt a lot.” – Paul Chapman
“Something I never thought I’d do was write a book,” Chapman told aflplayers.com.au.
“[I wondered about] If I did write a book, was it going to be exciting enough to write and would people even read it? But I’m very happy with where it’s at.”
Throughout Chappy – Believe it or Not, the 34-year-old opens up about a broad range of coaches, teammates and opponents – a process Chapman enjoyed.
“The respect you have with your teammates and everything along the journey came up [in the process of writing], and that was good.”
But there were hard moments too. Recalling the worst day of his life, when he was pulled out of school in year 11 to learn his brother had died, was tough.
“The loss of my brother, bringing that up and going through it all in such depth obviously hurt a lot. There were some tears, but that was a nice part of writing the book as well.”
Having hung up the boots at the end of 2015 after 16 years in the AFL, Chapman is looking forward to the next chapter of his life.
“It’s obviously going to hurt not to be able to play,” Chapman said.
“That’ll hurt me when my teammates go back to pre-season… (But) it was definitely time for me to finish.”