He credits Mitchell and Liberatore with teaching him how to kick. While he is more rigid in his execution than, say, Kennelly, he is getting better and hits targets. "Barry Mitchell taught me an awful lot about the game," he says.

Interesting that former Sydney captain Paul Kelly made a similar observation of Mitchell at his induction to the Australian football Hall of Fame on Thursday night.

"He asks my advice on lots of things. Sometimes I have to say, 'I've never played in the ruck, Setanta, but I'll do my best to help'."

He declares an indebtedness to so many people at Carlton. "Denis has been very good to me. I'd like to pay him back," he says.

Then there's Bullants coach Barry Mitchell, Pagan's assistants Tony Liberatore, Brett Ratten and Terry Daniher, property steward Wayne Gilbert, whom he hounds for footballs, and Anthony Koutoufides, who has spent countless hours with him in one-on-one skills sessions.

"I can't pinpoint one, they've all been so good to me," he says.

Only complaint (and I love to complain about shoddy journalism among other things) is that as the so-called pre-eminent journo on the sport in this city, Sheahan does actually get a lot of things wrong.
Whilst Carlos' first goal was indeed against Richmond, it was actually in 2005 and not Round 1 this year!
This type of blunder detracts from an otherwise interesting read

If I were a woman, he'd be the first I'd bone!

"He's unbelievable," he said. "You can live off his energy."

I have a man crush on Setanta.

I've been thinking for a while, lets make Setanta vice-captain next year. His energy and his preparation and his passion would be the best thing for the younger guys coming up. At the very least he should be in our leadership group.

I also reckon this extra responsibility wont be a burden on him, in fact I reckon it will inspire him to greater heights.