After over two decades at the back of a closet somewhere at his mum and dad’s house, Rohan Smith’s famous turtleneck sweater is coming back to VU Whitten Oval to take pride of place in the Freedom in a Cage podcast studios.

Part wedding cake, part snappy 90’s fashion, the ‘Bubba turtle neck’ made it’s one and only public appearance in Michael Cordell’s 1997 documentary, Year of the Dogs, which covered Footscray’s disastrous 1996 season.

Listen: Freedom in a Cage | Episode 17: Rohan Smith/Year of the Dogs

On this week’s Freedom in a Cage podcast, Bob Murphy and Adrian Brown dissect the classic film, and Smith, then in his fifth season stopped by to reminisce, where of course, the turtleneck came up.  

“It might have been on during the finals series of '16, it was on Channel Seven or something like that,” he recalled.

“That night, I didn't know it was on, my phone (kept beeping) and I was like 'what's going on'? And then photos of me in a turtle neck... people are just killing themselves laughing. It was quite funny.”

The good news is the current whereabouts of the sweater have since been confirmed and it’s now on it’s way back to Footscray.

And according to Murphy, it will be right at home in the ‘Footscray Caravan Park’ where Freedom in a Cage is recorded each week.

“We've got the Terry Wheeler duffle coat, the picture of Allen Jackovich, we've got the bobbleheads of Bont and Woody,; I want the Rohan Smith turtle neck.”

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