It's a predicament common to young football stars - plenty of time, few worries about money and little to do other than train hard and party harder.
Swans star Nick Davis lived a carefree existence before he met Anna Watson and her now three-year-old daughter, Tayla. On the surface it was a charmed life with few responsibilities and little consideration for the effects of his actions.
"In the past I was an individual and anything I said or did only reflected on myself," says Davis, who turns 28 this month. "My only responsibility was to turn up to football on time. It was like that away from the game too and I carried that attitude onto the field."
Davis talks as straight as he shoots. But, while honesty is a good quality, in the maelstrom of elite team sport, departing even slightly from the party line has ramifications. For Davis that came when he was dropped by coach Paul Roos in 2006. Davis publicly expressed his belief that he'd been made a scapegoat for the team's poor form. He earned the scorn of his teammates and there were questions over his future at the club. The threat was real and Davis had his work cut out to regain the trust of the coach and players.
It was a jolt for the gifted marksman and showed him that his words had an effect on those around him, and he could not continue acting thoughtlessly. Davis says he has no regrets about such incidents. Proud of his achievements, he puts the dramas down to immaturity. He is certain he has turned a corner and his teammates hope he is right. Watching him interact with the two new ladies in his life, you sense his words have substance.
"It didn't just affect me," he says. "The way people perceive you can affect your family too. My mum would get upset when people had a crack at me. I don't have regrets about those things because you can't always wish you did things differently. I'm sure there will be more things that pop up and hopefully they'll be a bit more positive than some of the things that have happened.
"I think that people who know me know that I've never said anything in a harmful way. It's all been fun.
"The majority of the reason I play football is to have fun and, if I've said things that people haven't necessarily liked, it's only because I've tried to create a bit more interest for myself. I like to keep myself amused. I never want to hurt anybody or put someone down."
Most players claim to play the game for fun. But few live up to that ideal as much as Davis. He is almost an accidental hero. Despite growing up around football - courtesy of his father Craig, who played for Carlton, North Melbourne, Collingwood and the Swans between 1973 and 1988 - Davis began playing other sports after the family moved to Sydney when he was four. His earliest foray into AFL landed him in a state junior side and he decided that being talented at the game wasn't so bad.
He was swept into the system at Collingwood in the 1998 draft but the teenager was desperate to return to Sydney, infamously running away for a couple of weeks when he got too homesick. He played in a grand final for Collingwood before moving to the Swans in 2003.
Battles with his diet and physique compounded injuries early on. But, in the Swans' premiership year of 2005, Davis emerged from the pack, kicking the team past Geelong in the last seconds of the heart-stopping semi-final. Further dramas on and off the field in 2006, however, undid a lot of the good work and Davis found himself back at square one, questioning what it was all about.
"I think I'm unusual for a footballer," he concedes. "A lot of the guys at our club are intense about their football and there are others who are more like me. It depends on how you want to go about things. I'm happy with what I've achieved so far - I've played in three grand finals, represented Australia, played 10 years - not a lot of guys get to do that."
Fearless to admit football is not the be-all and end-all of his life, he needed to find passion in his private life. A double dose arrived last year when he met Watson and Tayla.
"I'd heard a few things about him before we met," says Watson, who has spent three years working as a trainer for Bart Cummings and 10 years in the racing industry.
"I heard that he was a bit wayward. But I think he's changed a lot since then. Tayla has made him settle down a bit and that's been a good thing."
Good in many ways. Instead of coming home after training and loafing on the couch, Davis now has duties to attend to. Being unanswerable might have sounded pleasant. But the rewards of a serious relationship and looking after a child far outweigh the spiritless days of old. Davis is clearly thrilled by his link with Tayla.
"We struck it off straight away, me and Tayla," he says, smiling in the child's direction. "People say we act the same and are on the same wavelength. Anna and Tayla's dad have done a great job, she's a great kid and I look forward to coming home and seeing her.
"She's a little bit hyper sometimes but we have good fun. Dinner times and bath times we have a little bit of trouble, but other than that we have a great time. She's my little best mate and the look that I get when I see her in the crowd at the footy, she's so proud that I'm Nick and she tells everyone that I'm 'her Nick'. If she sees me on the TV she says 'There's Nick!' It's like Where's Wally. It was all a bit of a crash course at first, but she's such a great kid that it makes it easy."
Only Davis's performances this season for the Swans will illustrate how his new lifestyle might have affected his football. He believes he can see a difference already. But even if he never played another game, it seems Davis will be much better off for the experience.
"I go about things differently now," he says. "I'm in a serious relationship and have a little one to look after. I don't think I was going along too badly before. But this is improving me as a person and keeping me stable, which can only be good. You're only at training for a few hours a day, so you need to fill your life with something. It's pretty full at the moment with Tayla.
"We do a lot of things together. We go to the play centre, ride our bikes, take the three dogs for a walk, go to the beach … She's a real active kid. We don't sit at home and watch TV.
"We go to the park, come and see mum working with the horses, we're always doing something. If I'm not at training I'm at home looking after her or we're out somewhere. In the past I'd sit on the couch or be out getting into trouble.
"I know I have to be sensible now because I have to be sensible at home. It's not always about football. It's made me see that there's a lot more to life than just playing football. It's made me appreciate my football a lot more, being able to come home to a different environment than I've been used to. I go to training and focus on that, but then come home and have a lot more things to worry about than just how I went at training or in the last game.
"I have a couple of different responsibilities now and it's made me grow up."
