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Who would've thought it? What a great example of a "role-model" footballer....
BRETT Kirk will introduce the Dalai Lama at the final public address of the Tibetan spiritual leader's Australian tour, which will be held at the Domain in Sydney on Saturday.
The Swans' co-captain, of Buddhist faith, was asked to MC the morning talk, "The Power of Compassion", by an organiser of the 11-day tour who approached the football club and inquired specifically about the midfielder.
Kirk has helped with some publicity for the weekend's events and was said by a club spokeswoman last night to be honoured and excited by the opportunity which, fortunately, falls in Sydney's bye week.
It was Kirk's taking up of the rigorous Ashtanga yoga about five years ago that ultimately pointed the midfielder towards Buddhism. Initially, his aims were physical — his flexibility was so poor he couldn't reach his toes — but it soon developed into something more profound.
Speaking earlier this year, Kirk said the passing of a close friend he had played football with as a teenager in Albury had also been a catalyst for finding his faith. "I had never been really religious but I came to a point in my life where I was looking for something, and I had been doing yoga and reading about Buddhism and got more into that, and meditation became an extension of those things," he said in February.
"Buddhism is a really simple way of living your life and something you can do internally."
Kirk also spoke about his daily practice, by the ocean at sunrise, of yoga, meditation and a plunge into the sea. The conscious quietening of his mind has helped Kirk deal with the general pressures of football as well as the obvious physical strains.
Sydney coach Paul Roos meditates daily and, after several players expressed interest in his, and Kirk's, commitment to the practice, it has been offered as an optional exercise to the playing list this season.
Yoga is part of the Swans' maintenance program as a matter of course.
"It is about putting footy into perspective," Roos said earlier this year. "All you can do as a footballer is prepare yourself the best you can, and meditation would help them get rid of all the junk in their head. It is adding mind preparation to the physical preparation."
The Dalai Lama, as he has done throughout this month in the Australian capital and select major cities, will discuss his philosophies on compassion, happiness and love at his last two public talks in Sydney this weekend.
About 20,000 people attended a free 90-minute talk at Melbourne's Princes Park last weekend which focused on peace, responsibility and the environment as well as international disarmament.
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CHEERLEADERS ROCK!!! 
