Swan tuned in to mum

FOR Isaac Heeney, it’s the reassuringly familiar in an unfamiliar season for Sydney.

When Sydney’s young star runs out to warm up for tonight’s crucial clash against Essendon, he will wait for the same sound he’s been hearing since he started playing soccer as a six-year-old.

It’s the piercing whistle of his mum, Rochelle, perfected on the family farm in Stockrington, 25km west of Newcastle, where Heeney and older brother Beau were raised.

“It’s a little embarrassing because mum and dad sit in the same seat every week and her excuse is that it’s so I know where they’re sitting,” Heeney said. “I actually think she just wants a little wave and I do cop that from the lads pretty hard.”