THE main talking point among St Kilda players on Tuesday at the Sunshine Coast was the mystery identity of the guest speaker at that night’s dinner.

Rumours of a high-profile sports star were flying around, with many predicting that they would hear from a Rugby League great talking about the thrill of playing State of Origin football.

So there were a few surprised faces when two-time Grand Slam winner Pat Rafter walked in to the meeting room to tell his story of life on the ATP world tour.

Rafter gave a detailed and frank account of his own experiences, identifying his strengths and weaknesses and how he relied on hard work to make him succeed against opponents he believed were more talented.

Speaking to saints.com.au after the talk, Rafter said he wanted to deliver a fairly basic message.

“The main point was give yourself the best opportunity, train hard and put yourself on the line,” he said.

“Even if you don’t get to where you hope to get to, you know you’ve given yourself the best opportunity to be the best athlete you can.”

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While tennis and Australian football are very different beasts in a lot of ways, not least of all the environments of an individual and team sport, Rafter said there were plenty of similarities.

“There are a lot of cross overs with a lot of sports. Even though footy is a team sport there is still a very large individual aspect to it with preparing yourself and looking after your teammates,” he said.

“We had a little bit of exposure to it mainly in the Davis Cup. That was probably one of the most pressurised situations we put ourselves into, all of a sudden playing for your mates and for your country. That’s about preparing and looking out for your mates and defending your mates and sticking up for them. That is probably the biggest crossover between the two sports.”

Of all his sporting accomplishments, Rafter didn’t tell the group about his own footy experiences but had a chuckle later when reflecting on his brief footy career after his tennis days were over.

“I got half a season in after I stopped playing tennis. I played half a season for the North Shore Bombers in Sydney. It was a lot of fun. I was injured nearly every week but there were some funny situations on the footy field,” he said.

 I really loved it. I learned how to kick a ball from an early age – not like a Queenslander but like an AFL player from a Victorian mate who came into town. Then on the road when we trained, a lot of our off-court training involved getting an AFL ball and going for a 45-minute jog through the park to kick the footy around. I had a bit of exposure to it but the one thing I was always intrigued with was the contact part of it. I really enjoyed the contact and I got taken out a couple of times which was pretty funny.”

And he said there were a couple of opponents who were quick to realise who they were up against and relished the chance to dish out a bit of sledging.

“The very first time I got on the footy field I was playing at North Sydney Oval and I got a free kick. Some bloke looked at me and said “Rafter? Is that you Rafter? What the hell are you doing out here?” I cracked up laughing lining up for the goal and I missed it sideways but it was actually very amusing. We had a bit of a chuckle after that.”