Sydney stars Tom Papley and Brodie Grundy open up on moving past the 2024 grand final defeat

Tom Papley and Brodie Grundy have five losing grand finals between them without premiership success. The star Sydney pair reveal how they are bouncing back ahead of 2025.

How do they bounce back?

It’s a question the football world is asking about the Sydney Swans as forecasts for season 2025 begin to be formulated.

Last week Brodie Grundy and Tom Papley returned to the scene of the crime. They both hadn’t been back to the MCG since that horrible final Saturday in September when they were thrashed by 10 goals by the Brisbane Lions.

It was the fourth time in a decade the Swans had made it to the last dance and lost. The fallout included coach John Longmire deciding he couldn’t climb the mountain again.

Tom Papley after the grand final loss. Picture: Getty Images

So last Wednesday night on a rare trip to Melbourne, new coach Dean Cox and a number of players fronted the Swans Victorian-based faithful to talk about the start of a new era.

The old one finished on day one of pre-season training when Cox made the team watch a replay of the Grand Final. That review took an incredible seven-and-a-half hours with the first couple of minutes taking an hour to examine.

No-one was spared. Some brutal home truths were told and to a man the team left the marathon meeting with a feeling of being cleansed.

“I think it was good for me to go through it when we came back,” Papley says. “I found it really beneficial to get it off my chest, to say what I wanted to say and sort of talk about how we were feeling in the game and things like that.

“We spoke about it, reviewed it, watched some vision and it was hard to watch some of it but that’s all part of footy.

“I know for sure it was beneficial to all staff and players and coaches.”

Papley, who has played in the last three losing grand finals, then adds with a forceful stare: “We have moved on from it.”

Grundy by nature is more philosophical about the loss and doesn’t want the result in the final game to define the season.

“There is a difference between reflection and ruminating on the Grand Final and what not,” Grundy says. “I think it is important to make that distinction as there is a difference.

“We have done a lot of reflecting as a team around what our improvement areas and how we go about things and our process, we do that as a team and I do that individually as well

“I can’t say I have been looking too forward in terms of this season, I have been very much focusing on each week, just getting fit and healthy.

“For me my experience last year was really positive, I loved my first season for the Swans. It was a big move to move clubs again and to move city but I have really got a great relationship with the game at the moment.

Brodie Grundy can still see the positives from season 2024. Picture: Phil Hillyard

“For me ultimately it wasn’t the way we wanted it to finish but success for me, there is many forms and I take great gratitude in the year for what it was.”

It was the second time Grundy has been on the wrong side of a grand final result, losing to West Coast in 2018 when he was Collingwood’s No.1 ruckman.

“It was different,” he says. “The last time I was on that stage, I was 24 playing for Collingwood and it was all so new. That was a very different experience because the year before we weren’t great and then sort of ran up and people weren’t really expecting it.

“So it was a different experience to have the season that we did (a 13-1 start) and fall short. It was ultimately very disappointing and took some time to process.

“But I am a cup half full operator, that’s the way I go about it.”

Grundy said he was selfishly disappointed to lose Cox as his mentor given he now has to share the former assistant coach with the rest of the team.

New Sydney coach Dean Cox. Picture: Phil Hillyard

“I was pretty jealous that I have to share him now,” he said. “I have learnt the most I have learnt under Dean last year, it was incredible.

“I just can’t believe it, in terms of the tactical approach to rucking. It’s quite fascinating and I’ve enjoyed that, it has been able to stimulate a part of me, that student of the game sense in me.”

Papley has only ever had Longmire as his coach in his AFL career and says he was a “little shocked” about the change at the top.

“Coxy has come in with great new energy, some different things and he brings his own sort of style,” he said. “He’s a real extroverted sort of bloke, he likes having a good laugh and he hasn’t changed that.”

Someone who enjoys a laugh is their teammate Chad Warner whose future will be under the microscope all year given he’s coming out of contract and has mega offers from the clubs in Western Australia to return home.

Grundy has dealt with changing clubs twice in his career and all the speculation which goes with it.

“Everyone’s journey and career takes different twists and turns but just as a friend and a teammate of Chad’s I just want what is best for him and I support him,” he said.

“The Chad is someone that doesn’t think too deeply about these things which I think that is a blessing for him. He is a very talented player and obviously he’s a required player for the Swans.

“We would love to have him stay around but obviously that is up to Chad and his team.”

Originally published as Sydney stars Tom Papley and Brodie Grundy open up on moving past the 2024 grand final defeat