Inside new-look Sydney’s pre-season camp to Newcastle
One child’s innocent query sparked awkward laughter during Sydney’s Newcastle camp — especially because Charlie Curnow was in the room. Go inside the new-look Swans’ trip here.
There’s nothing like the brutal honesty of a child to cut the tension and ask what everyone else is thinking.
And on the Sydney Swans’ community camp in Newcastle this week, it was the kids of Carrington Public School who ripped the Band-Aid off, surrounding one of the biggest questions of the AFL off-season.
“Do you have any friends on other teams?” a young boy asked, to a panel of Swans players that included Justin McInerney, Taylor Adams and some of their new draftees.
Oh, and sitting tall down the other end of the line, their star recruit and former Carlton key forward, Charlie Curnow.
The child didn’t realise what he was doing and looked bemused as the awkward laughter quickly broke out among the players.
But McInerney summed up the situation perfectly.
“I had two friends who got traded to another team, and made a new friend in Charlie,” he said with a grin.
It was a big decision to trade Will Hayward and Ollie Florent to Carlton. The pair had both played 184 games for the Swans, and by every definition of the word, were fan favourites.
However, Dean Cox has unashamedly stated that the club will always come first. And Curnow isn’t the only new face to don the red and white this summer.
Nine players will be looking to impress the Swans coaching staff for the first time. It’s a combination of players looking for an AFL opportunity, like Jai Serong and Malcolm Rosas Jnr, as well as youngsters ready to break through, including three of their Academy stars.
And the immediate impact is that the Swans feel more youthful.
While their ‘born again’ rookies in Dane Rampe and Jake Lloyd will do their bit to increase the average age, Sydney feels like a very young side for the first time in a while.
On one side of the room, table tennis is set up in a corner with an Xbox One nearby. And while the dated editions of Madden and NBA 2K don’t scream out to players, the newest season of Love Island Australia does.
During their rare time off, a laptop is brought down to connect to a projector to ensure a group of players can catch up on who has been evicted from the villa.
This Newcastle camp is the first chance to see how Cox will drill this new-look Swans side into shape. And it’s not just the players either, with fresh faces in the coaching department, including Simon Goodwin, Jeremy Laidler and Nick Malceski.
Yet the benefit for many players is that they’ve been in the starry-eyed position of the youngsters before.
Jevan Phillipou is the prime example. His Instagram story has already shown off pub visits with Nick Blakey, while his other new teammates aren’t afraid to throw him under the bus at an Auskick clinic.
“Get over here for a photo, Jev doesn’t have a signature,” screams one during the signing sessions.
With time, his Sharpie scribble will improve, considering he is barely weeks out of graduating year 12 at the Henley Sports Academy.
But the kids in Newcastle are infatuated with the Swans. And it’s reciprocated by the players, with an understanding that this level of interest in Aussie rules in rugby league heartland would have been laughed at even a decade ago.
The biggest test for Cox will be capitalising on the momentum of this positive camp and finding some early form. The Swans’ slow start to the 2025 season was one of the many reasons they finished outside the top eight.
However, as always, let’s leave it to those pesky kids at Carrington to really light the fire under the players for the season.
“How many times have you been in a grand final?”
McInerney chuckles, sighs, and calmly replies, “Two”.
If everything goes to plan in 2026, that question will bring a very different answer.
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Originally published as Inside new-look Sydney’s pre-season camp to Newcastle
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