AFL: Carlton vs. Sydney match of the round, memories of the Blues’ preying on struggling Swans

Today Carlton aspire for the excellence of Sydney, yet as SHANNON GILL explores when the Swans first moved to Sydney the roles were reversed with Carlton playing the role of brutal big brother who first gave, then took.

After the move to Sydney, the off-field relationship between the Swans and Blues was both complex and crazy.

One club sits atop the AFL ladder and is a yardstick for sustained excellence over a number of decades. The other is a club hellbent on replicating that success after two decades of indifference.

Friday’s Sydney Swans and Carlton match-up is the most anticipated of the weekend, but it also represents something bigger. The Blues would dearly love to be what the Swans are, because once upon a time Carlton was a byword for the constant premiership contender the Swans are.

Yet back when South Melbourne first moved to Sydney, it was the Blues who were the undisputed heavyweight of the league and they hovered like a spectre around the aspirational but troubled Swans.

For good and for bad.

The drawcard 

As the South Melbourne endured a civil war in eventually moving to Sydney, Carlton was busily winning premierships. The first season of the Swans in Sydney was the second year of back-to-back flags for the Blues.

Carlton's visit was the blockbuster event of the Swans first season in Sydney.

They were the closest thing the VFL could boast to a national brand. In the 1970s and 1980s people around Australia who didn’t know Australian rules still knew that Carlton were the biggest and best down south.

When Carlton made its first visit to Sydney in 1982, it was the Swans’ Grand Final as far as public interest went.

The Swans averaged 15,000 spectators in their first season but for the Round 19 match against Carlton it swelled to 25,601, five thousand more than the next best crowd against Collingwood.

Better still they pulled off a huge upset, beating the Blues who were on their way to a premiership, by 34 points.

Rugby writer, the late Greg Growden triumphantly described it as “the Swans came of age at the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday before 25,601 spectators.”

The bean counters at the Swans loved when Carlton came to town.

Over the first seven seasons of the Swans in Sydney Carlton were the highest drawing opponent five times, and in second spot the other two years.

The Edelsten sale

Dr Geoffrey Edelsten shares a joke with supporters in his first game as Swans owner at Princes Park.

By 1985 the Swans were leaking money badly and the VFL resorted to private ownership. The infamous Doctor Geoffrey Edelsten took their reins with all the good, the bad and the gaudy associated with the colourful medical entrepreneur.

Before the purchase, Edelsten was an avowed Carlton supporter. Years later he would later earn life membership of the Blues for his support over many years.

Indicative of Carlton’s connection to the battling Swannies, the first game after the sale just happened to be at Princes Park against the Blues.

Edelsten was hosted by Carlton president John Elliott, another of the era’s high flyers, where he presented him with a special entree in the shape of a swan.

It wouldn’t be the last time Elliott took a keen interest in the Swans.

On the Football Map

A red letter day for Sydney after the Blues and Swans attract a record crowd in 1986.

Sun footy writer Peter Simunovich summed it up neatly.

“The Sydney Swans created their own history yesterday when they beat Carlton before a record crowd of 37,873 at the SCG. It will be remembered as the day football cracked the Harbour City and it also established the identity of the Swans – who want to be known as Sydney – as that city’s team.”

Sydney were sitting on top of the ladder early in 1986 with a newly Edelsten-purchased team and the pull of the Blues proved irresistible in smashing their previous crowd record by 12,000.

A successful team against the biggest club in Victoria showed what was possible and sparked a string of healthy crowds for the rest of the season.

Their top of the table clash with Hawthorn ahead of the finals even bested the Carton total – more than 39,000 pouring in.

Come September the Swans took on the Blues in their first final as a Sydney team. Under today’s rules it would have been played in Sydney as the higher place team, but alas in VFL times the Swans were sent to the MCG. After losing to the Blues they were bundled out in straight sets the next week.

The Williams fiasco 

What Carlton gave with crowd pulling power, they were also ready to take away.

Through the 1980s they’d lured Swans stars David Rhys-Jones and Bernie Evans away from Sydney, but the biggest and most controversial deal was the one that landed Brownlow Medallist Greg Williams.

David Rhys-Jones was a Sydney Swans pioneer, but left for Carlton

The Swans bubble had burst by the 1990s as they sat at the tailend of the ladder, beset by financial issues and bandaid ownership solutions.

Meanwhile Carlton were in a rare lull. To arrest that they decided to get the best midfielder in the game; Greg Williams, a Sydney player.

It set off a bizarre chain of events.

Williams had two years of a contract to run but wanted out. The Swans wouldn’t budge as both Carlton and St Kilda vied for his services, they even went to court to stop Carlton negotiating with Williams while he was still under contract.

A relieved Greg Williams after the Sydney Swans agreed to trade him to Carlton.

Eventually they would relent, it all hinging on whether Carton could convince young forward Simon Minton-Connell to agree to be traded to Sydney. What made matters more crazy was that Minton-Connell’s uncle, Peter Hudson, happened to be the Football Manager of St Kilda who was also chasing Williams. If Minton-Connell wouldn’t move the Saints would be in the box seat.

Ultimately Minton-Connell agreed and Williams was traded to the Blues.

However, that wasn’t the end of it.

When the Swans refused to move Williams, it was reported that Williams and his manager forwarded a letter to the AFL that alleged contract impropriety by the Swans to circumvent the salary cap.

Williams had two contracts, given that was against the rules, his last resort was to allege that any contract he had with the Swans was null and void and he should be able to move.

It was the ultimate scare tactic that backfired.

As Mike Sheahan reported at the time “the man with the quickest, most creative hands in football had shot himself in the foot.”

Greg Williams' manager compared his charge to Lee Harvey Oswald.

An investigation ensued that saw the Swans fined $25,000, and Williams deregistered for 6 games, delaying the start to his new career at Carlton. Conspiracy theorists said this was a payback to Carlton for robbing the floundering Swans of their best player.

His manager Peter Jess, perhaps fresh from watching Oliver Stone’s JFK, said Williams had “been made the biggest scapegoat since Lee Harvey Oswald.”

Blues President John Elliott was in agreement: “It is the most disgraceful decision I’ve ever seen a body take”

The ‘Tooheys Blues’ takeover 

If the Williams raid was bold, 12 months later Elliott’s next swipe at what was a rotting Swans carcass was as brazen as it gets.

Yet it indirectly saved the Sydney experiment.

By the end of 1992 the Swans were destitute with obituaries written, the Victorian clubs wanted no more handouts and were lining up to vote the Swans out of existence.

Then the AFL played a canny hand. CEO Ross Oakley had chatted to Carlton about what the AFL could do if the Swans disappeared.

They’d need a presence in Sydney and maybe Carlton, who drew a crowd there like no other, could help.

The Blues got the drift and quickly pulled together a proposal. If the Swans were dead, they would volunteer to play all of their away games in Sydney at the SCG while still keeping their home games at Princes Park.

Carlton's 'offer' to play away games in Sydney.

“John Elliott was a key, he could see the obvious advantage of it. But deep-down he knew it was an outside chance because the Commission‘s number one option was to have a Sydney team operating in the city,” Oakley told CODE Sports in 2022.

The Blues even started negotiations with the Sydney brewer Tooheys to become its major sponsor to tie in with the move; they’d be known as the Tooheys Blues in the harbour city.

It would have added millions to Carlton’s bottom line.

“Carlton had the people on-board to get into the Sydney market and engender support. It certainly would have worked for them, but it would have given Carlton a massive advantage,” says Oakley.

Ross Oakley helped engineer an offer that clubs couldn’t stomach.

There was a method to the madness from the AFL.

“We were half-serious about it (Carlton), but we thought it might bring the clubs to the table about what was required to assist the Sydney market. There was quite an element of tactics in it,” Oakley recalls.

When the plan was spelled out as the clubs met to vote on the Swans future, the blood started to drain from Victorian club bosses faces when they realised what was being handed to Carlton.

Collingwood President Allan McAllister who days earlier had been vocal about the Swans not being assisted again had changed his tune, screening indignation at what the Carlton takeover would do to the leagues.

Suddenly saving the Swans seemed the lesser of two evils.

The vote completely flipped, and the Swans survived.

Carlton president John Elliott reveals the AFL had sounded out the Blues about replacing the Swans as Sydney's team on the SCG if Sydney folded.

At the time one club chief said the AFL had either been incredibly stupid or incredibly intelligent in relation to the Carlton deal.

Today history makes it clear which side Oakley falls on for this matter.

“It certainly achieved the result we wanted,” Oakley said.

“Our first option was achieved using our second option as a possibility. We dragged them to the line screaming and yelling.”

When the Blues take on the Swans this Friday at the SCG spare a thought for what might have been.

Another Carlton ‘away’ game, but not against Sydney.

Originally published as AFL: Carlton vs. Sydney match of the round, memories of the Blues’ preying on struggling Swans