The Footy Boss: An in-depth look at all aspects of the Sydney Swans

Former Carlton footy boss Brad Lloyd knows all about what Charlie Curnow brings to the table — both on and off the field. Lloyd assesses Curnow’s 2025 and what he can provide the Swans.

Sydney has a new forward target, having landed Charlie Curnow from Carlton in a big trade right before the deadline.

The move to get Charlie to Sydney not only made sense for the Swans, but for the Blues and Charlie himself.

It was a late trade before the deadline but both clubs will walk away pleased and Charlie’s talent is so great that I think he will have a big impact on the Swans.

THE CURNOW TRADE

Charlie Curnow’s abilities have left me scratching my head more than any player that I have watched live with what he can do.

Even just standing behind the goal net in the warm up some weeks, the athleticism and talent he has is unbelievable. When the ball comes quickly into the forward line I think he is one of the hardest players to stop in the competition. It was a long season for Charlie in 2025 but he is a generational talent.

Sadly for Carlton, trading him is a loss from the point of view of farewelling a star player, but I think the trade needed to happen for all parties, I think he is the kind of player who would have struggled to go back after the deal fell over.

Sydney get an unbelievably exciting talent and Carlton get some really important draft picks they can build around so both clubs leave really content with how things ended up.

I think Charlie genuinely loved his time at Carlton, he was always a popular teammate and player. He had a great family connection at the club with older brother Ed, and played with him for eight years. He has a great, supportive family, including parents David and Cassie, who were firmly entrenched in the club.

A lot of people have beefed up relationship issues with Blues coach Michael Voss but I never witnessed a strain between the two of them. ‘Vossy’ is a quality person who has honest conversations and that would have been no different with Charlie.

From what I could see, Charlie just needed a change as a person and a player.

I don’t think it was a sudden decision and the change of scenery will be good for him.

The change of lifestyle and the excitement of going up to a new beach location and a club potentially out of the spotlight, they are things that either consciously or subconsciously would have been brewing in Charlie’s mind for a period.

Charlie is a person who has interests outside of footy, he loves the ocean, has business interests and I think Sydney is a really suitable club for him, with that beach lifestyle.

Charlie Curnow in his new colours. Picture: Willson/AFL Photos

There is no doubt that time pressure is something that becomes a real factor late in the trade period and this deal wasn’t completed until three minutes before the deadline.

I’m not sure how much the clubs involved in this trade were waiting but often it is a tactic to wait to see if the other club does buckle. But at the same time you need to be really organised and have paperwork and how you are going to actually facilitate the deal and be across the mechanics to get to the AFL.

It would have been fairly stressful for everyone. Clearly it is a significant trade.

Charlie is very highly rated at Carlton and highly respected as a player and teammate so it was always going to need to be that big type of deal to go ahead with it.

It wasn’t going to happen with a basic deal. Carlton did the right thing holding for the extra pick and Sydney equally wanted him so they made the right call, too.

Sydney is still working their way through the middle six part of the ladder so it could still end up as some good picks for Carlton.

Charlie has obviously had some body issues particularly with his knees.

I don’t think he is ever going to have the perfect knee, but I do think he has a number of high end seasons left in him.

Listening to Charlie speak in recent days and weeks, he is also conscious he is coming to the back-end of his career and just wants to go out and enjoy his footy.

Curnow in the gym at Swans HQ for the first time. Picture: Phil Hillyard

And in action for the Blues last season. Picture: Michael Klein

He is a clutch player and a player you look to when the goals need to be kicked quickly and you need to generate some energy. He has done that many, many times at Carlton.

Some of his kicks from outside 50 and the way he can turn on a dime and snap the ball, he is such a rare figure with his size and movement and overall talent.

The nature of Sydney’s trade for Curnow meant reliable players Ollie Florent and Will Hayward ended up at Carlton.

Those conversations with players who are potentially on the move can be difficult but I think players are pretty good these days, they are across player movement and the professional nature of the game.

It seemed the Swans were open to Florent looking for new opportunities and he is a Victorian boy originally.

The Blues have liked those two players. Hayward has been on their radar for some time. Carlton national recruiting manager Mick Agresta worked in recruiting at Sydney when the Swans drafted Hayward and I would think he would have had his eye on him in recent seasons.

THE PLAYING LIST

IN:Charlie Curnow (Carlton), Malcolm Rosas Jr (Gold Coast), Jai Serong (Hawthorn)

OUT:Will Hayward (Carlton), Ollie Florent (Carlton), Jack Buller (Collingwood), Robbie Fox, Aaron Francis, Indhi Kirk, Blake Leidler, Caleb Mitchell, Ben Paton (delisted)

LIST GAPS

Sydney went out to the market to find more defensive support and traded for Hawthorn’s Jai Serong. The Swans may have been looking for more tall defensive support alongside Tom McCartin, given Nick Blakey played some time as a tall defender last year when he is probably best suited to being a rebounder. Joel Hamling has been brought in to do that job and played 14 games last year.

LIST STRENGTHS

Sydney has three genuine stars in the midfield in Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner and Errol Gulden. Their smarts, their explosiveness and their acceleration make them all high-end players and they are really hard to stop. When they get going, if they are looking up and seeing Charlie Curnow in the forward line on a more compact oval like the SCG, it is pretty exciting for them.

DRAFT HAND

Picks – 31, 32, 42, 63

Obviously it is a significantly impacted draft hand with a player like Charlie Curnow coming in.

Sydney are not the sort of club I would think that would ever want to bottom out, they are not a rebuilding club particularly in a non-traditional football state.

So while they traded three first rounders to get Curnow, first round picks are getting easier to get now than in the past, when if you lost a future first you wouldn’t get one back. Now with free agency and some of the money being offered and the ability to trade future picks a few years out, there are a lot more future first round picks moving around. The Swans may not actually have trouble to get a first-round pick back in.

SALARY CAP

Sydney clearly have some stars throughout the midfield and with Blakey in defence and Curnow in the forward line so they will have some TPP (total player payments) scenarios to work through.

Ideally you want your player ages to be staggered a little bit from a TPP point of view.

You want them to be able to play well at the same time but you don’t want them to all be on high end money at the same time. Callum Mills (28 years old), Curnow (28) and Heeney (29) are in their late 20s, and Gulden (23), Warner (24) and Blakey (25) are coming into their mid-20s

They have a pretty good staggered group of players where they can chose to front-end and back-end contracts through that so they would be pretty well placed to manage their TPP.

Hayward and Florent leaving as well will have compensated for some of the money that is going to Curnow, so they are balancing that pretty well. Brodie Grundy is another one that they seemed to get on a good arrangement with Collingwood in that trade.

HIGH PERFORMANCE CHECK-IN

In medical teams you have a really good spread of doctors and physios and your high performance manager but you are always really proactive to get specialists in when that is required.

Bill Knowles, who will spend some time at Sydney over pre-season, is renowned for doing return to play rehab. A lot of players over the years have gone over to the US and seen him for a number of weeks to build up their strength and movement and get back in to more match play.

Seeking outside help is something that is encouraged within clubs these days and obviously needs to be budgeted for in soft caps to send players overseas.

I think it is important in the player’s rehabilitation and confidence in their body moving forward and it is good to show the player they are doing everything they possibly can to give them the best chance at returning in the best possible shape.

THE COACH’S BOX

Dean Cox is entering his second season in charge at the Swans and I think it’s pretty important for the new coach to bring a new feel and some different voices.

The Swans seem to be one of the more experienced coaching groups now and have some good quality experience. Jarrad McVeigh has been the heart and soul of the footy club so he will be sorely missed.

I think Simon Goodwin is a wonderful appointment for the club as coaching director. Dean Cox has done a good apprenticeship but at the same time he is a new senior coach so to have someone who has been in the chair for a long time, Simon will be an enormous support.

The New South Wales clubs have often had their challenges in getting new coaches on board because of the cost of living pressures in Sydney and the soft cap, so the opportunity with Goodwin having some family links to Sydney fits perfectly for the Swans, and importantly for Cox. It seems to be an ideal appointment.

Wayne Campbell is a really experienced person to add into the Swans academy, joining the club after being Gold Coast’s football GM.

You look around their coaching and football department with Leon Cameron in there as well as footy GM and they would be one of the more senior groups I would think.

What will Dean Cox’s second season at Sydney bring? Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

FRONT OFFICE

Matthew Pavlich has stepped in for Tom Harley as Sydney’s new CEO and he is someone I got to know during my time working at Fremantle.

I feel like he is in the Tom Harley mould to a degree. He is on the younger side but most importantly he is a good quality person with good values and highly respected in the industry, particularly in Western Australia, as a Fremantle champion.

He was seen as a left-field choice when the news came out but when you go through his profile, including business success, educated with an MBA and his long time media work, he has a lot going for him in that CEO role.

‘Pav’ is a high quality person. He is a really stable sort of a person with high values but also extroverted enough at the same time to be able to mix it with the corporates up in Sydney. I saw Harley on a number of occasions do it really well how he managed the Sydney board and also the corporate groups and that is something Pav can do really well also.

His main challenge in the new role will be that he has played at a footy club and been president of the AFLPA, but hasn’t worked at a footy club to my knowledge day-to-day, it may take some adjusting to get into the rhythm of working in a front office.

Originally published as The Footy Boss: An in-depth look at all aspects of the Sydney Swans