Sydney Swans’ star Chloe Molloy is brushing individual accolades aside with room for improvement
Swans co-captain Chloe Molloy has brushed aside personal accolades despite leading the AFLW goalkicking, focusing instead on her undefeated team's pursuit of perfection.
The Swans might be celebrating the best start to an AFLW season in their history, but co-captain Chloe Molloy knows there’s still plenty of room for improvement as they try and remain the chasers in 2025.
Following their win against Fremantle on Sunday, Sydney is 4-0 this year, and with their next two games against bottom-eight sides in Collingwood and the Giants, there is every chance they start their campaign 6-0.
Molloy has been pivotal to that success, kicking 13 goals across their opening four matches. That included an incredible goal of the year contender against the Dockers from the pocket.
However, just like the Swans themselves, Molloy is “chasing perfection”, and there is a real desire within the team to make sure they capitalise on their brilliant start to the year.
“I’m more caught up on the goal I missed in front,” Molloy said on Tuesday. “That’s what’s been playing through my mind, a blunder of forward craft, I haven’t thought much about the one in my pocket.
“For the past 12 months, I’ve had a ball in my hand, so I don’t know, maybe some weird juju connection with me and the football, and it worked out for me.
“The start is incredible … creating more history within the four walls. You’ve got to celebrate … but that window can’t be dragged out too long. We’ve still got a whole season to go, and we’ve got some really tough competitors coming up.
“Four quarters of football, I don’t think we’ve strung together just yet. This team wants to get to the pointy end of the season, so we’ve set ourselves up for a really good campaign, but the desire and the hunger to be better is brewing every week.”
The Swans are one of four undefeated teams through the opening four rounds, and Molloy concedes that will put them in the category of “being chased” for the rest of the year. Yet, the focus for Sydney is trying to maintain that feeling of being the chaser, particularly with the likes of the Kangaroos and Demons still sitting ahead of them.
For the Swans to become a more complete team, Molloy wants the side to focus on their slow starts, even if it has been a good way to show their maturity in recent weeks.
“We don’t want to start slow, and it’s something that we are addressing,” Molloy said.
“We’ve spoken about it, the next step is to address what are the tangibles? What does it look like to start fast? And we need to implement that into training. We need to train to win during the week.
“But then on the flip side, you have to look at how mature a group for us to be able to fight back. For us to be able to play Bloods footy and be gritty in the way we crawl back. Last season, all those arm wrestles went the other way, but this year … they are going our way now.”
A key difference is having a fit and firing Molloy on the field. Her remarkable recovery from an ACL injury has been well-documented, with the 26-year-old leading the AFLW goalkicking charts and in the top 10 for the AFLCA AFLW player of the year.
But despite being tipped to be a record breaker by season’s end, Molloy is clearly focused on something much bigger.
“I mean, records schmecords, I’m not too phased about it,” Molloy said. “My role is whatever’s given to me that week; it’s going to look different each week.
This team is so versatile that anyone who’s been given a role can step up to that, but I will do anything for the team.
“I don’t buy into the outside noise. The most I care about, and all I care about, is inside the four walls. And I’m the beneficiary at the moment of some beautiful play on the field.”
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Originally published as Sydney Swans’ star Chloe Molloy is brushing individual accolades aside with room for improvement
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