Honeyball takes a look at the best 23 for Sydney ahead of the 2026 AFL season, noting ins and outs, key injuries, plus a look at relevant AFL Fantasy and SuperCoach players.
We’ve used quotes from Swans coach Dean Cox’s chat on afl.com.au’s Your Coach podcast to offer additional insight on relevant players.
Ins: Noah Chamberlain (Category B rookie), Billy Cootee (No.42 draft pick), Charlie Curnow (trade, Carlton), Liam Hetherton (Category B rookie), Max King (No.49 draft pick, Academy), Harry Kyle (No.14 draft pick, Academy), Jevan Phillipou (No.35 draft pick), Malcolm Rosas jnr (trade, Gold Coast), Jai Serong (trade, Hawthorn)
Outs: Jack Buller (trade, Collingwood), Oliver Florent (trade, Carlton), Robbie Fox (delisted), Aaron Francis (delisted), Will Hayward (trade, Carlton), Indhi Kirk (delisted), Blake Leidler (delisted), Caleb Mitchell (delisted), Ben Paton (delisted)
Key Injuries: Harry Cunningham (quad)
Likely Round One 23
B: L.Melican, T.McCartin, D.Rampe
HB: S.Wicks, N.Blakey, C.Mills
C: J.Jordon, I.Heeney, M.Roberts
HF: M.Rosas, J.Rowbottom, T.Papley
F: J.Amartey, C.Curnow, L.McDonald
Foll: B.Grundy, E.Gulden, Ch.Warner
I/C: J.McInerney, J.Serong, J.Lloyd, A.Sheldrick, R.Bice
Relevant Players
Jai Serong
Errol Gulden
Brodie Grundy, Isaac Heeney
Charlie Curnow
Sydney coach Dean Cox: “He’s fitted in really well and he just has a jovial outlook on life. He loves going for a surf, he loves spending time at the beach, walking around with his shirt off and we want to really embrace that. He’s here for a reason, which is on and off field as well.”
Callum Mills
Cox: “The thing we talk about with players is where they want to play, and he might want to play at times through the middle of the ground, but his first thing is ‘What does the team want? And where does the team need me?’. He’s a very dangerous half-back. He showed that at times last year, but that was off not training. So he’s training really well and we hope for a bit of luck throughout the year that he can string a year together.”
