In the final minutes of the AFL’s trade deadline, Carlton sent Charlie Curnow to Sydney for three first-round picks and classy forward Will Hayward.
But as the clock was ticking down to trade period buzzer, the two teams remained in a negotiation stand-off.
Carlton wanted that third first-round pick, and the Swans were reluctant to budge.
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Michael Voss and Charlie Curnow in 2023. AFL Photos via Getty Images
The star forward was keen to get to either Sydney or Geelong, despite remaining contracted through 2029.
And now club chief executive Graham Wright has revealed that with 10 minutes to go in the trade period, coach Michael Voss picked up the phone and rang Curnow.
And that call delivered the news that the dual Coleman Medallist would seemingly be remaining at the Blues in 2026.
“Everyone in the lead up was disappointed and didn’t want Charlie to go, and we were the same,” Wright told SEN on Monday.
“With 10 minutes out from the trade period finishing, Vossy rang Charlie and said, ‘it’s not going to happen, you’ll be with us’. That’s where we thought it would be.
“I’m sure our members and supporters would have loved Charlie to stay and we were the same, but when it became clear that he wasn’t going to… we didn’t have a lot of feedback through our membership that was negative.
“We feel we got the best deal for him.”
The Swans buckled to Carlton’s demands at the last minute, but likely don’t have many regrets themselves.
Charlie Curnow kicks a goal in his first Swans action. Sydney Swans
Curnow kicked four goals in their practice match win over the Western Bulldogs and trained fully over summer, despite missing most of 2025 following multiple knee surgeries.
He looms as potentially the final piece of the premiership puzzle for Sydney if he can stay healthy.
From a Carlton perspective, Wright believes that the key forward’s departure was part of an on-field and cultural reset for the club.
“We probably did that (reset the club) with Charlie Curnow leaving, to be honest,” he said.
“When you look at it, he is a two-time Coleman Medallist – I know he only kicked 32 goals last year for us and he was injured at the back half of the year so didn’t play the last three or four games – he still had four years left on a contract.
“He made it very, very clear that he didn’t want to (stay at Carlton). From my perspective, I want people to be at the football club with gratitude, and people that just genuinely want to be a part of football club.
“When we knew that Charlie was as desperate as he was to get out, it’s a little bit of a reset because we’re taking a few draft picks.
Will Hayward of the Blues celebrates a goal during a match simulation game. AFL Photos via Getty Images
“We were lucky to get Will Hayward in that as well, but we felt that that would solidify us for bringing (father-son draftee) Harry Dean in last year, and we’ve been lucky enough to have Cody Walker commit himself to come next year.
“There’s salary cap space that is created, we bring in Ben Ainsworth, we bring in Campbell Chesser and also Ollie Florent and Liam Reidy – five new players, and overall, that is a bit of a reset. We feel like it has us in a good spot going forward.”
Cody Walker, the son of former Carlton star Andrew Walker, is rated as potentially the best player in the 2026 draft class, and will join the Blues at the end of the year.
Having Sydney’s 2026 first round pick, alongside their own, will certainly help them match a bid for him in the upcoming draft.
The Blues and Swans will meet in Opening Round, meaning Curnow, Hayward and Ollie Florent will all face their old sides first up.
The AFL did not schedule a second meeting between the two teams however, meaning most Carlton fans will have to wait until 2027 to greet Curnow in Victoria.