![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761905535_672_r1566484_2_999x999_1-1.jpg&w=130&h=130&scale=crop&location=center.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n“It was definitely tough,” Florent told afl.com.au.<\/p>\n
“They (Sydney) pretty much just said we want you out. We want you gone.”<\/p>\n
Hayward, who like Florent played 184 AFL games for the Swans, said he had just two phone calls from Sydney coach Dean Cox during the trade period.<\/p>\n
“Those phone calls made it pretty easy to want to join Carlton,” he told the AFL’s website.<\/p>\n
“It probably could’ve been handled better.<\/p>\n
Florent was in and out of the Swans best 22 last season.\u00a0Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
“That club is full of great people, it’s probably just a little slip-up with how it was handled.”<\/p>\n
Florent was traded to Carlton for a future third-round draft pick.<\/p>\n
And Hayward was part of a trade deal that sealed ex-Blues forward Charlie Curnow’s move north to Sydney.<\/p>\n
The Swans gave the Blues pick 11, first-round draft picks in 2026 and 2027 plus Hayward.<\/p>\n
In return, Sydney received Curnow, picks 31 and 42, plus a 2027 second-round draft selection in return.<\/p>\n
While both Hayward and Florent expressed misgivings about the trade process, both said they held no ill-will against the Swans.<\/p>\n
Hayward almost joined the Blues at the end of the 2024 season but opted to sign a four-year contract extension to remain at Sydney.<\/p>\n
“I was really close to coming here (Carlton) last year,” Hayward said.<\/p>\n
“I had some really good chats with ‘Vossy’ (Blues coach Michael Voss) and the team.<\/p>\n
“After Sydney got to where they needed to get to (with a new contract offer) I remember texting (recruiting manager) Mick Agresta and saying: ‘If shit ever hits the fan, this is the only other club I’d consider playing for’.<\/p>\n
“Well, shit hit the fan. And here we are.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlton recruits Ollie Florent and Will Hayward believe their exits from Sydney could have been better handled. Florent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-252966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}