{"id":440576,"date":"2026-01-27T11:23:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T11:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440576\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T11:23:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T11:23:30","slug":"cox-reveals-return-timeline-for-hurt-forward-lauds-immediate-curnow-impact-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/440576\/","title":{"rendered":"Cox reveals return timeline for hurt forward, lauds immediate Curnow impact – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Sydney coach Dean Cox<\/a> has heaped praise on recruit Charlie Curnow<\/a> following his move from the Blues in the recent trade period.<\/p>\n

Cox said Curnow had made an immediate impression since arriving at the club, both on and off the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s been great ever since he walked through the door,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis work ethic and appetite to train… he’s connected really well with every player since he’s been here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox acknowledged that integrating a key forward of Curnow’s calibre into Sydney’s system was always going to take time, but said the early signs had been encouraging.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s building into the system and the way we want to play, that was always going to take time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Swans coach also highlighted the Coleman medallist’s positive influence on Sydney’s group of emerging forwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s been really good for Logan (McDonald), for Joel (Amartey), for Hayden (McLean), for Malcolm (Rosas), for Jesse Dattoli<\/a>,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s about trying to complement each other at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Cox provided a positive update on star small forward Tom Papley<\/a>, who has been hampered by a calf issue across the pre-season, first revealed by <\/a>Zero Hanger<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s doing some decent running sessions and will join in some skill work next week,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it’s just about getting the volume we need into him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox confirmed Papley is expected to feature at some point during the Swans’ match simulations and practice games before the home and away season begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve still got three intra-club matches and two against opposition, we expect him to be a part of some of them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A fit and firing Tom Papley<\/a> at the feet of Curnow is an exciting prospect for Swans fans, who were left disappointed in 2025 following a lacklustre 10th-place finish.<\/p>\n

Cox also spoke on captain Callum Mills<\/a>, who is closing in on a return from a hamstring setback. After featuring in the midfield at times in recent years, Cox expects Mills to take control of his backline.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the minute he’ll be playing across half-back,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe also has the ability to move up the ground if we need him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney coach Dean Cox has heaped praise on recruit Charlie Curnow following his move from the Blues in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-440576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440576","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=440576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}