{"id":451433,"date":"2026-02-01T10:31:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T10:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/451433\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T10:31:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T10:31:45","slug":"afl-2026-last-year-was-a-shambles-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/451433\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: \u2018Last year was a shambles\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTo leave a club [Carlton] is a hard decision to make, but to actually kind of go, \u2018This isn\u2019t right for me right now, where I\u2019m at in life, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019m as good a person as I can be here at this football club \u2026 \u2019 And then to put your balls on the line and actually move, it was a fair bit of emotion,\u201d Curnow said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to just dissecting it with my partner [Tiana Simic] and having a red wine on the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curnow credits Simic\u2019s stellar support throughout the trade period, but also spoke extensively about his brother Ed, a former Carlton player who racked up 221 games over 12 years at the club. Although still loyal to Carlton, Ed\u2019s priority was to ensure his younger brother did what was best for him.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Ed] guided me through, to help me understand my situation a bit more, but he always made it so you could kind of make your own decision and find your own way, make your own mistakes …<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was great through the trade period, but he would have been torn a little bit inside because he does love the Blues, and I do, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he\u2019s loving it [the move to Sydney]. He\u2019s got four kids, and they all got Sydney Swans blankets and they\u2019re listening to the Swans theme song flat-out \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cHe directed me through the situation I was in and probably made me realise that it was warranted how I was feeling at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ed<\/p>\n

Ed Curnow (left) and Charlie Curnow in 2018.Credit: AFL Media \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Curnow is settled at his new home near Tamarama Beach. He said this is the best he had felt in two years. That\u2019s largely down to completing a full pre-season, one in which he has relished tangling with the Swans defenders. Last year Curnow managed 18 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling good and strong. And it was unfortunate, but I was able to finish the season a bit earlier last year, and I put my body first, which is probably what I hadn\u2019t done for a long time \u2013 because you just think about toughing it out and playing game after game. In hindsight, there\u2019s probably games I just shouldn\u2019t have played, I reckon, last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was like a shambles \u2026 I had to get ankle surgery because I played through an ankle injury the year before \u2026 and then I had to get two knee surgeries after that \u2019cause for whatever reason a few things just didn\u2019t get picked up, which were just maintenance stuff, but it means I just couldn\u2019t do pre-season [last year]. And then I ended up playing round two, which, when you start behind like that, you need to not play for a while and try and work your way back into the season, which I didn\u2019t really do.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his season ended in July due to injury, Curnow had plenty of time to look at other AFL clubs. Although the Swans were disappointing last season, finishing 10th, Curnow said he believed the club\u2019s culture and history still presented a huge upside.<\/p>\n

\u201cEd and me, we spoke about this. If you look at the last 20 years across the competition, there\u2019s probably like three clubs, I\u2019d say, that stand out to you as a footballer inside the football system … Hawthorn, Geelong, Sydney,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s three clubs you\u2019re like, their culture\u2019s been pretty strong and they look like they train hard and they look like they have a lot of fun along the way and they\u2019ve generally had a lot of this success, which is right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve played a lot of finals campaigns, made it to the last day and won a couple along the way recently, too \u2013 like 2012, I mean, you\u2019d still say recent success.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven with the [lost] grand finals \u2013 making the grand finals is seriously hard, it was pretty obvious to me that there\u2019s obviously something going on that\u2019s good here, and I was just excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the interview, Curnow is regularly greeted by his new teammates, with whom he has built friendships. The full-forward is conscious that two popular former players, Will Hayward and Ollie Florent, have departed to help facilitate his trade, and is motivated to repay the faith shown in him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got guys that have played a lot of footy and they\u2019re still quite young, so I\u2019m looking at that, and obviously they\u2019ve got some absolute stars that dominate, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really thankful for the club because, to make something happen \u2026 they got me out of some deep water there, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, the effort was shown from their end, and everything they said, they did. It\u2019s awesome. Unfortunately, they had to lose a few boys, but hopefully, it works out.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a scar on Curnow\u2019s right knee from previous surgeries, which almost jeopardised his career in 2020. The full-forward is pleased with his pre-season work and said the scope he had done on his knee in recent months was just part of the routine for many footballers.<\/p>\n

\"Charlie<\/p>\n

Charlie Curnow with his new teammates at the Swans.Credit: Sam Mooy<\/p>\n

\u201cYou feel more pressure when you know you\u2019re underdone \u2013 that\u2019s when it\u2019s hard,\u201d Curnow said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve come back from a huge knee injury [before]. It\u2019s been talked up heaps because it was part of the trade, but this is nothing like to what I\u2019ve come back from. This is just a knee-scope, everyone has one of them every year, pretty much, I just need to get back to where I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many new arrivals to Sydney, Curnow has focused on working hard in his new job and rarely leaving the beaches of the eastern suburbs. He is keen to explore the whole city, including the western suburbs, the inner city and the northern beaches. Ultimately, he has come to Sydney to help win the club\u2019s first premiership since 2012.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Curnow is enjoying the perfect service from Errol Gulden\u2019s left boot and building a strong partnership with the club\u2019s other midfield stars, Isaac Heeney and Chad Warner.<\/p>\n

Curnow has been described as the missing piece in the Swans\u2019 puzzle, a physical goalkicking threat that can finally provide a ruthless target for the dynamic midfield. He has received a supportive message from former star Swans full-forward Lance Franklin, but sees himself in a completely different mould.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to come here and generally play some really exciting footy,\u201d Curnow said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I feel like we\u2019ve got something awesome here. I don\u2019t know what it is, there\u2019s a good vibe at the moment, and it\u2019d be unreal to take home the big one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like they\u2019ve had a fair bit of amazing football over the last four years, so to top it off and be able to come here and join them is unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTo leave a club [Carlton] is a hard decision to make, but to actually kind of go, \u2018This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-451433","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\/451433","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=451433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}