{"id":490125,"date":"2026-02-19T12:35:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/490125\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T12:35:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T12:35:26","slug":"charlie-curnow-stars-in-first-sydney-swans-outing-in-win-over-western-bulldogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/490125\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Curnow stars in first Sydney Swans outing in win over Western Bulldogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlie Curnow<\/a> has booted four goals in his first showing in Sydney<\/a> colours as the club took down the Western Bulldogs<\/a> in a scratch match 99-66.<\/p>\n

The dual Coleman Medallist joined the Swans in the trade period, with the club handing three first round picks, Will Hayward and Ollie Florent to Carlton<\/a> for his services.<\/p>\n

And after another injury interrupted year in 2025, Curnow has trained strongly and hit the pre-season in good form. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: Magpies respond to online backlash as members left ‘horrified’<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Charlie<\/p>\n

Charlie Curnow kicks a goal in his first Swans action.\u00a0Sydney Swans<\/p>\n

He kicked three of his goals off silver service from star midfielder Errol Gulden, a combo that will likely become quite common across the season.<\/p>\n

“A sublime kick – what a start for Curnow,” commentator Damian Watson said on Fox Footy after the first goal.<\/p>\n

Ex Swans star Dan Hannebery was equally impressed with the 29-year-old’s work across the afternoon.<\/p>\n

“Great finish by Charlie. He’d be loving that. Gulden’s hit him up twice now. He’d be licking his lips whenever Errol’s coming towards him.”<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs were considerably understrength for the scratch match on their home deck of Whitten Oval.<\/p>\n

Marcus Bontempelli, Tim English, Aaron Naughton, Sam Darcy, Ed Richards and Rory Lobb all didn’t play due to Origin, while Cody Weightman, Laitham Vandermeer and Adam Treloar missed with injuries.<\/p>\n

Sydney was without Chad Warner, who played in Origin, while Tom Papley and Justin McInerney were their notable injury absences. <\/p>\n

Star Dogs defender Bailey Dale had his afternoon cut short with a knee issue. He was spotted with a bandage on his knee after the game.<\/p>\n

Curnow took full advantage of the understrength backline with his four goals, while the Bulldogs’ key defensive concerns across the summer seemingly remain.<\/p>\n

Fellow Swans key forward Logan McDonald also kicked four in his first game back after missing the entire 2025 season.<\/p>\n

No official stats were kept for the practice game, but Hannebery rated Gulden as the best player on the ground. <\/p>\n

“He’s been my pick of the bunch. His run from forward 50 to defensive 50 is a sight to behold,” the Swans champion said. <\/p>\n

“Impressive performance (by Sydney). They looked the stronger side, clearly the better side on paper and they played like it.<\/p>\n

“Gulden looked like he had not missed a beat. It was super impressive.”<\/p>\n

The other half of the Curnow trade was in action for Carlton on Wednesday night, with both Will Hayward and Ollie Florent playing well in their win over Brisbane. <\/p>\n

For the Dogs, Matt Kennedy was strong in an undermanned midfield, while youngster Lachie Jacques looks like a potential round one bolter.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs will host Hawthorn on February 27 in their next pre-season hit-out, while Sydney hosts GWS the day before. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlie Curnow has booted four goals in his first showing in Sydney colours as the club took down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-490125","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\/490125","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=490125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}