Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Swans will start the season without Braeden Campbell (shin) and Harry Cunningham, but Errol Gulden is good to go despite suffering a minor ankle injury in last week\u2019s practice match against GWS.
The Blues, meanwhile, have opted for Mitch McGovern and Lewis Young ahead of pre-season Supplemental Selection Period (SSP) signing Wade Derksen in a key defensive role to support Jacob Weitering, who overcame a rib issue sustained in the State of Origin game. <\/p>\n
Though fellow SSP signing Elijah Hollands returns after a disrupted five-game 2025 season due to off-field drama.<\/p>\n
Carlton is still without Francis Evans (knee), Nick Haynes (ankle), Adam Cerra (hamstring), Matt Cottrell (knee) and Jesse Motlop (ACL). <\/p>\n
OPENING ROUND TEAMS AND FIXTURE (All times AEDT)<\/p>\n
SYDNEY SWANS v CARLTON<\/p>\n
Thursday March 5, 7:30pm at the SCG<\/p>\n
SWANS<\/p>\n
B: L.Melican, T.McCartin, D.Rampe<\/p>\n
HB: C.Mills (c), N.Blakey, S.Wicks<\/p>\n
C: J.Jordon, I.Heeney, M.Roberts<\/p>\n
HF: M.Rosas, J.Rowbottom, T.Papley<\/p>\n
F: J.Amartey, C.Curnow, L.McDonald<\/p>\n
R: B.Grundy, E.Gulden, Ch.Warner<\/p>\n
I\/C: R.Bice, J.McInerney, J.Serong, J.Lloyd, A.Sheldrick<\/p>\n
EMG: P.Ladhams, Co.Warner, H.McLean<\/p>\n
BLUES<\/p>\n
B: O.Florent, J.Weitering, L.Young <\/p>\n
HB: H.Dean, M.McGovern, A.Saad<\/p>\n
C: O.Hollands, P.Cripps (c), W.Hayward<\/p>\n
HF: L.Fogarty, H.McKay, B.Ainsworth<\/p>\n
F: J.Smith, B.Kemp, A.Moir<\/p>\n
R: M.Pittonet, G.Hewett, S.Walsh<\/p>\n
I\/C: Z.Williams, L.Reidy, E.Hollands, C.Chesser, C.Lord<\/p>\n
EMG: T.Byrne, H.O\u2019Keeffe, J.Boyd<\/p>\n
GOLD COAST SUNS v GEELONG<\/p>\n
Friday March 6, 8:05pm at People First Stadium<\/p>\n
SUNS<\/p>\n
TBA Thursday evening<\/p>\n
CATS<\/p>\n
TBA Thursday evening<\/p>\n
GWS GIANTS v HAWTHORN<\/p>\n
Saturday March 7, 4:15pm at ENGIE Stadium<\/p>\n
GIANTS<\/p>\n
TBA Thursday evening<\/p>\n
HAWKS<\/p>\n
TBA Thursday evening<\/p>\n
BRISBANE LIONS v WESTERN BULLDOGS<\/p>\n
Saturday March 7, 7:35pm at the Gabba<\/p>\n
LIONS<\/p>\n
TBA Thursday evening<\/p>\n
BULLDOGS<\/p>\n
TBA Thursday evening<\/p>\n
ST KILDA v COLLINGWOOD<\/p>\n
Sunday March 8, 7:20pm at the MCG<\/p>\n
SAINTS<\/p>\n
TBA Thursday evening<\/p>\n
MAGPIES<\/p>\n
TBA Thursday evening<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlton will unleash seven new faces in a grudge match against Charlie Curnow and the Swans in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,25877,684,49666,3237,1129,12148,9125,9130,38438,63365,2536,5088,108311,31732,133741,35801,29645,258596,25556,25574,258597,33195,30179,85,7200,27727,5338,698],"class_list":["post-517739","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-ben-ainsworth","tag-ben-cotton","tag-braeden-campbell","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-charlie-curnow","tag-dean-cox","tag-francis-evans","tag-gold-coast-suns","tag-grudge-match","tag-harry-cunningham","tag-harry-dean","tag-injury-list","tag-key-defensive-role","tag-lance-franklin","tag-lewis-young","tag-malcolm-rosas","tag-matt-cottrell","tag-minor-ankle-injury","tag-mitch-mcgovern","tag-nick-haynes","tag-rib-issue","tag-season-opener","tag-selection-news","tag-sports","tag-sydney-swans","tag-sydney-swans-v","tag-the-gabba","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517739","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=517739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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