{"id":519915,"date":"2026-03-05T08:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T08:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/519915\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T08:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T08:32:13","slug":"afl-opening-round-sydney-swans-vs-carlton-live-updates-blog-scores-and-stats-from-the-scg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/519915\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL Opening Round: Sydney Swans vs Carlton live updates \u2014 blog, scores and stats from the SCG"},"content":{"rendered":"

2h agoThu 5 Mar 2026 at 6:14amSydney vs Carlton live scoreboard\"Chris<\/p>\n

2m agoThu 5 Mar 2026 at 8:29am<\/p>\n

Bondi shooting first responders honoured\"Chris<\/p>\n

New Swans CEO Matthew Pavlich is welcoming the first responders who were on hand at the Bondi shooting a few months ago.<\/p>\n

The players and umpires all giving them a guard of honour of sorts.<\/p>\n

Ahmed Al Ahmed, the hero who disarmed one of the shooters, is also out there.<\/p>\n

“At the Sydney Swans, everybody is welcome,” says Pavlich.<\/p>\n

His speech is followed by a moment of silence.<\/p>\n

12m agoThu 5 Mar 2026 at 8:18am<\/p>\n

The teams are out on the ground for their warm-ups\"Chris<\/p>\n

The two teams are out there going through their paces with the first bounce just over 10 minutes away!<\/p>\n

Carlton heads out first in their iconic navy blue kit, before the Swans head out in their home reads.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere is absolutely brilliant at the SCG, which is still bathed in a bit of sunshine due to daylight savings.<\/p>\n

Some brilliant banter on the respective team banners as well.<\/p>\n

31m agoThu 5 Mar 2026 at 8:00am<\/p>\n

Drew’s tipping some feeling in this one\"Chris<\/p>\n

Hope the Tribunal has had some warm up sessions. It may well be needed very shortly. There\u2019ll be feeling in this one. <\/p>\n

– Drew<\/p>\n

It’ll be interesting to see the reception Charlie gets from his teammates.<\/p>\n

I know Blues fans are absolutely aggrieved over the manner in which he left, but I wonder if his old teammates feel the same.<\/p>\n

Jacob Weitering\u00a0is set to get the job on his old running mate. I wonder whether Weiters turns up the niggle tonight.<\/p>\n

“I know what I would do, but you’re not going to do it anymore, so I can’t instruct that,” said Blues coach Michael Voss when asked how he wants his players to approach Curnow.<\/p>\n

“Toughness is about when it’s your turn to go, you go, and that’s what we’re going to focus on, the ball, not the man.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to think that they treat him like anyone else.”<\/p>\n

36m agoThu 5 Mar 2026 at 7:55am<\/p>\n

Recent history between the Swans and Blues\"Chris<\/p>\n

Here’s how the last five meetings between Sydney and Carlton have gone heading into tonight’s clash:<\/p>\n

Round 10, 2025: Sydney 11.12 (78) def. Carlton 9.8 (62) @ SCG<\/p>\n

Round 10, 2024: Sydney 17.15 (117) def. Carlton 9.11 (65) @ SCG<\/p>\n

Elimination Final, 2023: Carlton 11.8 (74) def. Sydney 9.14 (68) @ MCG<\/p>\n

Round 11, 2023: Sydney 11.11 (77) def. Carlton 6.15 (51) @ SCG<\/p>\n

Round 10, 2022: Carlton 15.12 (102) def. Sydney 13.9 (87) @ Docklands Stadium<\/p>\n

41m agoThu 5 Mar 2026 at 7:50am<\/p>\n

A Dennis Cometti tribute is incoming tonight\"Chris<\/p>\n

The AFL world is in mourning heading into Opening Round after the death of commentary icon Dennis Cometti.<\/p>\n

We’re set to have a beautiful tribute for him at half-time of tonight’s clash.<\/p>\n

43m agoThu 5 Mar 2026 at 7:48amTeam news \u2014 No late changes for Sydney or Carlton\"Chris<\/p>\n

Both Sydney and Carlton are set to line up as originally selected tonight at the SCG.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at the two teams.<\/p>\n

\"SydneySydney and Carlton’s team line-ups for the Opening Round clash at the SCG. (AFL.com.au)<\/p>\n

46m agoThu 5 Mar 2026 at 7:45am<\/p>\n

Carlton’s new faces for 2026\"Chris\"JaggaJagga Smith has been one of Carlton’s best players during the pre-season. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

An incredible seven players are set to play their first matches in Carlton colours tonight.<\/p>\n

The headline act is Jagga Smith, the No.3 pick from the 2024 draft who missed his rookie season due to a knee injury.<\/p>\n

Smith is healthy and has absolutely torn up Carlton’s pre-season matches.<\/p>\n

He’ll be joined by the talented Harry Dean, Carlton’s top pick in last year’s draft, who is expected to slot right into its back six.<\/p>\n

Will Hayward, Ollie Florent\u00a0and Campbell Chesser\u00a0all joined during the trade period from Sydney and West Coast, respectively, while ruckman Liam Reidy\u00a0joined from Fremantle.<\/p>\n

56m agoThu 5 Mar 2026 at 7:35am<\/p>\n

Sydney’s new faces for 2026\"Chris\"JaiJai Serong could prove to be an important pick-up for Sydney, having joined from Hawthorn over the summer. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Charlie Curnow isn’t the only new face in Sydney’s line-up tonight, with two other players accompanying him.<\/p>\n

Jai Serong\u00a0will also make his debut having come over from Hawthorn in the off-season.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Rosas Jr is also set to play his first game in Sydney colours after joining from the Suns.<\/p>\n

Rosas will line up in Sydney’s forward line, while Serong will likely float between the Swans defence and the wing positions.<\/p>\n

1h agoThu 5 Mar 2026 at 7:30am<\/p>\n

Welcome!\"Chris\"CharlieCharlie Curnow plays his first official match for the Swans as the 2026 AFL season gets underway. (AAP Photos)<\/p>\n

Good evening and welcome to ABC Sport’s live coverage of the AFL season!<\/p>\n

It’s hard to believe we’re back here again folks, but here we are, the first footy blog of the 2026 home and away season.<\/p>\n

It’s Christmas Day for every team and its fans with everyone starting level on points and seemingly the same distance from the premiership.<\/p>\n

Of course, we know that’s not really the case.<\/p>\n

Tonight’s clash is a fascinating one as Sydney hosts Carlton at the SCG, in a clash otherwise known as the Charlie Curnow-bowl.<\/p>\n

After 149 games with Carlton, Curnow plays his first official game for the Swans after requesting a trade away from the Blues last summer.<\/p>\n

Curnow is projected to be a huge needle-mover for the Swans, who missed the eight last year.<\/p>\n

How will the Blues, who received Ollie Florent and Will Hayward in exchange for Curnow, fare without the two-time Coleman Medal winner?<\/p>\n

The first bounce is set for 7:30pm AEDT, so strap yourselves in as we bring you all the pre-match coverage before live action gets underway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2h agoThu 5 Mar 2026 at 6:14amSydney vs Carlton live scoreboard 2m agoThu 5 Mar 2026 at 8:29am…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,9512,63,55,9117,639,3239,1129,160,161,85,7200],"class_list":["post-519915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-aussie-rules","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australian-rules","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-carlton-blues","tag-charlie-curnow","tag-live-blog","tag-season","tag-sports","tag-sydney-swans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519915","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=519915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}