{"id":520735,"date":"2026-03-05T17:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T17:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/520735\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T17:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T17:30:14","slug":"sydney-swans-thump-carlton-blues-charlie-curnow-stars-ollie-florent-in-hot-water-after-knee-to-isaac-heeneys-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/520735\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Swans thump Carlton Blues; Charlie Curnow stars; Ollie Florent in hot water after knee to Isaac Heeney’s head"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boom Swans<\/a> recruit Charlie Curnow<\/a> booted three goals and was involved in a string of skirmishes as Sydney thumped Carlton<\/a>, the spearhead’s former side, by 63 points in the first match of the AFL<\/a> season on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

The Blues could be set for another blow with fleet-footed half-back Ollie Florent, who crossed from Sydney to Carlton in last year’s trade period, facing scrutiny from the match review officer over contact on former teammate Isaac Heeney<\/a> at the SCG.<\/p>\n

The Sydney superstar went off after being kneed in the head by Florent during the second quarter, whether intentionally or carelessly, but the triple All-Australian passed his head injury assessment and returned to the field.<\/p>\n

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The Swans ripped the game apart in a scarcely believable third-quarter rampage in which they piled on 75 points, including 12 goals, on their way to a 20.12 (132) to 10.9 (69) triumph.<\/p>\n

It ranks as the third-most prolific quarter in AFL history.<\/p>\n

\"SYDNEY,<\/p>\n

Charlie Curnow celebrates with Errol Gulden after booting his first goal as a Swan.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“How many teams in the competition could have done what Sydney did in the third\u00a0term?” North Melbourne great David King said on Fox Footy’s coverage.<\/p>\n

Richmond champion Jack Riewoldt wondered if Brisbane and Gold Coast were capable of inflicting that kind of damage, adding: “That was unbelievable, that third term.”<\/p>\n

The Swans mustered only two goals across the first half, before running in 12 majors in the third term and another six in the final quarter.<\/p>\n

Curnow, whose defection from Carlton to Sydney was among several seismic moves in last year’s trade period, kicked his first goal in the third term.<\/p>\n

A fiery melee immediately broke out.<\/p>\n

It was one of many scraps that punctuated the SCG clash. In the thick of many of them were Curnow, Patrick Cripps, Heeney and Tom Papley.<\/p>\n

As for the Florent incident, Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall believes the Carlton recruit doesn’t have much to worry about.<\/p>\n

\"Ollie<\/p>\n

Ollie Florent’s contact on Isaac Heeney.\u00a0Fox Footy<\/p>\n

“He looks to make sure he doesn’t tread on him with the right leg, and then he lifts the head to follow the footy, and I think he thinks the left leg’s just going to go over the top of him,” Dunstall said.<\/p>\n

“That’s the way I would interpret it, but some people are a little more sinister than that.”<\/p>\n

Fox Footy presenter Sarah Jones put forward a different view.<\/p>\n

“I think it was an accident with an element of carelessness,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If that was [Carlton’s] Patrick Cripps on the ground, does his head get knocked [by Florent]?”<\/p>\n

Former St Kilda star Leigh Montagna gave Florent the benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n

“He maybe takes a bit more care [if it were Cripps on the ground]. I think you’ve got to give him the benefit of the doubt. Of course you do, to Ollie Florent,” Montagna said.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the match, Heeney and Florent got into a spiteful push and shove.<\/p>\n

“Was Ollie Florent being a little bit more reckless because of this incident earlier in the quarter?” Montagna wondered.<\/p>\n

“I’m not sure you can read too much into it.”<\/p>\n

Florent and Will Hayward, who are best mates, took on their former Swans teammates for the first time.<\/p>\n

Both were traded to Carlton after last season, and both left with hard feelings about how Sydney coach Dean Cox had handled the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boom Swans recruit Charlie Curnow booted three goals and was involved in a string of skirmishes as Sydney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-520735","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\/520735","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=520735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}