Source : the age
Carlton’s star system ended in October when they traded Charlie Curnow to Sydney in a move that settled the Blues as much as it had the potential to unsettle their opponents.
The forward wanted out, so the Blues put a price on his head, which forced Sydney to push out solid players Will Hayward and Ollie Florent in unceremonious fashion, and draft capital.
Jagga Smith was excellent on debut.Credit: AFL Photos
The Blues didn’t try to match the offers St Kilda made to free agents Tom De Koning and Jack Silvagni, and waved them goodbye.
While that was happening, they dropped the ego and went shopping for players more likely to be found in Aldi’s middle aisle than at an inner-city delicatessen.
They secured Gold Coast’s Ben Ainsworth, the aforementioned Swans pair, West Coast’s Campbell Chesser and Fremantle’s Liam Reidy in trades, and hoped No.3 pick Jagga Smith would have more luck in his second season than his first, which he missed with a knee injury.
The talented Elijah Hollands was made to prove he wanted a spot on the list and was sent to football purgatory for the pre-season.
It all seemed eminently sensible, a considered series of moves that shifted, rather than reversed, their trajectory.
On Thursday, in opening round at the SCG, the new-look Blues went to market.
Charlie Curnow began his career at Sydney in good style. Credit: via Getty Images
For just the third time in their history, seven players took the ground in Carlton jumpers for the first time in a team that made 13 changes from their final side of 2025.
It was the blue-collar Blues against the star power of the Swans as two philosophies clashed.
But when Carlton kicked their second goal of the third quarter to stretch their lead to 22 points, it appeared as though a bolt from the blue could occur.
Curnow had hardly touched the ball. Ainsworth and Hayward had kicked goals. First-gamer Harry Dean was playing deep in defence, proving Deepdene is not just a leafy Melbourne suburb. Carlton’s contested ball advantage was wider than Sydney Harbour, and Isaac Heeney had just survived a head injury assessment.
Then everything changed.
It changed in the middle and around the stoppage. The shift was led by two academy recruits, Heeney and Errol Gulden, and a star draft pick – Chad Warner – who just ran riot.
Carlton lost shape around the contest. Although the change they had worked on in the off-season had been evident in the first half, old habits re-emerged as players were drawn to the football and, when they didn’t win it, there were players in Sydney jumpers with time and space to cause havoc.
Matt Roberts joined in the third quarter blitz with two goalsCredit: Getty Images
Curnow kicked his first goal to set the crowd alight as the Swans simply showed that class and athleticism will prevail in the modern game where transition football is king.
Carlton could not keep up. They had spent their tickets. They looked shocked. The effect of 13 changes began to tell. Sydney kicked 12 goals for the quarter. They owned the premiership quarter which was Carlton’s domain a century ago.
Curnow would not have made any difference to the Blues’ fortunes even if he had remained as the ball never went forward of centre.
Warner was the difference. He had handled the slippery ball better than his teammates, who looked like they were grabbing at water in the first quarter.
He was too quick and clean, an inside and outside player in one jumper. Sydney has several players with that capacity.
By contrast, the Blues have, apart from Sam Walsh, purely inside players and purely outside players. They also had some fumblers when the pressure lifted.
Smith will be a star, but they will have to pay more for Cody Walker at the national draft than the Swans ever paid for their captain and vice captain in a revised bidding system soon to be implemented, which will be seen as a change that shuts the gate after the horse has bolted.
Sydney’s blistering third quarter was built on centre square goals, line-breaking run and angle-shifting handballs as they became just the third team in the game’s history to kick 10-plus goals in one quarter and not kick a goal in another within the same match.
Carlton have limited horsepower, but with a change in direction underway, they will be searching for players who can excel in the modern game.
The market was proved right.
Sydney are once again contenders, and Curnow is a chance to find the harbour-city premiership that eluded both Tony Lockett and Lance Franklin.
Both can win from the deal, but at Carlton, the results will take time as Florent surely understood when he let Sydney captain Callum Mills know what he thought of his chase for victory at all costs after the siren sounded.
The Blues’ season starts in round one. Their transformation as a football club began in October.
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