Sydney midfielder Errol Gulden believes the club's tough call to trade his friends Will Hayward and Ollie Florent will be worth it, as the Swans undergo a "massive shift" in their game plan following the arrival of Charlie Curnow.
Injury woes, and perhaps the haunting memory of the disastrous 2024 Grand Final loss, set the Sydney Swans back in 2025, losing eight of their first 12 games. However, once key troops returned midway through the year, the most important being Gulden himself, the Swans started flying and made a desperate late bid to play in September, which ultimately fell short.
It was the club's first season under new senior coach Dean Cox, and Gulden revealed the coaching staff have been making proactive changes to address the issues that let the red and white down last year.
One key area of concern was the Bloods' play without the ball. While Sydney allowed on average 339.7 possessions per game (fifth-fewest in the AFL), 212.3 of those were uncontested. That meant just 37.5 per cent of their opposition's touches were contested, a similar rate to the lowly Blues (37.3 per cent) and Eagles (37.2 per cent).
"There's been a massive shift in the way we want to play," Gulden told SEN on Thursday.
"We've been a bit stagnated with the ball and our ball movement so we want to put a bit more speed on it.
"Off the ball as well there were a few things we wanted to tweak. We felt the opposition could control the ball against us for long periods of the game.
"There's been notebooks in every meeting but credit to our coaches, they've done an excellent job in teaching the game plan to us. We won't really know until we test it out against opposition but so far we're feeling good about it."
Gulden acknowledged that the off-season changes extended beyond just tactical tweaks, pointing to some difficult but strategic list decisions by the club.
The most high-profile of them all was the decision to trade close mates Hayward and Florent to Carlton in order to land two-time Coleman Medal winner Charlie Curnow. Despite the personal impact, the young midfielder expressed full support for the club's direction.
"Professional sport is about winning and we've got to back the club in that they've made the right decision to put us in the best position to win a flag," Gulden said.
"You've got to put your friendships aside when it comes to footy and we're totally fine with that.
"To Charlie's credit, he's come in and been an amazing addition to the team so far. On the field, we know what he can do but he's also brought a wealth of knowledge. There will be pressure on him but he'll rise up to it."
The Swans take on GWS in the Community Series on February 26 ahead of their 2026 season opener against Carlton at the SCG on March 5.
