Source :- THE AGE NEWS
Four words into a 15-minute interview, Charlie Curnow has already flipped the script.
“Are you a Swans man?”
He’s probably wondering why this random reporter is sitting in front of him ahead of the Swans’ preliminary final against Fremantle on Friday night at the SCG.
It’s a fair question from a Victorian living in Sydney. The kind you’d get over a beer at the pub.
He’s curious, not combative, and it’s an interesting start from a superstar who may hold the key to Sydney’s premiership hopes.
The answer is yes and no.
For a kid growing up in western Sydney before the Giants existed, the Swans were the only show in town, and their preliminary final win over Fremantle at what’s now called Accor Stadium in 2006 sticks in the memory.
But it’s always better to barrack for the yarn. The Swans, AFL champions in 2005 and 2012, might just be turning into the most followed sporting story of the year.
Last month, their 2026 season was “torpedoed”, in the words of chairman Andrew Pridham. Five of their best players – Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice – were stood down for the remainder of the season after they breached club standards during a night out in Melbourne. A separate police investigation into an alleged sexual assault at the Pullman Hotel is ongoing.
A fortnight ago, without them, Sydney demolished Brisbane 141-88 in a qualifying final.
Curnow, Sydney’s marquee full-forward, in his first season at the club, kicked five goals and lit up the SCG, spearheading arguably the Swans’ finest win in the city they moved to in 1982.
The former Carlton man produced the sort of performance Sydney paid big bucks for: superb marks, outrageous snaps and the swagger of a player who looked as though he owned the SCG by the end of the afternoon.
Somewhere amid the chaos, Curnow has become the face of one of the more improbable September AFL charges in recent memory.
“When you’re kicking goals, it feels good,” Curnow says, having taken his season tally to 74.
But when the “Pullman five” were stood down, what did Curnow really think? Did he fear, deep down, that the season was about to count for nothing?
“I was unsure,” Curnow admits. “You’re probably a bit uncertain of what’s going to actually happen.”
Has he spoken to Heeney, a close mate, or the others involved?
“It’s a tough one. Obviously, you still want to make sure everything’s going well and hope they’re all right, but there’s obviously a lot of stuff that we can’t comment on,” Curnow says. “We’ve got no idea what’s happening.”
When Sydney beat North Melbourne by 53 points in the final round of the regular season, their first match after the incident, Curnow’s belief grew that the Swans could still win the flag. That was despite even the most rusted-on fans giving them Leicester City 2016 Premier League odds of even being at the MCG on September 26.
Swans players were spending more time together and bonding around the club. Different departments talked through what happened. Coaches tried to narrow the focus to the things the team could actually control.
When their season threatened to fracture, Sydney went the other way.
“I think that showed in our last two games how willing we are to play for each other,” Curnow says. “The coaches did an amazing job redirecting our minds.
“Most of the boys would be saying they’ve really enjoyed the last few weeks, considering what’s happened and what’s going on. It’s been pretty cool.”
Cool is not a word Curnow uses to describe the hours before the Brisbane game. He’d never been so nervous before a match.
Usually, the butterflies vanish once he arrives at the SCG and slips into the familiar rhythms of match day. This time they stayed with him until the opening ball-up.
There was probably a reason.
For all that Curnow has achieved – three Coleman Medals as the AFL’s leading goalkicker, three All-Australian selections and a reputation as one of the most potent forwards in the competition – September has never been his best month.
In three finals for Carlton, Curnow kicked just three goals. That output was nowhere near his lofty expectations. He’s also never played in an AFL grand final.
Without their sidelined players against the Lions, Errol Gulden was elite, Logan McDonald was magnificent in booting six majors and Tom Papley’s work rate was immense.
When Curnow kicked a belter of a fourth goal, the adrenaline was pumping. He sprinted to the nearest fan in the stands. It happened to be a young kid.
The goal sent the red and white faithful into delirium. For the first time in weeks, the noise surrounding Sydney was about football.
“It was sick … a pretty fun day,” Curnow says.
“It just meant a lot to the whole football club. I just knew it was an important game and a big one coming off the last month.”
Curnow is recounting all this away from any television cameras, tucked into a quiet corner of Swans headquarters, a short walk from the SCG.
For a man just one win away from a stunning grand final appearance, he seems remarkably relaxed.
In fact, Curnow wants to talk newspapers. Specifically, why there seem to be more of them scattered across Melbourne cafes than Sydney ones. Of all the conversations you expect to have with one of the AFL’s biggest stars in preliminary final week, the future of print journalism is not high on the list.
Melbourne has been off the itinerary lately anyway since the late-night incident involving women, alcohol and an alleged sexual assault. Even though Curnow had absolutely nothing to do with the events of that night.
Curnow skipped last month’s AFL Awards night, where he received his third Coleman Medal. Days after the Swans’ scandal broke, he knew that walking into a room full of cameras and journalists would make him the unofficial spokesman for a crisis he had no place discussing. In the same city, no less.
Ordinarily, joining Jason Dunstall, Gary Ablett snr, Matthew Lloyd and Jack Riewoldt as a three-time winner would demand a night out.
Lance “Buddy” Franklin won four Coleman Medals, including one in 2014, his first season as a Sydney Swan.
Instead, Curnow stayed in Sydney, pulled on a suit and a red Swans tie, and thanked supporters in a video the club sent to awards organisers. He was digitally added to official photos.
“There was just so much uncertainty,” Curnow says. “Those nights are nice … but you’re just throwing yourself in the deep end a little bit. It’s a free-for-all down there, so I wasn’t sure what I was going to get asked. It probably wouldn’t have been about the award. It would probably have been about what happened.”
What happened remains the subject of a police investigation. Curnow insists losing five big names hasn’t been turned into a rallying cry inside the club.
Nor is there any point dwelling on what they can’t change. The Swans are one win, one good performance, away from a grand final if they can execute against the minor premiers at a packed SCG.
“We just dived more into how we can help each other out,” Curnow says. “It was obviously a really bad situation, but an opportunity to actually talk about what’s important to us as a football club. That has led into our football. It’s funny, everyone’s getting around us a bit now.
“The hard thing was there are so many amazing people in the AFL and here at the club. It is nice to play some really good football. Not only for us, but for everyone at the club. That’s probably the coolest thing to come out of it. It shows how great the club is and how great the culture really is. It was hard seeing a few people in there … it really impacted them. It’s a hard one to talk about.”
Pressed on how Sydney has got the best out of him, Curnow is reluctant to compare this year with his time at Carlton. For a start, the fans here are different, he says.
The football obsession is different in Sydney. Curnow can still disappear into the city in a way that is almost impossible for a Carlton star in Melbourne, where buying a coffee can become an invitation to dissect last week’s game.
“It’s pretty chill up here,” he says. “The boys already here are onto a good thing.”
Curnow’s pocket of Sydney is Tamarama, one beach south of Bondi. Sipping long blacks and finding decent waves is his idea of a perfect day. Of late, they have been a welcome reprieve from the headlines and questions about what is going on at the club.
He and Dane Rampe, Sydney’s fill-in skipper with Callum Mills out injured for the season, take turns driving each other to work. When the conversation drifts to surfing, Curnow might as well be speaking a foreign language.
“I surf a bit, but they need a point break around here or something,” Curnow says. “I need to go down to Wollongong. Where I’m from in Torquay, it’s got big, slow, fat points. They’re not great. Actually, they’re all right. Winki’s pretty good.”
Whatever that means.
Torquay is where it all started for Curnow, and Melbourne is where he made his name. But there’s one trip back south he has no intention of skipping.
“It’d be pretty cool,” Curnow says of a potential grand final. “I haven’t really tried to think about it too much. It would be epic. They are so hard to make. I’d be super pumped to have a crack at it.”
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