The Look Ahead will be the staple pre-season content piece, setting a tone for all 18 teams. The plan is to use them as a scene setter for team trends and individuals. In other words, don’t expect predictions, expect topics to be introduced – from both a list build and on-field perspective.
After a slightly disappointing 2023, Sydney’s targeted off-season recruitment should have them in line to move back towards the top tier.
Player contracts
The two who stand out here – for differing reasons – are Errol Gulden and Logan McDonald.
It seems fair to assume Gulden is next in line for a long-term, lucrative deal along the likes of Rozee (2032), Naughton (2032), and Blakey (2031). There doesn’t appear to be any murmurs about Gulden looking elsewhere, which surely makes it only a matter of time until he re-signs … and we have to read more tiresome discourse about long-term contracts.
McDonald, on the other hand, feels like he’ll be strongly approached by Fremantle. It can’t have been a coincidence the Dockers load up with first-round picks for the same year a West Australian local comes out of contract…
List demographics
The benefits of Sydney’s strong young core is they can selectively target players from elsewhere regardless of age and not worry about whether it compromises future planning.
If most other teams picked up three players in their age 31 year (Taylor Adams, Joel Hamling) and age 30 year (Brodie Grundy) in the same off-season – all with their own injury history – there’d be rightful grumbling about a domino effect elsewhere on the list.
In this case, all the moves make sense, and they don’t create a logjam in areas of need. Must be nice.
Create your own Sydney Depth Chart
Changes in personnel
In:
From other teams: Taylor Adams, Brodie Grundy, Joel Hamling, James Jordon
National Draft: Caiden Cleary, Will Green, Patrick Snell
Cat B Rookie: Indhi Kirk
Out: Ryan Clarke, Will Gould, Hugo Hall-Kahan, Lance Franklin, Tom Hickey, Paddy McCartin, Cameron Owen, Lachlan Rankin, Marc Sheather, Dylan Stephens
Can ball movement be maintained with the midfield changes?
Disclaimer: The upcoming section is either me learning from Collingwood’s recruitment in the 2022 off season or being spooked by it. Hopefully for all concerned it’s the former and not the latter. In that case I missed the recruitment of Tom Mitchell as a signifier for a midfield structural reshuffle and focused too much on the individual.
It became clear last year that Sydney’s surge in the back half of 2022, underpinned by a drastic improvement around contests, hadn’t carried over to 2023. Instead they became a side almost exclusively relying on their – excellent – ball movement to carry offence.
It was covered in Notebooks throughout the season. Perhaps coincidentally, Sydney had plenty of games where they faded out, losing seven last quarters by 20+ points. My theory: because the Swans’ contest work was so inconsistent, if teams managed to shut down their ball movement there was little else to cause damage.
All this is a long preamble to Sydney recognising the issue and going out to recruit Grundy, Adams, and Jordon – all players who should help fix the number one issue from last year.
But for that to happen, there has to be a reshuffle in roles. Grundy is obviously a very different ruckman to Tom Hickey; Adams has a different skillset to the other midfielders, much like Jordon – whether he plays on-ball or the wing.
It all means structural changes: different players as the offensive focus at stoppages, learning how combinations work together, potentially more half forward/half back/wing time for some to craft a deeper overall rotation just for starters.
The key is how to absorb all that into Sydney’s style and maintain the blistering ball movement which can carve up every team in the league when it’s working.
Predicting how it’ll work is a tough ask until competitive games start. But given the amount of talent and complementary players in a midfield depth chart, it all seems like it should click.
What is success for Sydney in 2024?
With the usual caveat this is only one person’s opinion, a top four finish is on the cards.
Everything appears primed to go, they’ve recruited smartly and look covered across all lines. Barring a continually clean injury list, Sydney want for little.
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