Charlie Curnow can deliver what Buddy couldn’t for the Swans – a premiership

The Sydney Swans’ greatest moments have been built on brilliant key forwards, from Tony Lockett to Barry Hall to Lance Franklin – and now, hopefully, Charlie Curnow.

Their move for the two-time Coleman medallist is their most aggressive since the signing of Franklin on a controversial nine-year, $10 million contract in 2013.

Curnow is not quite a Buddy-type character, on the field or off it. Who is? Franklin was one of a kind.

But the 28-year-old could help deliver the Swans what his spiritual predecessor could not – a premiership flag.

The Curnow trade, completed three minutes before Wednesday night’s deadline, is a bold, all-in declaration of immediate intent that answers the Swans’ most glaring question. For many years, they have been good enough to be in the premiership conversation, but without a powerful, dependable focal point in attack, they have failed at critical moments.

Their last grand final appearance, in 2024, was a perfect, painful example. Logan McDonald, Joel Amartey and Hayden McLean combined for a total of zero goals and only eight marks in that hollow defeat to the Brisbane Lions. Granted, McDonald wasn’t fit, and the game was lost further up the ground, but their collective failure to fire a shot underlined what Swans fans already knew about the sustainability of their forward set-up.

It was sadly the same in 2022, when a fading Franklin and an injured Sam Reid were easily stifled by Geelong.

There were high hopes for McDonald when he was drafted by Sydney with the fourth overall pick in the 2020 draft, but at 23, he is yet to become the dominant presence they were hoping for, which is not to say that he can’t be. More on that in a moment.

Amartey, 26, blows hot and cold. He can own a single game, but hasn’t performed consistently, and still has some jitters to iron out with his goalkicking from set shots – not to mention his troubles with injuries and discipline, which have also held him back.

McLean, who turns 27 in January, is a solid third tall option and back-up ruckman, but not the sort of player who can take the Swans to the promised land.

Curnow could.

He is the final piece of the puzzle, a star in his prime who will immediately turn Sydney into serious contenders again in 2026. The prospect of a fresh start away from Carlton – where he was the club’s leading goalkicker in each of the past four seasons, and the league’s in 2022 and 2023 – slotting straight in a team that will be built for him should not only allow his best football to emerge, but perhaps take his game to the next level.

The thought of Isaac Heeney and Errol Gulden firing the ball to him up inside 50 is salivating.

The days of the Swans needing a marquee forward for marketability reasons are over. Still, it won’t hurt to have another big bloke kicking goals in an off-field sense, and Curnow will quickly become another rock star name in Sydney, like Lockett, Hall and Franklin, if he can simply be himself.

In six career games at the SCG, his new home ground, he has never gone goalless, and always provided a marking threat that the Swans had to be wary about. No longer.

And he will take pressure off McDonald, who did not play a senior game in 2025 due to ankle issues. Now, with a great foil to work with, McDonald has the chance to show what he’s really made of.

It’s not without risk. None of the good things in life are.

There are lingering question marks about Curnow’s durability – he has signed a five-year deal with the Swans, and will be 33 by the end of it – as well as the price Sydney had to pay to get him, having sent away Will Hayward and Oliver Florent to the Blues, along with pick 11 in this year’s draft and two future first-rounders.

Hayward and Florent were popular figures at the Swans, with fans and teammates alike, but the team should be able to account for their absence – particularly Florent, who fell out of favour with coach Dean Cox despite signing a five-year contract extension only last year. The arrival of Malcolm Rosas jnr from the Gold Coast Suns gives them another potent small forward to complement Tom Papley, and Jai Serong, from Hawthorn, is a potential diamond-in-the-rough successor to Dane Rampe, who is unlikely to go around again beyond next year.

Plus, the Swans still have the draft capital to go after the academy products they want to this year, having received picks 31 and 42, and a second-round pick in 2027, in return from Carlton.

It’s difficult to imagine this backfiring on the Swans, who have found their missing piece at last, and can now make a serious play for that elusive next premiership.

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