Sydney star Errol Gulden has commented on teammate Chad Warner's future at the club after it was revealed last week the Swans midfielder bought a house in Western Australia.
WA-born Warner bought a house just a short distance from both Fremantle and West Coast's home bases, further igniting speculation on the star's future beyond 2025, with his purchase potentially indicating the 23-year-old could be leaving New South Wales after this season.
Warner and Gulden headline a star-studded midfield at Sydney alongside the club's leading Brownlow vote-poller Isaac Heeney, with the three-pronged combination taking the club to their fifth grand final appearance since 2010, and second this decade.
Gulden lightheartedly brushed off the purchase when speaking to media on Tuesday, but said he wouldn't put too much pressure on Chad to make a quick decision on his future.
"Looks like a nice pad, a nice holiday house for him," Gulden joked.
"I'm certainly doing my best (to keep Warner). At the end of the day it's Chad's decision what he wants to do, but I'll be nibbling at him throughout the year don't worry about that.
"We play football for a small part of our lives and everyone's got an individual decision to make, what's best for you, what's best for your family. It's entirely up to Chad, it's gonna be wrong for me to stand here and make rash comments.
"He's got his process he'll go through, he'll work through it with the club, with his family, with his partner, with his mates. Hopefully we can make some sort of impact on him and hopefully make that decision that he stays here.
"It's obviously gonna play out throughout the year and it's something we've got to be aware of as well and not put too much pressure on him.
"I think he's wired differently 'Chaddy' so he certainly won't let it affect his footy. I love playing with him, he's one of my best mates, so I just want to see him be happy."
The Swans were the premier side during the home-and-away season last year, winning the minor premiership after spending four months in first place. However, Sydney played "one of the worst games of the year" in the grand final, as Gulden admits, resulting in a 60-point thrashing to a resurgent Lions outfit.
The burn of losing yet another grand final is driving Gulden this season, as the Swans look to defy history to get back to the big stage after a grand final thumping the previous year.
"Yeah of course, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't (on my mind)," Gulden said.
"It's been on my mind every single day, I'd say that it's probably the same for the large majority of the boys and probably everyone involved at the club.
"We've been doing a fair bit of work, it's what we did first day back, we reviewed the game as a team, spoke about it.
"(I'm going over) the game, what we could've done different, why it happened, what were we thinking as a team, what was I thinking as an individual player?
"I think the big one is just disappointment, just resentment to how I performed as an individual, how the team performed, but also now a motivation and a drive to really right those wrongs.
"We want to be back there we want to have another crack at it.
"...This is the most motivated I've been for a pre-season. I've had the bitter taste in my mouth from the moment the game finished and that's really driven me."
With John Longmire stepping down from the senior coaching role, a fresh voice will lead the Swans back into the thick of the action in 2025, with long-serving assistant coach Dean Cox taking the reins.
Gulden said the winning formula produced by Longmire will remain in the club's gameplan, although Cox has implemented some tweaks to try get the Swans over the final hurdle.
"We've kept a lot of the pillars of our game plan and how we want to play as a football team," Gulden said.
"'Horse's' track record speaks for itself... we did a lot of things right last year so we're not reinventing the wheel I suppose... Just a few little tweaks here and there and (Cox) has just wanted to challenge us mentally."
Cox also floated positional changes immediately in pre-season, trialling defender Tom McCartin up forward. While Gulden was hesitant to reveal any names, he revealed that positional changes can be expected next season as Cox continues to trial the flexibility of his squad.
"There's been boys playing multiple positions in pre-season. I think everyone with the strength of team we have you've got to have a few strings to your bow, I think that's really important and this is a time of year where you practice it," Gulden said.
Draftees and rookie signings have caught the eye of Gulden this pre-season too, with a former Saint pressing for an early call-up.
"In terms of new blood, I think all the draftees have come in and been really impressive, obviously there's been a few hiccups with Jesse (Dattoli) hurting himself... but they've applied themselves very well in meetings and things like that which is superb to see.
"I think Ben Paton's been really good out on the track as well he's been training hard and looking to lock down a spot in the defence."
The Swans' first clash of the year comes against Hawthorn on Friday, March 7 in Opening Round.
