New Sydney coach Dean Cox is already tinkering with the Swans gameplan, hinting at a positional change for Swans key defender Tom McCartin.
McCartin was spotted training as a forward on Tuesday, outside from his usual position down back. McCartin was a stalwart in defence during John Longmire's tenure, playing 84 games across the last four seasons alone.
However, Cox seems keen to alter the Swans lineup and add flexibility to the side, with some early testing being made on McCartin's potential as a forward. McCartin has played up forward previously, kicking 28 goals across his first three seasons as a Swan.
Cox had flagged just five days earlier that the Swans would experiment with some positional changes for 2025, with McCartin seemingly the first subject.
"Tommy (McCartin) has been phenomenal for us down back for periods of his career so far, but he started as a forward as well," Cox said.
"One thing we want to try and do is we want to build flexibility in our team. We want to also make sure that he gets a look ahead of the ball at times, and when he does that he creates something completely different for a dynamic of our forward line.
"We'll do that with midfielders, we'll do that with forwards, and also some defenders will change places. That'll eventuate over the whole summer, there's nothing straight that we're gonna do right today, but they'll need to look at multiple positions."
AFL clubs are no stranger to positional experimentation during pre-season. Tom Stewart made media traction in January as he spent time on-ball during Geelong's pre-season, which ultimately saw the defender spend time in the centre as a tagger at times during the 2024 season. This included a two-month patch where Stewart played in the midfield for 85 per cent of his gametime between Rounds 16-24.
Although, sometimes positional changes may not be utilised by the time the home and away season begins. Hawthorn's Blake Hardwick was trialled as a forward last pre-season but ultimately stayed behind the ball for the majority of the year.
Sydney's attack could be reinvigorated with McCartin adding to the dynamic, as the Swans aim to learn from their mistakes in the 2024 grand final. Despite the key forward trio of Joel Amartey, Logan McDonald, and Hayden McLean combining for six goals in the preliminary final, not one was scored between them at the MCG a week later.
Cox noted that the Swans had completed their review of the grand final and were now looking forward to executing a modified game style for 2025.
While McCartin may be the first to trial a positional switch, others are likely to follow suit as Cox aims to create a flexible Swans team for his first season in charge.
