Former Blue Ben Silvagni has joined the Sydney Swans East Coast VFL competition team.
The Swans announced on Wednesday night 11 signings for the 2021 season predominately made up of Sydney Swans Academy players, with Silvagni among them.
The 20-year old was delisted by Carlton at the end of last season after two years at the club. The forward did not make any appearances at AFL level.
Swans Executive GM of Football Charlie Gardiner said the club was looking to blood as much NSW talent as possible.
“We have tried to maintain a NSW bias,” Gardiner told sydneyswans.com.au.
“We would like to develop talent in the state and continue what we are doing with our QBE Sydney Swans Academy program, which was been really successful over the past 11 years.
“We also wanted to go out and find the best talent we can to play in our team and support our listed players development.
“We’ve looked at players who have spent time on other AFL lists and players that have work interests in Sydney, so it’s been a bit of a combination of people who have a connection to Sydney, but we are also trying to get the best available talent.
“We have a mixture of players who are over 22 years old, as well as development squad players – bearing in mind we have some rules within the competition that at least six players under the age of 22 need to participate in every game.
“The squad is not finalised at this stage, but we have a list of players who are committed and there’s a good mix of youth and experience.”