THURLOW’S FLAG BID
Sydney recruit Jackson Thurlow hopes he can become the latest player to leave the Cats and win a premiership at their new club after joining Swans training for the first time yesterday. Joel Hamling, Josh Caddy and Nathan Vardy all become premiership players after leaving Geelong.
JACKSON Thurlow hopes he can become the latest player to leave the Cats and win a premiership at their new club after joining Sydney training yesterday.
Thurlow, who competed in the Noosa triathlon this month, joined the Swans’ first-to-fourth-year players yesterday for the start of pre-season training.
The rebounding defender played 46 games in six sea- sons for Geelong, but had only seven senior appearances in 2018 before Sydney made a move for him on the last day of trading.
“I didn’t have much time to think about it, but when an opportunity pops up like that, you don’t really need to think about it,” Thurlow said.
While noting Sydney’s success with players from other clubs, Thurlow pointed out a number of other recent former Geelong players had gone on to win a flag after leaving the Cat- tery, including Joel Hamling (Western Bulldogs 2016), Josh Caddy (Geelong 2017) and Nathan Vardy (West Coast 2018).
“That’s a credit to Geelong, the way that they run their footy club as well, they are outstanding and they build really good people and culture and coming here, I think it can really develop me even more,” he said.
Thurlow described the opportunity as “massive” and said Sydney coach John Longmire had indicated he could play half-back or wing.
“It’s a massive opportunity,” he said. “I was really rapt when I got the call from Kinnear (Beatson) and my manager.
“It was a pretty quiet trade period for me. I was hoping something could arise and didn’t really know it was going to be Sydney.
“But for it to be Sydney I’m stoked. My first-ever AFL game was watching the Swans at the SCG when I was a young tacker. To now be playing here is really good.
“I think (I will play) that sort of intercept half-back or wing role. Exactly what that looks like just yet I’m not sure.
“I’ve still got a full game plan to learn but, like I said before, I’m just really excited by this opportunity.
“There are some amazing footballers at this footy club I’m hoping to learn off. There are some guns at this club so I’m really excited.
“It’s a good to way come into a new club. You want to get stuck in as soon as you can and earn the respect of the club.”