Skipper backs Gulden
Sydney captain Callum Mills believes Swans teammate Errol Gulden will go to even greater heights this season after his history-making deeds in 2023.
The 21-year-old was a dominant winner of the Bob Skilton Medal last October, a feat that saw him become the youngest Swan to win the best-andfairest since the club moved north to Sydney in 1982.
A month earlier, the midfielder claimed his first All Australian guernsey and finished fourth in the Brownlow
Medal after emerging as a true star of the competition.
Gulden, who also won the Paul Kelly Player’s Player Award in 2023, topped the AFL for inside 50m entries and was Sydney’s leading disposal winner in a superb season.
Ahead of Thursday night’s season opening clash against Melbourne at the SCG, Mills said Gulden is poised to produce even better footy this year after a strong pre-season. “He constantly improves. He constantly wants to get the best out of himself,” Mills said.
“And … he’s taken the next step with his leadership as well. We don’t need him to be the best player in the world. We just need him to do his job. And he does that over and over again, which is the best thing.”
The vote of confidence in Gulden’s growing leadership skills in important given the Swans, which fell in an elimination final last September, face a early-season void in the area.
Mills will be unavailable until mid-season after he injured a shoulder when an offseason wrestle with teammate Jacob Konstanty went wrong.
Former skipper Luke Parker broke an arm in a pre-season game, while Taylor Adams has been ruled out for up to four weeks after straining a medial ligament. dynamic
Community footballers might be required to wear helmets in the future in what would be a major play by the AFL to combat concussion.
At an AFLPA meeting about concussion with player managers and AFL medical staff on Wednesday, it was revealed the AFL was looking at trialling new headgear at community level this year.
If eventually adopted, all junior and senior players in metropolitan and country football leagues could be required to wear the AFLendorsed headgear.
Players might also be asked to wear mouthguards.