Brodie Grundy credits Sydney for reviving his career at 250

Brodie Grundy says Sydney revived his career after he moved there ahead of the 2024 season, and the turnaround has carried him to the edge of his 250th game. The 32-year-old credited the Swans’ belief for restoring his love for football before Sunday afternoon’s milestone at the SCG.

John Longmire and Sydney

Grundy said the coaching panel, particularly John Longmire, was instrumental in bringing back the edge that had gone missing through a turbulent stretch at his previous clubs. “To say 'I want to recapture my best footy' and to have the belief and conviction of the coaching panel when I came up here, particularly John (Longmire), was instrumental in reigniting the flame and my love for the game. I'm forever in debt. The last few years playing for the Swans have brought so much joy to the back end of my career,” he said on Tuesday.

He also pointed to the personal leap that came with the move. “I'd signed a five-year deal there (only) for that to fall apart. To make the bold decision to come up here with my wife, to put myself (out there again) and be vulnerable.” That move followed the end of 2022, when he was pushed out at Collingwood because of salary cap constraints.

Melbourne setback

Melbourne did not give him the same clean path back. He signed a five-year deal there, but Simon Goodwin’s experiment pairing Grundy with Max Gawn did not hold, and he finished the 2023 season in the VFL after a one-year stint.

That setback is what makes the Sydney rebound sharper. Grundy described the period around Melbourne as a crossroads, and he said the early confidence he once carried had been tested by “form, injury, being dropped, or traded … twice.”

Leon Cameron on Grundy

Leon Cameron called the 250-game marker “a significant achievement” and said Grundy’s path from a long Collingwood career to a brief stop at Melbourne and then a reboot at the Swans reflected his mindset. On Sunday afternoon at the SCG, that reboot was set to reach another checkpoint as he approached his 250th game.