Michael O'loughlin medal returns as Swans host Collingwood in Round 10
michael o'loughlin is back in the frame at the SCG this Friday night, when the Marn Grook tradition returns in Round 10 and the Sydney Swans host Collingwood. The Goodes-O’Loughlin Medal will again go to the player judged best afield, tying a current match to a recognition that has existed since 2016.
The medal was formally announced in 2016 and was created as a tribute to Adam Goodes and O’Loughlin, two of the greatest Indigenous players to have graced the AFL arena. Its blue and red colours come from Sydney’s first Marn Grook guernsey, designed by Goodes’ mother, Lisa Sansbury.
Goodes and O’Loughlin
Goodes and O’Loughlin were named at centre half back and full forward respectively in the AFL Indigenous Team of the Century in 2005. That pairing still carries weight because both men pushed for First Nations participation in Australian football and for zero tolerance for racism across sport and society more broadly.
Their work did not stop at the boundary line. They founded the GO Foundation, which has awarded more than 1000 scholarships in Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra, turning a match-day honour into something more than a medal presentation.
Medal Winners Since 2016
Tom Mitchell won the first medal in 2016, and Lance Franklin followed in 2017 and 2022. Isaac Heeney has collected it three times, in 2018, 2021 and 2025, while Sam Reid won in 2019, Luke Ryan of Fremantle in 2020, and Chad Warner in 2023 and 2024.
Those names map the medal’s short history onto Sydney’s recent Marn Grook nights. The award has settled into a pattern: when the Swans get a home stage for Indigenous recognition, the best player on the night has often come from Sydney’s own core.
Dean Cox's Round 10 Team
Dean Cox has named his team with three important ins for Round 10, giving the Swans extra selection strength on a night built around a symbolic fixture. The GO Foundation is the match day partner for the game, so the event links the football, the medal and the education work into the same package.
The complication is that the medal’s history now carries its own pressure. Heeney, Franklin and Warner have all taken turns, and Friday’s winner will add another name to a list that has already become a marker of who drove the game when the Swans and Collingwood revive Marn Grook at the SCG.
