Curnow heads to Swans, Hawks fail to land Merrett deal

Roger Vaughan, Anna Harrington and Oliver Caffrey | October 15, 2025

Carlton’s two-time Coleman Medallist Charlie Curnow will join Sydney in the biggest deal of the AFL trade period.

Despite last-minute haggling before the Wednesday 7.30pm deadline, Hawthorn were unable to convince Essendon to trade away captain Zach Merrett.

St Kilda’s Rowan Marshall (Geelong), two-time Brisbane premiership player Call Ah Chee (Adelaide) and Western Bulldogs defender Buku Khamis (Carlton) also failed in their trade bids.

The Hawks loaded up for a final AFL trade tilt at Merrett, swapping draft picks with Carlton in the hours before the deadline.

Sydney’s play for Charlie Curnow paid off after it hit a snag earlier on Wednesday, with the Blues rejecting the Swans’ first offer for their star forward.

Sydney’s next three first-round picks and player Will Hayward will go to Carlton in the complicated Curnow deal.

Swans onballer Ollie Florent was part of the original proposed deal, but he went to Carlton anyway in a separate trade.

Gold Coast’s deal for Christian Petracca was confirmed after the Suns gave three first-round draft picks for Melbourne’s only Norm Smith medallist.

GWS sent a third-round draft pick Melbourne’s way for Clayton Oliver, whose current deal runs until 2030, while the Demons are set to pay a large chunk of the four-time best-and-fairest winner’s bumper salary.

At a similar time, the Demons secured former St Kilda captain Jack Steele for a future third-round pick after the Saints told the midfielder to explore his options.

The Western Bulldogs’ 2020 No.1 draft pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan was traded to Gold Coast for pick No.74.

But North Melbourne rejected Collingwood’s offer for Jy Simpkin, who will most likely lose the captaincy after requesting a trade.

The Swans’ Curnow chase and Hawthorn’s audacious attempt to snag Merrett went to the wire in a blockbuster final day of AFL trades.

After their initial bid for Merrett on Tuesday was quickly rejected by Essendon, Hawthorn were busy on Wednesday in late trade negotiations.

They swapped their No.9 draft pick, a feature of their initial proposal for the Bombers captain, plus selections 31, 42 and 43 to Carlton in exchange for pick 10 and 22 from the Blues.

Hawthorn also traded Changkuoth Jiath to Melbourne for pick 42 and sent Jai Serong to Sydney in a deal that featured future draft selections.

Dual Coleman Medal winner Curnow wanted to head to Geelong or Sydney, with a move north looking more likely after he toured the Swans’ facilities on Monday.

Carlton had indicated only a “Godfather deal” would shift their position on Curnow, contracted until the end of 2029.

Geelong’s offer last week of first-round selections in the next three drafts for Curnow was swiftly rejected.

Merrett blindsided the Bombers a month ago when news broke he had met with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell.

Essendon maintained they will not entertain a trade for Merrett, who is signed until the end of 2027 but was desperate to leave for Hawthorn as he chases team success.