{"id":30646,"date":"2026-06-13T18:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T18:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/30646\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T18:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T18:06:10","slug":"sydney-ace-set-to-return-after-bye-for-afl-pacesetters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/30646\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney ace set to return after bye for AFL pacesetters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Superstar midfielder Errol Gulden is among five Sydney mainstays set for comebacks from injury soon after the AFL club’s bye.<\/p>\n

The Swans sit second on the ladder, trailing Fremantle on percentage, after pipping Port Adelaide by three points on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Sydney have a bye next weekend with dual All Australian Gulden, who hasn’t played since round two in mid-March because of a shoulder reconstruction, and Tom McCartin (concussion) set for returns.<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Swans’ Tom McCartin is set for a return to action following a concussion injury. (Mark Evans\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Goalsneak Tom Papley (calf), Dane Rampe (calf) and Braeden Campbell (shin stress fractures) are also on the verge of comebacks.<\/p>\n

“Errol will, at this stage, look to play post-bye which is really good,” Swans coach Dean Cox said after the 14.9 (93) to 13.12 (90) away win against Port.<\/p>\n

“Tommy McCartin is progressing really well, so they’re probably a couple, and then we’ll work our way through Rampe and Papley and Braeden Campbell in the weeks to come after that.”<\/p>\n

Cox was rapt with Sydney’s lofty ladder status entering the bye, ahead of a challenging stretch of fixtures against reigning premiers Brisbane (away), Western Bulldogs (home), Fremantle (away) and Adelaide (home).<\/p>\n

“There’s still a lot to work on, we understand that,” Cox said.<\/p>\n

“And that’s the great part about being in a season that goes for 24 rounds – it’s not always going to be perfect and given to you the way you want it.<\/p>\n

“One thing that I’ve been really proud of is we have used and blooded some young kids in our team – young men that have come in and played really important roles.<\/p>\n

“And we have leant on some really experienced players as well – the squad mentality was really important.”<\/p>\n

Cox was adamant there was much improvement to come from the Swans, who have banked a dozen wins and suffered only two defeats.<\/p>\n

“At times, the way we’ve defended, we need to look at just the consistency of it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ll look at all areas, about where we need to focus on.<\/p>\n

“But that’s the best part about having a mid-season break, is to have a look at the holistic part of your game … and try and get some little gains we can make for the second half of the year.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Superstar midfielder Errol Gulden is among five Sydney mainstays set for comebacks from injury soon after the AFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[28266,28268,28269,28267,524,5063,247,5003],"class_list":["post-30646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-braeden-campbell","tag-bye","tag-concussion-injury","tag-errol-gulden","tag-port-adelaide","tag-swans","tag-sydney","tag-tom-mccartin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}