Early life
Swallow was born in Perth, Western Australia to a Dutch mother and an English father. [1] His older brother, Andrew, is a former captain of the North Melbourne Football Club and a dual Syd Barker Medallist. [2] He attended Shelley Primary School and Rossmoyne Senior High School, and played his junior football at Rossmoyne Junior Football Club. Swallow was named on the half-back line of the 2009 Under-18 All Australian team as a 16-year-old, and was awarded the Larke Medal as the Under-18 competition's best player. [3] [4]
In 2010, despite not yet being drafted by an AFL team, Swallow was permitted to play in Gold Coast's Victorian Football League (VFL) team prior to the club's inaugural season in 2011. This meant that if Gold Coast wanted to draft Swallow, the club had to select him with one of the first three picks in the 2010 AFL draft. [5] However, it was widely assumed that Swallow would be taken with the first pick in the draft, [6] which was confirmed on 19 November. [7]
AFL career
Swallow was part of the inaugural Gold Coast Suns team which played against Carlton in round 2 of the 2011 AFL season. He was also part of the club's first victory against Port Adelaide in round 5. After a 21-possession, two-goal performance against the Western Bulldogs in round 14, Swallow was nominated for the 2011 AFL Rising Star award.
In 2014, Swallow won the Gold Coast Suns Club Champion award, becoming the second player after Gary Ablett Jr. to win the award. [8]
In November 2018, Swallow signed a five-year contract extension with the Suns, tying him to the club until the end of 2024. [9]
In February 2019, Swallow was named as Gold Coast co-captain, alongside Jarrod Witts. [10]
In February 2022, Swallow stepped down from the Suns' co-captaincy, with Touk Miller named in his place. [11]
Having played exclusively for Gold Coast during the club's mostly unsuccessful 15 years in the competition, Swallow did not play a finals match until 2025, where the Suns reached the top eight for the first time. Having waited until his 248th match to make his finals debut, it stands as the second longest wait in VFL/AFL history, behind only Melbourne's Robert Flower. [12] In the lead up to the finals series, Swallow announced he would retire at the end of season. [13] Named as the Suns' substitute for the elimination final against Fremantle, he kicked the winning behind with nine seconds remaining to give the Suns a one point victory. [14] Swallow played his final match the following week, as the Suns were eliminated from the finals series in the semi finals by the Brisbane Lions, finishing his career on 249 matches. [15]
Swallow is the first and, as of 2024, only player to play premiership matches at 22 different VFL/AFL venues, owing largely to the number of low-crowd Gold Coast away matches which opposing teams schedule for their home-away-from-home country venues. [16]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
