It’s not long now until the Sydney Swans AFL Club Champion dinner, a night where our men’s players will be in the spotlight.
In addition to the Bob Skilton Medal awarded to the Club Champion, there are several other awards that will be announced on the night.
The Paul Kelly Players’ Player is an honour voted on by the team. The award was introduced in 2001 and named after the Brownlow Medallist, three-time All-Australian, four-time club champion, 10-year club captain and Swans Team of the Century vice-captain.
In 24 years, it has been won by only 14 different players. Adam Goodes (4), Josh Kennedy (4), Barry Hall (3), Luke Parker (3) are multiple winners, and Paul Williams, Daryn Cresswell, Craig Bolton, Brett Kirk, Jarrad McVeigh, Lance Franklin, Dane Rampe, Chad Warner, Errol Gulden and Isaac Heeney have won it once.
It’s a special award because it encapsulates all that the players stand for – on and off the field – and 13 times since 2001 the Paul Kelly Players’ Player has not been Club Champion.
They did agree last year, when Heeney won the double, and in 2023, when Gulden did likewise. But the 2025 vote shapes as an open field.
The Players Player is one of seven AFL awards that will be presented at the Club Champion dinner on Thursday, October 2, in addition to the Bob Skilton Medal awarded to the Club Champion, the Adam Goodes Trophy for the runner-up, and the Peter Bedford Trophy for the player who finishes third.
The Swans Rising Star award, originally known as the Best First-Year Player Award, has been won in the past 12 years by current players. Last year Matt Roberts followed Angus Sheldrick who followed Logan McDonald. And before them it was Gulden, Justin McInerney, Nick Blakey, Ollie Florent, Lewis Melican, Callum Mills, Heeney, Harry Cunningham and Rampe.
The Most Improved Player is awarded the Dennis Carroll Trophy, named in honour of a Team of the Century member and 1986-92 club captain, who in 40 years with the club also served as Reserves Coach, Match Committee Chairman and Player Development Manager. Justin McInerney won it in 2021 and 2024, while, among current players, it was James Rowbottom in 2020, Chad Warner in 2022 and Hayden McLean in 2023.
Similarly, Cunningham is a two-time winner of the Barry Round Best Clubman Award, named after Team of the Century member, 1981 Brownlow Medallist and 1979-81 Bob Skilton Medallist who captained the club from 1980-84. Round passed away on 24 December 2022. Cunningham won in 2018 and 2023, while current players to receive this recognition have been Rampe in 2019, Will Hayward in 2022 and Rowbottom in 2024.
In addition to the AFL awards, we will also announce our VFL Player of the Year, and our VFL Development Player of the Year.
Join players, staff, fellow members and supporters for an evening not to be missed. Tickets are now on sale, with Afterpay now available.
Fun Fact – AFLPA Most Valuable Player
The Leigh Matthews Trophy is an annual award given by the AFL Players Association to the Most Valuable Player in the Australian Football League, as voted by the players.
It is something of an oddity that four Swans players have been voted the No.1 player in the game by their peers but only one was wearing a red and white jumper at the time.
Swans Team of the Century member Gerard Healy is the sole Sydney winner, having prevailed in 1988 in the award named in honour of Leigh Matthews, the inaugural winner in 1982.
Oddly, Healy was the fourth leg of a curious quadrella, following ex-Swans Greg Williams (1985), Paul Roos (1986) and Tony Lockett (1987).
The oddity is that Williams was playing at the time at Geelong, Roos was at Fitzroy and Lockett was at St Kilda. And that Williams won the same award in 1994 – playing at Carlton.
But there is no denying the enormous pride that comes in a collective player vote.
