Sydney Swans draftee Jevan Phillipou says he is enjoying the "physical and demanding" start to his first AFL pre-season.
The midfielder-forward from Woodville-West Torrens in the SANFL, was taken by the Swans with pick 35 overall of the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft.
A whirlwind couple of weeks saw the 18-year-old relocate from Adelaide to Sydney in December last year.
"It was pretty crazy arriving at first in Sydney, but now I'm loving it," Phillipu said.
"All the boys have been really welcoming and the training's been tough and I've gotten through pretty much all of it, so yeah, it's really good.
"I knew it would be a step up from playing in the SANFL last year, but I think I was ready for that. I knew it would be quicker, more physical and more demanding, so I tried to prepare myself well and I've really enjoyed the step up."
The captain of the Eagles’ Under 18 side, he averaged 28 disposals and two goals in the U18 SANFL competition in the second half of last year as well as featuring in six senior matches.
"I mean, there's some big names down there like Paps (Tom Papley) and Curns (Charlie Curnow) so I'm just trying to learn off them and see what they do and try and implement that into my game and hopefully that'll take me forward," Phillipou said.
"Straightaway, Grunds (Brodie Grundy) has been really welcoming and helped me through some stuff and I've greatly enjoyed working with him and getting to know him further.
"Obviously, he's a very big character and very imposing man, so it's been awesome to chat to him and pick his brain, Paps as well helped me straightaway with a bit of forward craft and learning what to do down there as well."
The Sydney Swans will be in action on Thursday, February 19 at Whitten Oval for the team’s first official match-sim against the Western Bulldogs from 2pm.
