Brodie Grundy Embraces Coach’s Decision on Rests for the Remainder of the Season
After a rare break from action, Swans’ workhorse Brodie Grundy is content to let coach Dean Cox determine whether he needs additional rest in the second half of the AFL season. The 32-year-old ruckman has been a key figure in Sydney’s strong start to the season, and his recent performance against the Saints at the SCG highlighted his importance once again.
Grundy played a crucial role in Jai Serong’s last-gasp winning goal in the final 20 seconds of the match. Isaac Heeney capitalized on Grundy’s tap from a forward 50 stoppage to set up Serong, as Sydney staged a remarkable comeback from a 33-point deficit to win by two points.
“Some of the key playmakers finished their job, we were pretty lucky honestly though to get away with the win,” Grundy said, reflecting on the tense victory.
Grundy has been instrumental in Sydney’s 11-2 start to the season. Despite being rested for last week’s dominant win over Richmond, he has amassed a league-leading 424 hitouts, 36 more than his closest competitor. Against St Kilda, he recorded 30 hitouts, which was four more than the combined total of the Saints’ respected ruck duo of Rowan Marshall and Tom De Koning.
“I probably was a little bit rusty having a week and a bit off, so I’ll be better for the run,” Grundy admitted, acknowledging the impact of his recent rest.
This week’s game was only the second time in 61 matches that the remarkably resilient ruckman has missed since joining the Swans at the end of 2023. He had previously played 47 consecutive games before missing a match against Geelong in August due to delayed concussion symptoms from a previous game against Brisbane.
Grundy is set for another break soon, with Sydney’s bye coming after next Saturday’s away clash with Port Adelaide.
While known for his willingness to take on a heavy workload and prefer handling most of the ruck duties, Grundy will leave it to coach Cox to decide if he needs another rest.
“I’ll just be guided by Coxy, and the high performance team are first class here,” Grundy said. “It’s just a week-by-week proposition and just listen to the boss.”
When asked about managing the workload of the 253-game veteran, Cox described it as a delicate balancing act.
“Brodie is another conversation we’ll have at the back end of the year, because of the workload he has and the way he plays, so we need to make sure he’s right for the full season.”
After some dominant wins earlier in the season, where teams struggled to counter Sydney’s rapid handball chains through the corridor, Sunday’s nail-biter marked the Swans’ third hard-fought single-digit victory in their past five fixtures.
“We’ve obviously had a certain game style for the first half the year and teams are looking at clogging up the corridor and slowing us down,” Grundy explained. “We want to be a multi-pronged offence and if that gets shut down we have other ways to move the footy.”
