Longmire confirms middle McCartin brother made good VFL start as Mills nears AFL return

Sydney coach John Longmire says that Charlie McCartin made a good start for the Swans in his VFL debut last Saturday against GWS.

The middle McCartin brother rose to the state league from relative obscurity after some strong form for Lorne in country footy, who are coached by former Blue Ed Curnow.

Charlie shares similar traits to his brother Tom as an athletic tall defender but hadn’t played footy in seven years until 2024.

Despite playing no footy at any level from 2017 to 2023, many believe he’s a genuine chance to be drafted with all of the Swans, Blues and Saints taking trips to Lorne to watch him compete in the Colac & District League.

He helped himself to 13 touches, five marks and four rebound 50s in his VFL debut and Longmire says the club will look to give him another crack at the level before the season wraps up.

“We gave him a crack at it, and he really enjoyed it,” Longmire told SEN's Sportsday.

“The McCartin family, as you can imagine, we know really well and Charlie comes up here a lot to see his brothers, he really enjoys the footy club and he's close to the boys.

“He had a run last week and did a pretty good job considering he came straight in.

“He’ll probably get another run at it and it's good to be able to give him the opportunity to play VFL footy.

“He was so excited last week. It's just really great when you see a great kid like him just come on and get so excited about playing VFL footy.

“It was a good start for him last week.”

At the AFL level, the Swans are clear premiership favourites through 14 games with a 13-1 win-loss record and they’re about to get stronger according to Longmire as captain Callum Mills nears a return.

Mills hasn’t played yet in 2024 after injuring his shoulder during a Mad Monday mishap but Longmire says his return to training has been positive and that he could return as soon as next week.

“He's training and had a big session today (Thursday),” Longmire said.

“He’s doing everything all the competing, tackling, getting tackled and running.

“He had a huge session today and looked really good.

“So, he's probably (in the frame) this time next week, we'll talk about the week after hopefully he gets through this next solid week of training and continues to pull up really well like he is at the moment.”

The Swans go in search of their 11th straight win when they face the Dockers at the SCG on Saturday afternoon.