Melbourne premiership midfielder James Jordon has chosen Sydney as his preferred AFL destination for 2024.
The 22-year-old has lived life on the fringe of the Demons’ team, which has been in premiership contention for most of his five-year career, making it difficult to cement a spot in their star-studded midfield.
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The 2018 second-round draft pick has played 65 games since making his debut in Round 1 of Melbourne’s 2021 premiership year, but has either started as sub or been subbed off in 11 of those, including eight times this year.
Jordon’s future has been the subject of fierce speculation for the duration of the year, but the inside bull has put it to bed with a decision to head north to Sydney.
“Melbourne free agent James Jordon has chosen Sydney as his destination. Will join as an unrestricted free agent,” AFL reporter Callum Twomey said on Thursday.
Jordon is eligible for unrestricted free agency having been delisted by the Demons at the end of 2020 before the Dees re-rookied him, which means the Swans won’t have to give up anything to get him.
He will walk to the Swans when the free agency window opens after October 6.
A draft compensation will be handed to Melbourne for losing him.
Jordon will help to fill a Callum Mills sized hole when he gets to Sydney, after the star Swans captain threw the start of his 2024 season into doubt following a Mad Monday wrestling injury.
7NEWS chief football reporter Mitch Cleary revealed on Tuesday night how Mills had required surgery after wrestling with a teammate.
Since Cleary broke the news, the Swans have expressed their extreme disappointment, and it has also come to light that the other player involved was little-known forward Jacob Konstanty, who is yet to debut after being drafted with pick 20 in last year’s draft.
Mills ruptured his rotator cuff in the incident, and did it so badly that the Swans believe he will miss at least the first six weeks of 2024 and fear he could be out for the entire first half of the season.
Such was the innocuous nature of it that “a lot of people at Sydney didn’t know about this for some days”.
“Callum Mills didn’t feel a lot of pain in the shoulder for a couple of days,” Cleary revealed on Channel 7’s Talking Finals.
The wrestle happened at a private function at a club in Sydney.
“This is going to be a big story as it unfolds. It’s a disaster. This is a serious shoulder injury for Callum Mills,” SEN reporter Sam Edmund said.
“Definitely going to miss Round 1 and I’m told if this (had happened in) March, he most likely wouldn’t play for the year.
“They’re in an establishment in the city of Sydney – a friend of the club, so it’s a private function, no one knows they’re there … and things sort of escalated as they do.
“There’s a wrestle with a teammate, a few wrestles, the co-captain has got himself into a situation where he’s seriously hurt his shoulder but at the time, I’m told, he’s unaware of the gravity (of it).”
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