Andrew Swallow Biography

Andrew Swallow joins Gold Coast as an assistant coach.

"Andrew is a terrific character who is going to bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to our playing group," Suns general manager of football operations Haines said.

Andrew Swallow is moving to Byron Bay, rejecting an offer to work as a development coach at another AFL club next season.

After failing to secure a move to join his brother David at Gold Coast, Swallow will instead play for NEAFL club Aspley in 2018.

"It's probably been on the cards for a year, talking with my wife that we may move on," Swallow said in his retirement press conference.

"It may have seemed a bit of a shock to everyone else, but I suppose I don't like to air everything too often."

Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew has hinted the Suns are unlikely to recruit former North Melbourne captain Andrew Swallow and pair him with his brother David Swallow.

"We certainly know he's a solid citizen, but we've got to make the decision based on the whole group and the whole club," Dew said.

"He's still attached to North, but I think that's just going to play out. It won't be an Andrew Swallow decision; it will be more a club decision and where he's at in his career."

Andrew Swallow retires from AFL football despite having a year remaining on his contract after missing out on a desired move to Gold Coast.

"It was a very tough decision to make and it's with a heavy heart that I've chosen to end my AFL career today," Swallow said.

"I've been fortunate to have had a 12-year career with North and I owe a lot to the club for investing in me not only as a player, but also as a person.

"After speaking with my wife, Elise, and weighing up my future and that of our young family, we're looking for a new direction and challenge.

"It's been an incredible journey, but it's now time to move on to the next chapter of our lives and I'm really excited for what lies ahead for us."

Andrew Swallow's chances of joining younger brother, David Swallow, at Gold Coast are looking increasingly remote, with time fast running out on the former North Melbourne captain's bid for a fresh start.

For Swallow to get to Gold Coast as a rookie, North would have to agree to delist him by Thursday's 2pm second list lodgement deadline, something the Roos are prepared to do. The West Australian would then have to nominate for the draft by 2pm next Friday (November 17).

That two-step process is extremely unlikely to get off the ground, however, unless Swallow receives a prior commitment from the Suns.

Andrew Swallow has asked for a trade from North Melbourne to Gold Coast to fulfill his dream of playing with his brother David Swallow.

"David's up there and his partner Georgie is pregnant, so apart from wanting to play with David and go and live on the Gold Coast, that will also assist David (by) having his brother (and sister-in-law Elise) around as a young father and both working together at the club," Swallow's manager Colin Young said.

"There was a lot of different reasons and Andrew even was mooted last year that he might want to get up there, and we did raise that last year (in the trade period) but unfortunately it couldn't happen."

Andrew Swallow admits he didn't like Braydon Preuss' tackle on him during North Melbourne's intraclub game on Friday, but he holds no grudges and wants the ruckman to continue to be aggressive on the field.

Preuss lifted and dumped Swallow to the ground in a tackle during the first quarter of Friday's game between 'Country' and 'City' teams.

Although the former North skipper was not injured in the incident, he understandably reacted angrily, immediately remonstrating with the ruckman.

However, Swallow told reporters after the game Preuss' tackle had been the result of poor technique rather than any malicious intent.

"We want Preussy to be really aggressive and he's a big fella and he didn't quite get the technique right but he's going to continue to refine that," Swallow said.

"I didn't like it, but it's all good."

Andrew Swallow is on track to play in the JLT Community Series as he prepares to return for his first AFL match since mid-2015 after knee issues.

"I have been doing full training for most of the pre-season after initially being eased into it," Swallow said.

"I've been enjoying the match simulation stuff and getting some more midfield minutes.

"I have to make a bit of a plan to see how much I play over the pre-season competition and leading into round one so it's been all positive. I just have to keep working on the tank and keep looking after my body as much as I can."

Jack Ziebell is appointed as North Melbourne's new captain for the upcoming 2017 season.

"It's a huge honour to captain a club with such a proud history," Ziebell said.

"Since my first day here, I've always wondered what it would be like to lead this great club."

Ziebell takes over from Andrew Swallow, who relinquished the captaincy at the end of last season after five years in the role.

"He (Swallow) has done an outstanding job and leaves some big shoes to fill," Ziebell said.

"I'll definitely be leaning on Andrew for some guidance in the role."

Andrew Swallow steps down as North Melbourne captain after five seasons.

"It's been an absolute honour to lead this football club for the last five years. It's a childhood dream to be able to walk out in front of 90,000 fans at the MCG as captain of the football club," Swallow said at North's best and fairest count.

"But my time has come to step aside, to encourage the step generation of leaders to take over and to be there to support them and guide them."

Andrew Swallow says adjusting to the new interchange cap has been a lot tougher than he envisaged.

Interchange rotations were reduced from a maximum of 120 a team to 90 ahead of this season, as part of the AFL's push to promote more open and flowing games.

"It's definitely taking a much bigger toll on the players. We're probably doing less work early in the week than what we have been in previous years," Swallow said.

"I think it's probably going to take another month for everyone to get used to the way the game's being played and for your body to adapt and cope with that load."

Andrew Swallow will continue as North Melbourne captain in 2016.

Jack Ziebell will become the club's sole vice-captain after sharing the role with veteran spearhead Drew Petrie for the past four seasons.

Shaun Higgins will also come into the Roos' leadership group in 2016, joining existing members Swallow, Ziebell, Jamie Macmillan and Scott Thompson.

Petrie and fellow veteran Nick Dal Santo exit the club's official leadership team but will have mentoring roles this year.

"The players have probably been the loudest voice in this and in the end it was fairly clear, but that doesn't mean it was easy," North Melbourne coach Brad Scott said.

"While we know Jack has got terrific leadership qualities, this process meant that Andrew was a fairly clear standout for us."

Jack Ziebell has downplayed speculation he will replace Andrew Swallow as North Melbourne captain next season, saying he sees no reason for a leadership change.

"I haven't spoken to the coach (Brad Scott) or anyone about that. There are a few rumours but I think our skipper at the minute, Andrew Swallow, is doing an outstanding job and I don't think there's any reason why that will change," Ziebell said.

Andrew Swallow is set to miss up to three weeks with a broken thumb, but says he hopes to be back sooner.

"Ideally it'll just be the one week," Swallow said.

"It depends on how [the thumb] pulls up. As long as it doesn't swell up too much and it's not too painful, I should be able to get out there next weekend."

Luke Hodge is suspended for three matches at the Tribunal after pleading guilty to striking North Melbourne midfielder Andrew Swallow.

Hodge told the Tribunal he had intended to strike Swallow to the chest. He said although he played a physical style of football, there was no excuse for what he did.

"I definitely did not mean to get him as high as I did, but in saying that I was silly enough to do it and have to cop the punishment," Hodge said.

"I don't stand for that as a footballer and I don't stand for that as a person.

"I definitely believe there's no room in our game for incidents like that, (so) I'll cop the three weeks and move on from there."

Jamie Macmillan is promoted to North Melbourne's leadership group, replacing Daniel Wells who has stepped down.

Andrew Swallow will continue as captain, with Drew Petrie, Jack Ziebell, Nick Dal Santo, Scott Thompson and Sam Gibson set to resume their official leadership roles.

"Primarily what we're trying to build here, like every club, is a really broad range of leaders," Kangaroos coach Brad Scott said.

"We really feel that to give our emerging leaders a chance to come through we need to have succession plan in place."

Andrew Swallow will almost certainly finish his career as a one-club player after re-signing with the Roos for three more years.

Swallow, 27, was due to become a free agent at the end of this season, but has re-committed to North to the end of 2018 by when he will be 31.

Chris Dawes accepts a one-match ban for striking North Melbourne captain Andrew Swallow.

Dawes was charged with a level two striking offence, which would ordinarily have been reduced to a reprimand with an early guilty plea.

However, the 26-year-old will miss the Demons' round-one match next season because of 68.75 carryover points for a striking charge against Richmond defender Alex Rance in round nine.

Dawes made high contact to Swallow after the midfielder had disposed of the ball in the third quarter of Saturday night's loss and was reported.

The incident was assessed as reckless conduct, low impact and high contact.

Andrew Swallow says he continues to make strides in his comeback from a ruptured left Achilles tendon after tallying 21 possessions, nine tackles, four clearances and a goal against the Eagles.

"I really struggled against Geelong, just struggled to get involved in the contest and just to play at the intensity required," Swallow said.

"But I thought I was much improved on Sunday night and I've still probably got another couple of levels to go to.

"There's still a fair bit of work to do and then a fair bit of time to get that done consistently."

Andrew Swallow admits to being nervous in the lead up to his comeback match against the Lions after recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon.

"It was my body that I was a bit worried about. You just go through the mental battle trying to see whether you get through," Swallow said.

"But once I got through to today I just tried to forget about it, keep myself busy and once we got to the bounce of the ball I was sweet."

Overcoming the mental scars from almost 10 months out of the game is North Melbourne captain Andrew Swallow's greatest challenge ahead of his imminent return in Saturday's important clash against the Brisbane Lions.

"Little niggles that you feel from time to time. You feel like you're ready to go and they hold you back," Swallow said.

"So just that mental battle. It's great to be getting to the other end where you're actually playing because that makes it a lot easier.

"But there's still mind games even now that you still play. I'm sure there will be a couple of sleepless nights before I actually get out there just knowing that I'll get through and be unscathed."

Andrew Swallow has raised concern over the Match Review Panel and its "inconsistent" findings.

Swallow, an AFLPA delegate, highlighted his disappointment in the bump being removed from the game and prompted changes to the League's judicial system.

"There's probably a couple of inconsistencies at the moment in it," Swallow said on Channel Nine's The Footy Show.

"And the players are probably scratching their heads at it wondering why's this person getting this many weeks and this person not?

"Guys are getting the carryover points. (I'm not sure) whether that needs to be scrapped.

"There's also the thing with the early plea, and I don't know whether [that] quite works and if guys have got carryover points but then they get points off for the early plea."

Andrew Swallow has abandoned hopes of a round-one return from injury, saying he is now targeting rounds four-to-eight for his comeback game.

"I've got a bit of a sore foot which is just sort of holding me back a little bit, but the Achilles is great, it's feeling really good," Swallow said.

"But the club want to be pretty cautious with it.

"So although I said early on I want to be back round one – and I probably could be – I know they're holding me back and want to make sure everything's right to go, so there's no chance of redoing anything later on."

Kangaroos coach Brad Scott says Brent Harvey will step down from the leadership group in 2014 to allow the next generation of North Melbourne leaders, including current skipper Andrew Swallow, to emerge.

"Brent will selflessly step out of the leadership group this year and take a really active role in mentoring our emerging leaders and I think that will certainly help Andrew grow as well," Scott said.

"We were really keen for a new captain to take over while Brent Harvey was still playing and now Brent is really keen for Andrew to stand up (and) take the captaincy without the figuratively large shadow of Brent Harvey hanging over him."

Andrew Swallow misses North Melbourne's training camp in Utah, deciding instead to take a cautious approach to his rehabilitation from a ruptured Achilles tendon.

"I hadn't really been doing a lot when the Achilles just started getting a bit sore and over a week or so it kept lingering around," Swallow said.

"When it took a while to get better, we decided I was better off staying in Melbourne. We've got really great facilities at North and it's much easier getting scans if we need to.

"The main thing in my discussions with Andy was the long term. Although I want to get back as quickly as I can, my long-term playing future is what we're worried about."

Andrew Swallow has withdrawn from North Melbourne's Utah training camp after experiencing soreness in the Achilles tendon he ruptured in round 18 this year.

"Andrew experienced some soreness so we determined it was best to re-scan and review the injury with his specialist," North club doctor Andy McMahon said.

"The results of the scan this week were extremely good and we will continue to monitor his situation day by day and assess the best way forward for Andrew.

"We feel the best place for his rehabilitation program is back here in Melbourne for the time being."

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott says Kangaroos skipper Andrew Swallow may miss up to half of the start of 2014 as he recovers from a ruptured Achilles tendon.

"If you talk to me, I'm planning for the second half of the year," Scott said.

"If you talk to our medicos, they're talking about the first half of the year somewhere, and if you talk to Andrew it's round one.

"Hopefully he's right and I'm wrong, but we'll take it step-by-step, take a really graduated, scientific approach, and get him ready when he's ready."

Andrew Swallow hopes to be back running in December after successful surgery on his ruptured Achilles.

"There will be a number of weekly measurements that we'll take to see how he's tracking, and nothing is ever set in stone, especially with these types of repairs," North Melbourne director of medical services Steve Saunders said.

"But all indications are that by December, Andrew should be able to start some running on the Alter-G treadmill, with very low percentages of body weight."

Following a season ending injury to Kangaroos skipper Andrew Swallow, Drew Petrie will take over as captain of North Melbourne with coach Brad Scott saying fellow vice-captain Jack Ziebell is not quite ready to take on the leadership role.

"We saw Jack as an absolute potential leader of our football club in the future, but the reality is that at the start of this year he was (still) 21, so he's still very young," Scott said.

"To put that in context he's still two years younger than Jack Grimes who's captaining Melbourne. So he's a very, very young leader, but he's exceeded all of our expectations in terms of his leadership potential.

"But [18] months on (from his appointment as vice-captain) we're not going to make a rash decision and a silly decision in my view when we've got a great leader in Drew Petrie there who's ready to captain the club and I think will do an outstanding job for us."

Andrew Swallow faces several months on the sidelines after scans confirm a ruptured Achilles.

As practising Christian, North Melbourne Skipper Andrew Swallow says he disagrees with playing football on Good Friday despite the club's strong push for it in the past.

"If I was to take the club line I would say yes, but personally I would prefer not to," Swallow said.

"I just don't think football should be played on Good Friday. It should be left a day where there's no football at all."

Andrew Swallow wins the Syd Barker Medal - his third North Melbourne best and fairest award in four years.

Swallow tallied 60 votes ahead of Scott Thompson with 49 and Brent Harvey with 45.

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott says he would be disappointed if captain Andrew Swallow did not win All Australian selection.

"He's had a super first up year as captain and if he's not in the All Australian team I'll be very disappointed," Scott told SEN radio.

"The difficult thing with that team is that you've got to get a lot of midfielders in there. If he can't get a spot in the midfield, hopefully they can play him at half-forward."

Andrew Swallow's good form has been rewarded with a contract extension until the end of 2015, a deal which Swallow says surprised him when told about it by his manager.

"He rang to tell me the club had contacted him about signing me through until 2015 and I was a bit shocked," Swallow said.

"It wasn't something I had to think about, to be honest. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else and told him to get it done for sure."

Drew Petrie says Andrew Swallow is thriving under the pressure of captaincy and may lead North for the next decade.

"He's embraced the captaincy really well. He's still only about 23, 24 (Swallow turned 25 last month) but he could be the captain yet for the next 10 years at the footy club," Petrie said.

"He's had a great impact straight away. He's taken the responsibility in both hands. He hasn't shied away from it. He hasn't gone into his shell at all.

"I think when young players get the job as captain their form can often drop away. But his hasn't at all - he's just excelled."

Midfielder Andrew Swallow is named North Melbourne's new captain, replacing Brent Harvey.

"I've had a few opportunities in my junior career but I think as I go along (my leadership) will evolve," Swallow said.

"I'm probably not someone who will be in people's faces and yelling and screaming. I like to lead by the way I play, similar to the way that 'Boomer' (Harvey) prepares and the way he goes about his footy.

"(I'll also be) just getting alongside the guys and getting to know them really well and making sure that they're travelling well."

Daniel Wells and Andrew Swallow share first place in North Melbourne's best and fairest count for the Syd Barker Medal.

North Melbourne midfielder Andrew Swallow expresses his frustration with the match review panel on Twitter saying, "Drewy rubbed out for a week...meanwhile Shaun Atley's nose broken?? Hello..."

An AFL spokesman, however, says Swallow will not be penalised for this.

"Provided he doesn't make comments regarding the umpires, he is not contravening any rules,'' the spokesman said.

"The match review panel provided an explanation for its decision and he's not referring to the umpires.''

Andrew Swallow has extended his contract with the Roos, putting him out of the reach of new franchise Team GWS.

"I truly believe that we will be able to achieve great things if we can all stick together," he said.

"The club has a really bright future and Brad Scott, the coaches and staff have all put a lot of work into turning things around. I'm just really happy to be a part of the future here and am looking forward to watching our young midfield develop and improve."

Kangaroo Andrew Swallow's impressive season has been rewarded with the midfielder claiming his first Syd Barker Medal as the club's best and fairest player.

Swallow finished on 487 votes, just 10 ahead of full-back and runner-up Scott Thompson with 477 votes.

North Melbourne midfielder Andrew Swallow savoured his early season opportunity against the Demons on Sunday.

Against the Demons, Swallow was North's most important player at the clearances. Nine of his 21 possessions were contested and he showed signs of his breakout 2007 season.