In the opening 11 rounds of fixtures, the Princess Park outfit has firmly established itself in the top half of the table by chalking up seven wins, a draw and three losses in Sullivan’s first campaign in the hot seat.
The Swans played in their first finals series in a decade during the 2025 term under the guidance of former coach Jedd Wright, who subsequently departed his post after three years in charge.
During that era, Sullivan served as Wright’s right hand man in an assistant role, lending his expertise after a distinguished coaching career with Nagambie, where he won three premierships, and at Port Melbourne.
Since assuming the reins, Sullivan has patiently started to put his own stamp on the Swans, with standout victories against reigning premier Kyabram and last year’s runner-up Rochester among the highlights.
Last time out the side in red and white bounced back from a 74-point defeat away at Echuca with an instant response at home to Euroa, as it dispatched of the Magpies 9.10 (64) to 7.7 (49).
It was a particularly memorable outing for the free-scoring Harper Simpson, who hit the scoreboard four times, while James Auld kicked two goals, as Kade Alper, Christian Georgiou and Liam Rachele got in on the act with strikes of their own.
That result meant the Swans have breathing space in relation to their closest rivals as they look to book a finals place for the second year running during the business end to the campaign.
Currently, they sit in fourth place in the standings, some eight points in front of next-best Mansfield and 10 points ahead of Kyabram.
Having already beaten the Bombers earlier in the season, preparations are now under way ahead of the reverse fixture on the road in round 12 on June 27.
Looking ahead to that clash, Swans coach Sullivan spoke of the mood within his camp as they look to close in on a finals place in the remaining fixtures.
“We obviously put eight points between us and Mansfield (against Euroa) and so that was good,” he said.
“We’re maybe not winning and beating sides by much, but we’re still winning at crucial points in games and the games when we’ve been in tight tussles, we’ve been on the right side of it for the most part.”
Providing insight into the threat posed by the Bombers, Sullivan also insisted that he would be instructing his side to stick to its game plan.
“We really want to capitalise on that against Kyabram this week, who are clearly a really good side with players around the ground everywhere who can dominate and turn the game,” he said.
“So we’re aware of them, but for us it’s a case of playing our style and putting the best versions of ourselves out there when we play with consistent efforts.
“We’ll look at Ky and analyse their game again and implement our style, rather than try and nullify them – we’ll just try and play our game and hopefully we can come away with the win.”
