Errol Gulden (born 18 July 2002) is a professional

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er playing for the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a Austral ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL). Gulden is a dual

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perfo ...

and won the

Bob Skilton Medal The Bob Skilton Medal is an annual Australian rules football award presented to the player(s) adjudged the best and fairest at the Sydney Swans (formerly the South Melbourne Football Club) throughout the Victorian Football League/Australian Foot ...

in 2023. He also won the AFLPA best first-year player award in 2021 and was nominated for the

2021 AFL Rising Star The NAB AFL Rising Star award is given annually to a standout young player in the Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules footba ...

award.

Early life

Gulden was born in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

to a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

-born father and an Australian mother. He grew up in the suburb of Malabar and supported Carlton. He began playing junior

for the Maroubra Saints Junior Football Club in Maroubra as at the age of 4. However his main passion was

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

, he was considered quite a talented player and desired to continue toward playing it professionally. Gulden was identified by Sydney Swans talent scouts and was signed to the Sydney Swans academy at 11 years of age. In 2017, while attending Marcellin College Gulden was named in the NSW independent schools team to New Zealand to play against the New Zealand national team. In 2018 Gulden was named as an Under 16s All-Australian after his stellar season with the Under-16

NSW/ACT Rams NSW/ACT (also known as NSW-ACT and nicknamed the 'Rams'), is an underage Australian rules football representative team managed by AFL NSW/ACT. The team represents New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and its moniker, partly derive ...

, and was also named as the team's most valuable player. He played in the 2019 NAB All Stars Futures Match alongside future teammates

Braeden Campbell Braeden Campbell (born 4 February 2002) is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was recruited by the Sydney Swans with the 5th draft pick in the 2020 AFL draft. after the Swa ...

and

Logan McDonald Logan McDonald (born 4 April 2002) is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was recruited by the Sydney Swans with the 4th draft pick in the 2020 AFL draft. Early football Mc ...

. Gulden also played for the

UNSW-Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs UNSW-Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs is an Australian rules football club competing in the Sydney AFL competition. They are based in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, and affiliated with the University of New South Wales. History The club formed in 1999 ...

in three seasons from 2018 to 2020 for a total of 33 games and was named as best on ground in their 2019 premiership win over

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

AFL career

Gulden was recruited by Sydney with the 32nd draft pick in the

2020 AFL draft The 2020 AFL draft consisted of the various periods where the 18 clubs in the Australian Football League (AFL) could trade and recruit players following the completion of the 2020 AFL season. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nati ...

. Gulden debuted in the opening round of the

2021 AFL season The 2021 AFL season was the 125th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest-level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season feature ...

, starring for Sydney in their shock win over . In his first game, he kicked 3 goals and collected 19 disposals and earned himself a Rising Star nomination for the round. In addition, Gulden polled two votes in the 2021 Brownlow Medal, becoming the fifth Swan to poll votes on debut. He backed up his groundbreaking round one performance with a 22 disposal, 1 goal performance the next week in the team's 33 point win over . After this performance, Champion Data statistics described him as having two of the best games recorded by a debutant ever. Gulden played the first eight games of the 2021 season, before being sidelined for an extended period of time due to stress reactions in his foot. He returned in Round 15 against

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

and remained in the side for the rest of the year. Gulden became a key part of Sydney's best 22, helping the team qualify for

finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

after a 16th-placed finish the year before. He played 15 games and kicked 12 goals, and was recognised by his peers when he won the AFLPA Best First Year Player award. He also polled in the top 5 for the Rising Star, and was the highest-polling first-year player. In 2023, Gulden polled 27 votes in the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

, finishing in equal fourth place, just four votes behind winner Lachie Neale. This was the most votes by a Swan in a season since 1940. He also received selection to the

team for the first time. He also won the Bob Skilton Medal, awarded to the best Swans player for the year. Gulden extended his time at the Swans, signing a 4-year contract. As a

Liverpool FC Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has ...

fan, he has credited

Steven Gerrard Steven George Gerrard MBE (born 30 May 1980) is an English professional football manager and a former player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time and one of Liverpool's greatest ever players,2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

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2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

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2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

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Honours and achievements

Team * AFL minor premiership (): 2024 Individual * 2×

All-Australian team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perfo ...

: 2023 * AFLPA best first-year player: 2021 * 3×

Brett Kirk Medal The Sydney Derby, formerly and unofficially called the Battle of the Bridge or the Battle of Sydney, is an Australian rules football local derby match between the two Sydney-based Australian Football League (AFL) clubs, the Sydney Swans and th ...

: 2023 (game 2), 2024 (both games) *

AFL Rising Star The AFL Rising Star is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best young player in the Australian Football League (AFL) for the year. It was first presented in the 1993 season, and was won by Nathan Bu ...

nominee:

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gulden, Errol 2002 births Living people Sydney Swans players Australian people of Turkish descent Australian rules footballers from Sydney All-Australians (AFL) Australian rules footballers from New South Wales People educated at Marcellin College Randwick People from the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) UNSW-Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs players 21st-century Australian sportsmen