The Sydney Swans is 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 fields a reserves men's team in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

The club's origins trace back to 21 March 1873, when a meeting was held at the Clarendon Hotel in South Melbourne for the purpose of establishing a junior football club, to be called the South Melbourne Football Club.[3] The club commenced playing in 1874 at its home ground; Lakeside Oval in Albert Park. Playing as South Melbourne it participated in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) competition from 1878 before joining the breakaway Victorian Football League (VFL) as a founding member in 1897.

Originally known as the "Bloods" in reference to the red colour used on players guernseys, the Swan emblem was adopted in 1933 after a journalist at the time referred to them using the moniker following a large influx of Western Australian players. In 1982, it became the first professional Australian football club to permanently relocate interstate (from Victoria to New South Wales). In the following year, the club was renamed the Sydney Swans.