Robbie Fox and Jackson Thurlow were roommates on a pre-season Hobart footy camp in their late teens and are now loving being back in the same colours at the Sydney Swans.

The rising duo played their first game together in red and white as Sydney pipped Essendon last Friday, and the Tasmanians are now set for a homecoming in Saturday night’s clash with North Melbourne at Hobart’s Blundstone Arena.

Fox played for Burnie in the Tasmanian State League and Thurlow Launceston, a set-up which saw them butt heads in the 2011 Grand Final.

And their childhood rivalry wasn’t limited to footy, with Ulverstone’s Fox and Launceston’s Thurlow regularly squaring off in basketball in their early teens.

But Tassie Mariners representation would see Fox and Thurlow join the same team huddle, and Thurlow’s switch from Geelong to Sydney via last October’s trade period has again united the pair. 

“I was pretty keen to get another Tasmanian up here,” Fox said.

“I remember Jackson being a nice kid when we were growing up, but then when I moved to Melbourne and he got drafted we weren’t really in contact for about six years. I always liked to follow his progress at Geelong, and I remember him being a good guy, so when the Swans picked him up I was rapt.”

Thurlow played 46 games over six years for Geelong before following Daniel Menzel in a move from the Cats to the Swans during the off-season.

The change of colours means Fox, who signed with Sydney as a rookie ahead of season 2017, is no longer the only Tasmanian on the club’s list – and Fox made the new Swan feel welcome from the get-go. 

The Sydney utility even rounded up a handful of his teammates, including Aliir Aliir and Sam Naismith, and headed out for dinner with Thurlow in Bondi on his first night in the Harbour City.

“I had gone from the big smoke of Launceston to the bigger smoke of Geelong and now I was sitting in Bondi,” Thurlow laughed.

“It helps when you’re coming to a new footy club and a new state having a familiar face. We hadn’t ever kept in contact, but just having someone at the Swans who I knew when I arrived was a big help.”

Although Fox and Thurlow are now Sydney teammates, a friendly rivalry remains.

Thurlow enjoys reminding him of the time he helped Launceston to premiership glory against Fox’s Burnie in 2011, and Thurlow will never stop hearing of Burnie’s 2012 Grand Final revenge.

The only chink in Fox’s dig is a badly bruised Thurlow didn’t play in the 2012 Grand Final.

Earlier in the finals series – in a semi-final clash with Burnie – Thurlow had been sling-tackled over the boundary and onto a bitumen bicycle track, a brutal incident leaving him with a broken thumb and cheekbone.

“Technically I didn’t play in the 2012 Grand Final, so he doesn’t really have the wood on me,” Thurlow laughed.

Fox and Thurlow squared off as Sydney met Geelong at the Cattery in Round 6 last season, the only time they’ve clashed in a match at AFL level.

In a game that saw the Swans tear home to clinch a 22-point comeback victory, Fox flew high for a 2018 Mark of the Year contender.

Saturday’s game against the Roos will see Fox and Thurlow enter the heat of battle side by side, and Fox couldn’t be more impressed with how his new teammate has attacked his early days in red and white.

“Jackson had a really good pre-season, he’s adapted really well to Sydney living and the boys love him,” Fox said.

“He didn’t play Round 1 so he then had to put in some more really hard work, but he played some good NEAFL games and since coming into the senior side he’s played some really good footy.”

Thurlow is living with his partner in Clovelly in Sydney’s east, and he says the coast is just the start of all he loves about his new city.

“Living in Sydney has been great, the weather’s great, the beaches are great and the footy club has been really good to me,” Thurlow said. 

“There’s some amazing knowledge and experience around this footy club, and it’s been really good to pick everyone’s brains and see how others go about it, so life in Sydney has been really good.”