‘I just don’t call him Sir’: The teacher-student best mates dreaming of being drafted to Essendon

3 weeks ago 11

The Age’s in-depth coverage of the next generation of football stars, ahead of this year’s AFL national draft at Marvel Stadium.

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Adam Sweid and Hussien El Achkar insist there are times they get sick of each other, which is understandable.

These two best mates, proud Muslims and highly promising teenage footballers – who dream of both becoming Bombers in a few days’ time, after coming through the AFL club’s next-generation academy – are effectively joined at the hip.

Hussien El Achkar and Adam Sweid are expected to be selected in next week’s AFL draft.

They first met as rivals in the under-eights for Hadfield (Sweid) and Glenroy (El Achkar), but eventually joined forces at Pascoe Vale, where they each finished in the top three of the league’s best-and-fairest in the under-16s.

Sweid and El Achkar have been teammates since, including at the Calder Cannons, Victoria Metro, the World Team, and the Bachar Houli Foundation’s boys’ academy. They always carpool to training. Sometimes, the trips are silent – with El Achkar driving, and Sweid flicking through TikTok – and others, they “don’t shut up”.

After ditching a plumbing job, El Achkar – known affectionately as “Hussy” – also taught strength and conditioning this year at The Islamic College of Sport, where fellow 18-year-old Sweid completed his year 12 studies.

The independent senior secondary school is a Bachar Houli Foundation initiative for Muslims.

“He’s technically my teacher. I just don’t call him ‘Sir’,” Sweid said, prompting both boys to burst into laughter in an interview with this masthead, where the MCG was an appropriate backdrop.

“It’s a sport school, so I’m balancing my physical education, and obviously, my academics in class. I’m not really the kid to stay seated for eight hours a day, which is why this school has definitely helped me.”

El Achkar and Sweid have spent much of their football journey together.

Sweid, who spent last year recovering from an ACL rupture, and El Achkar joked together at the start of the 2025 season that the Bombers would, surely, at least select them in the rookie draft. But it soon became obvious, even to them, that they were too good for that.

El Achkar, a mercurial small forward who idolises Izak Rankine, kicked 28 goals in only 11 games for the Cannons – the equal-fourth most in the Talent League – while Sweid averaged 25 disposals and five clearances.

Sweid also earned All-Australian under-18 honours and was named in the Talent League’s team of the year. As a similarly diminutive and tough onballer, he studies Richmond premiership star Dion Prestia’s every move and Hawk Dylan Moore’s running patterns.

The Cannons teammates are expected to attract opposition bids inside the top 40.

Essendon’s Saad El-Hawli became just the sixth Muslim to play an AFL game during Ramadan in March this year, so Sweid and El Achkar could join rare company.

Sedat Sir (24 games for Western Bulldogs), Adem Yze (271 for Melbourne), Ahmed Saad (33 for St Kilda), Bachar Houli (232 for Essendon and Richmond) and Adam Saad (216 for Gold Coast, Essendon and Carlton) are the only other Muslims to play the Australian sport at the top level.

And Sweid and El Achkar have developed relationships with all of them.

“I think that’s extra motivation as well. We’d love for our younger cousins and brothers to look at us and ask questions,” Sweid said.

“We’d love to be the next Bachar Houli, Adam Saad, Saad El-Hawli and Ahmed Saad. They’re the people, in particular, who have pushed us through this – and we wouldn’t be here without them. That’s a guarantee. They genuinely care about us, so we’re extremely grateful.”

Sweid and El Achkar’s respective families emigrated from Lebanon to start a new life in Australia, but made sure their Australian-born sons grew up familiar with their heritage and religion.

Sweid earned under-18 All-Australian honours this year.

They each said their parents were their “why”, and playing in the AFL, particularly on the MCG, was one way of repaying them for their support and sacrifices.

Sweid and El Achkar pray five times a day: at sunrise, early afternoon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and again late at night before bed.

“By praying, you’re going back to God, and remembering his presence,” El Achkar said. “Our faith helps us with our footy. God has put you in a position to play in that football game … but what’s written and what’s happening is meant to happen, so we just try to stay close with him.”

El Achkar performed an integral role in lifting Sweid up after his ACL rupture playing for Pascoe Vale in an under-16 grand final two years ago.

Even the ever-positive Sweid admitted he went through about a month of feeling sorry for himself after his injury setback, which came with initial fears his AFL dream might be over.

Not many people visited him, but El Achkar was among them – and he came armed with Sweid’s favourite kebab. Watching El Achkar succeed in the months afterwards helped motivate Sweid to do everything possible to make it back to the field better than ever.

“Seeing him like that was tough,” El Achkar said.

“I knew I had to support him, and help try to get him back out there. Watching him come back from his injury this year made me so happy. He’s like my brother, a person I’ve been training with for the last three, four years. If he kicks a goal, it’s like I’ve kicked a goal.”

El Achkar and Sweid hope to both be Essendon footballers by next week.

All that is left now is to wait for their fate to unfold at next week’s AFL draft. Essendon can match any opposition bid on them, but there is no guarantee they will.

The ultimate dream is for them both to land at Tullamarine.

“We always have scenarios in the car, like, ‘Imagine we go to Essendon’, but that was in the first half of the year, and we’d have slip-up games, so we needed to actually focus on our year,” Sweid said.

“Now, we genuinely have the mindset of whatever club chooses us is the club we will give 100 per cent to.

“Our dream is to be on an AFL list. If that’s together, amazing, but if it’s not, then we’re both still going to be close. But what a dream it would be to play with your brother.”

Over to you, Bombers.