The Sydney Swans have insisted the five players suspended for failing to uphold club standards were the only club representatives present in a Melbourne hotel room in the early hours of Monday morning, as coach Dean Cox admitted “a culture isn’t perfect”.
Isaac Heeney, Nick Blakey, Chad Warner, Riley Bice and James Jordon were stood down by the Swans this week for breaching the club’s standards, including drinking and staying out late after last Sunday’s win over Essendon in Melbourne.
Separate to that, Victoria police have also said they are investigating an alleged sexual assault at the Pullman Hotel in Melbourne. No one has been arrested or charged in relation to that allegation.
The Guardian does not suggest that any of the players are being accused of sexual assault, and it is reported that none of the banned players have been formally interviewed by police.
Cox, along with club captain Callum Mills, faced the media on Friday morning and the pair repeatedly knocked back questioning around the details of the night in question, citing the ongoing police investigation.
But Cox confirmed he was not in the hotel room at the centre of the scandal, after having been out for dinner with club staff earlier in the night. The coach added that he was “unaware” if there was anyone else connected to the club in the room.
“I cannot comment on what happened in the room, it is a police investigation,” Cox said. “So we’re still trying to find out information as well.”
The Swans later issued a statement to confirm their in-house investigation found only the five players who have been suspended were in the hotel room.
“The Sydney Swans can confirm that all investigations carried out by the club have consistently indicated that the only representatives of the club in the room central to the police investigation were the five players who have been stood down,” the statement read.
“We have every reason to consider that reports to the contrary are simply false.”
John Karantzis, a lawyer representing the alleged victims, had claimed earlier on Friday in an interview with 3AW Mornings there were more than five men in the room.
Cox said the club’s culture has “taken a massive hit”, and vowed to work hard to regain the community’s trust and respect.
“We all have women in our lives we deeply love. I would like to express the respect for women is of the highest priority for both myself personally and for our football club,” Cox said.
“We have some fantastic women working in our football club … and our thoughts are with them and I apologise to them, along with the women in the community, for the actions of the players. We are extremely disappointed at the actions of the players. And the sanctions imposed by the board show how serious we take these matters.
“We’re going to work … as hard as we possibly can to get the trust back from the community, to get the culture where we desire to be, where we once had been.”
Mills said he had “not seen” any teammates in his decade with the Swans engage in the sort of breach of standards for which the club sanctioned the five players.
He added he was “deeply shocked and disappointed” and apologised to the club’s AFLW players and female staff as well as “all women within the community”.
“We’re really disappointed at the actions of these five players and as a playing group we fully support the club’s decision on the sanctions handed down,” Mills said, adding the five players had “let us down”.
The club’s AFL captain said he had spoken to the suspended players and described the conversation as “extremely hard”. He denied there was a “rift” within the playing group and refused to comment on whether he would welcome the players back to the team amid the ongoing police investigation.
Mills said he had addressed the AFLW players and “acknowledged their pain and I deeply apologised for the actions of a few within our group”.
Swans AFLW captain Lucy McEvoy said later on Friday the club had “taken a reputational hit”.
McEvoy added the club was “absolutely united” across the AFL and AFLW programs, and said “absolutely, yes” when asked whether she would want to have input in the five players returning to the club.
The five players’ breach of the Swans’ standards and the media storm that has followed have taken the spotlight away from what was meant to be a momentous occasion for the club.
Plans to heavily promote the AFLW and AFL teams playing their first double header at the SCG on Sunday have largely been put on hold.
“This week was supposed to be a really big day for our football club and the W program, so to be able to get that support – we feel it a lot, we’ve had a lot of messages through social media – and the best way to support us in this moment is get to the game on Sunday and hopefully break a record crowd,” McEvoy said.
