Sydney Swans stand down five players for remainder of season after Pullman Hotel incident
The Sydney Swans stood down Riley Bice, Nick Blakey, Isaac Heeney, James Jordon and Chad Warner on Wednesday for the remainder of the AFL season after the five men were connected to a Victoria Police investigation into an alleged sexual assault at the Pullman Hotel in Melbourne in the early hours of Monday, the club said. None of the five have been arrested or charged, and chief executive Matthew Pavlich said the club was “deeply embarrassed and ashamed [of] the poor choices of five of our players, and the impact that’s had on the women involved, and also the club, our supporters, and so many other people.”
Pavlich and chair Andrew Pridham addressed the media on Wednesday afternoon about the incident and the club’s response. “To say we’re disappointed is an understatement,” Pavlich said. He added: “We respect that this is an ongoing investigation by Victoria police, and the actions we’ve taken today are totally independent of this.”
Pavlich outlined the conduct that prompted the sanctions, saying: “It was staying out late, it was drinking, it was continuing their night, it was bringing women back to the hotel, it was a long way short of what we expect from our players and we’re holding them to a really high standard, but they were well short of anything near that standard.” The five players issued a joint statement saying they were “deeply sorry to everyone involved” and that “We know that our behaviour has fallen well short of the standards expected of us and the values of our club.”
Pavlich said coaching staff, including head coach Dean Cox, who were pictured out late on the same evening, had not breached any standards, and that any decision on a curfew would be a matter for Cox, his staff and players. He acknowledged he did not address any alleged victims in his initial remarks but said: “We’re deeply concerned about their welfare and the wellbeing of those women, and we offer as much support as we can.” He added: “They’re the ones who are impacted severely at the moment, and we are here to acknowledge those allegations.”
Pridham said both his chief executive and the head coach retained his confidence and warned against extending blame beyond the individuals involved, saying: “[These are] the actions, very unfortunate actions, of five players in relation to breaching our standards, and that really relates to them. I think to extrapolate beyond that, I think is very unfair.” He issued a broad apology to the community, the fans and corporate partners and pledged to work to restore trust: “Our thoughts go out to everybody who’s been impacted by these events, and we know it’s impacted many, many people ranging from the partners of our staff, our players, our women’s programme, our men’s programme.”
Pridham said the sanctions had effectively ended the Swans’ hopes of winning a first premiership since 2012: “To effectively torpedo our season by making a decision such as this just tells you how seriously we’re taking it.” Pavlich nevertheless declined to write off the campaign, saying: “I am always optimistic of what our club, what our people can do.” The club confirmed it will host its first double header this Sunday at the SCG, with both AFL and AFLW games scheduled, and Pridham said the approach would be to “celebrate having a historic double header with the women’s team playing” while respecting the week’s circumstances and urging fans, “to the extent they feel willing to do so, come and support the teams.”
The AFL backed the club’s sanctions on Wednesday evening and confirmed none of the five players would be considered for the All Australian squad, which will be finalised next week, while the Swans prepare to stage the double header at the SCG on Sunday.