Five Sydney Swans players have said they are “deeply sorry” after they were suspended for the rest of the AFL season.
The club stood down players Riley Bice, Nick Blakey, Isaac Heeney, James Jordon and Chad Warner on Wednesday morning. None of the men have been arrested or charged, but police are investigating an alleged sexual assault at the Pullman Hotel in Melbourne.
The five players issued a joint statement on Wednesday, saying they were “deeply sorry to everyone involved”, and that their focus would now be on rebuilding trust with the club and community.
“We know that our behaviour has fallen well short of the standards expected of us and the values of our club,” the statement read.
The players acknowledged they had let down their partners and families, those associated with the Swans, including their teammates and the AFLW team, and the wider community. Their statement did not refer to the alleged victim.
The AFL Players’ Association said it would support all its members impacted by the events, including the five players, in a statement from the chief executive, James Gallagher, on Wednesday night.
“The AFLPA acknowledges the accountability they’ve rightly taken and will continue to support them,” Gallagher said.
The Swans chief executive, Matthew Pavlich, addressed the media on Wednesday afternoon alongside the chair, Andrew Pridham.
“To say we’re disappointed is an understatement,” Pavlich said. “We’re 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.”
The AFL backed the sanctions on Wednesday evening, confirming none of the five would be considered for the All Australian squad, which will be finalised next week.
This AFL decision and the club sanctions are separate to the ongoing police investigation.
“We respect that this is an ongoing investigation by Victoria police, and the actions we’ve taken today are totally independent of this,” Pavlich said.
The former Fremantle player, who took the Swans top job last year, said the players’ behaviour fell short of the club’s standards.
“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,” he said.
Pavlich said coaching staff including head coach Dean Cox, who were pictured out late on the same evening, had not breached any standards, and the possible introduction of a curfew would be a decision for Cox, his staff and players.
Pridham said both his chief executive and head coach retained his confidence. “[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.”
Pavlich said this instance did not reflect the club’s culture and its attitude towards women. “All I’ve seen so far at this football club, barring this significant incident, is that we are one club and we treat and respect women incredibly well, and it’s of the utmost importance to our football club.”
Pridham issued a broad apology to the community, fans and corporate partners, and pledged to work to restore people’s trust in the club.
“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.”
Pavlich did not address any alleged victims in his initial address on Wednesday, but was asked about them by reporters on Wednesday. “We’re deeply concerned about their welfare and the wellbeing of those women, and we offer as much support as we can,” he said, while recognising it would be inappropriate to contact them while there was a police investigation ongoing.
“They’re the ones who are impacted severely at the moment, and we are here to acknowledge those allegations.”
Pridham said the sanctions had all but 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.”
Yet Pavlich said he would not write off Sydney’s AFL season. “I am always optimistic of what our club, what our people can do,” he said.
The Swans are hosting their first double header this Sunday, with both AFL and AFLW games to be held at the SCG. “It’s going to be difficult,” Pridham said.
“But our approach very much will be to celebrate having a historic double header with the women’s team playing, and I know they’re very excited about that.
“And we just have to make it as normal as possible and clearly respecting the circumstances of this week is going to make that difficult, but we’re hopeful that our fans turn up and, to the extent they feel willing to do so, come and support the teams.”
