Sydney Swans double-header: Women’s and men’s teams return to SCG after club’s week of scandal

Embattled and understrength Sydney have beaten North Melbourne by 53 points in the Swans’ first game since the sexual assault allegations that rocked the AFL club.

Five players – Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, Riley Bice and James Jordon – were suspended on Wednesday for the rest of the season for “breaching club standards”.

The sanctions are separate to the police investigation into sexual assault allegations and the events at East Melbourne’s Pullman Hotel in the early hours of Monday morning.

Those events completely overshadowed a maiden AFLW-AFL double-header at the SCG, where, after Sydney’s women’s team beat Essendon by 24 points, the men won their game 17.21 (123) to 10.10 (70).

After the AFLW team won in front of a record crowd of 16,672, a number of fans walked out – an action forecast by some as a reaction to the Pullman hotel storm.

Sydney’s men won what was effectively a dead-rubber in front of 30,058 fans – the club’s lowest AFL home crowd of the season.

Their previous low mark this year was 33,413; every other home crowd had breached 35,000, and with six attendances of 40,000 or more.

Sydney were already locked into second place on the ladder and will face either Brisbane or Hawthorn in a home qualifying final.

While the Swans will have next weekend off during the AFL wildcard round, in reality they face two more weeks in the spotlight before the finals.

No charges have been laid and AAP is not suggesting any wrongdoing on the part of the five suspended players.

Before the game, coach Dean Cox told Fox Footy he was confident the Swans had still prepared well despite the tough week.

His undermanned Swans were clearly the better team and kept the Kangaroos at arm’s length.

Star Errol Gulden (41 disposals) stood tall along with skipper Callum Mills (26 disposals), Brodie Grundy (26 disposals, 27 hitouts), Braeden Campbell (20 disposals and two goals) and Tom Papley.

Mills and Gulden were in tears on the final siren, the emotions of the week spilling over as the crowd showed its vocal support for the club.

Boom recruit Charlie Curnow kicked 3.4 to finish his first season in Sydney with 69 goals, winning his third Coleman Medal as the AFL’s leading goalkicker.

Billy Cootee and Logan McDonald also kicked three goals each.

James Rowbottom, Harry Cunningham, Angus Sheldrick, Caiden Cleary and Tom Hanily were the five inclusions.

For North, former Swan Luke Parker (26 disposals) was busy along with Jy Simpkin (26) and Caleb Daniel (26), while Cam Zurhaar kicked two goals.

Sydney took the early ascendancy and shot out to a 39-point lead midway through the second quarter.

The Kangaroos responded late in the second term and in the third to claw the margin back to 21 at the final break.

Cootee kicked a settler at the start of the fourth quarter and from there, the Swans cruised.

“We spoke all week about how we’re feeling, what we’re facing from there and also how to help each other,” Swans coach Dean Cox said.

“What does each individual need? The emotions that each individual was going through were different. We needed to talk our way through that. We needed to manage that as well as we possibly could.

“To everyone’s credit in the building, they did that certainly in the back part of the week. To get over 30,000 and to get over 16,000 for the W game was great.

“We understand the emotions people are having in the community at the minute and we’re no different to that.

“To see some of the support that was shown was great to see. We’ll do whatever we can to get their trust back.”

North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson was understandably flat after his side’s poor performance. He admitted they were outfought by the Swans, whom he said would be a handful for any team in the finals that didn’t take them seriously.

“Sydney were just far too polished, far too hard, far too disciplined; all the things that you’d like your side to be known for, that was Sydney today,” he said.

“Anything can happen in finals, and if you’ve got a desire like they demonstrated today, then good luck to anyone that takes them lightly.

“The whole football world has pretty much written them off, and that’s when the Sydney Swans are at their most dangerous, and they showed that today. I’d be writing them off at your peril.”

“I don’t think anything’s ever enough – the game’s got a good way of bringing you back to ground, and all my focus will be on that first final and playing a style to get around my teammates,” Swans key forward Charlie Curnow said after clinching the Coleman Medal.

“They’ve supported me so much this year. From when I first walked through the doors in November, came back with the young boys, they gave me a lot of energy, a lot of buzz, and we’ve got Braeden Campbell playing his 100th game tonight.

“And they’re the guys I look to in those big games. I think he’s been super-impressive. I’m loving Logan McDonald.

“He’s turning into a serious player. We got Errol (Gulden) back. There’s a lot of good going on right now and I’m just going to jump on the back of the train and hold on. It’s going to be a fun few weeks.”

Fans are still dribbling out after a huge kick to kick on the SCG.

The Swans will return to the SCG for their qualifying final against a really strong Brisbane.

Brisbane will go into the game as hot favourites but the Swans will have a double chance if they lose.

Errol Gulden finished the game with 41 disposals and he will be hoping that Justin McInerney is back to help him in the midfield after such strong early form.

Charlie Curnow, Billy Cootee and Logan McDonald finished with three goals each for the day against North Melbourne. With Joel Amartey still to come back for the Swans they certainly have talent to call on for finals.

Logan McDonald missed all of last season with injury, this year he has 39 goals and has kicked his second goal of the day.

The Swans have really shown up today and could provide Brisbane with far more of a contest than expected.

And who else to finish this game with a goal but McDonald now with this third for the afternoon. Joel Amartey was seen training at Tramway Oval so we can expect him to come back in.

Swans 116 North Melbourne 61

Charlie Curnow has had a brilliant season for the Swans and he’s finishing strong. He’s kicked two goals today with the Coleman Medal all wrapped up and this game well and truly over.

Dean Cox must be tempted to wrap his full forward in cotton wool with a qualifying final against Brisbane looming in two weeks.

Just as I type this, Curnow kicks his third major. The big full forward is really enjoying this target practice ahead of finals.