Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Isaac Heeney is on track to be crowned the Sydney Swans’ club champion after the AFL club ruled out changing the eligibility criteria for its best-and-fairest award.
But midfielder Heeney won’t attend the awards night next week, requesting to skip the event along with Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice.
The five served a club-imposed ban from August, including the Swans’ finals campaign, for breaching club standards following a post-AFL match party at the Pullman Hotel in East Melbourne.
Heeney and fellow ball-winner Warner are the frontrunners – ahead of ruck Brodie Grundy – for the club’s Bob Skilton Medal, which will be presented at Sydney Town Hall next Thursday.
The club confirmed on Friday that eligibility and voting criteria will remain unchanged, leaving all players who represented the Swans this season eligible to win the award.
Heeney has won the club’s last two best-and-fairest awards, while Warner finished runner-up to Callum Mills in 2022.
The AFL also opted against ruling out Heeney and Warner for the Brownlow Medal, but did not invite the pair to last Monday night’s awards dinner at Crown Palladium.
The five players were made ineligible for All-Australian honours.
It comes after the five earlier this week returned to Swans headquarters for the first time since August, individually offering apologies to colleagues and teammates.
Heeney was the only player after the club meeting to address media on Wednesday, doing so with a brief statement.
“It was really nice to address the whole club,” he said on Wednesday evening.
“Extremely thankful they could give us their time and understanding, so yeah, it was really good.”
Warner spoke upon arriving at headquarters and said he was “just here for my exit interview”.
Their club-imposed suspensions are separate from a police investigation into sexual assault allegations.
No charges have been laid, and AAP is not suggesting any wrongdoing on the part of the suspended players. Bice was subsequently cleared by police.
All five are contracted for next year, with Blakey signed to the club until 2031.
Warner and Jordon come off contract at the end of 2027, while Heeney and Bice are signed until the end of 2028.
Blakey is reportedly seeking a trade to Victorian rivals, but football boss Leon Cameron had dismissed those rumblings as “speculation” earlier this month.
Victoria Police’s eight-week timeline prediction on their investigation into the Pullman Hotel incident – which was first flagged on September 2 – takes in the free agency and trade period from October 2 to October 14.
