Prepared to ‘torpedo’ the season: Swans bosses apologise as five players banned

Sydney chairman Andrew Pridham has apologised for the behaviour of the five players – Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, Riley Bice and James Jordon – who have been suspended for the rest of the season for breaching club behavioural standards.

Pridham, whose board met on Tuesday night to decide on the sanctions, said the Swans’ preparedness to “torpedo” their premiership bid reflected how serious they were viewing the matter.

The penalties were reached independently of the Victoria Police investigation into an alleged sexual assault of a woman at the Pullman East Melbourne hotel on Monday morning.

Appearing alongside club chief Matthew Pavlich at a 19-minute press conference on Wednesday, Pridham could not guarantee the quintet would play again for the Swans and defended coach Dean Cox, saying he had not done anything wrong heading out late with club staff on Sunday night.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the scandal engulfed the Swans, Pridham said the club was “deeply ashamed” by the actions of the five players.

“At the outset, I want to offer an apology, sincere apology, to the community, to our many, many fans, to our corporate partners who’ve been amazingly supportive of us, understanding that we are attempting to deal with this matter as quickly as we can, as honestly as we can, given the constraints of the police inquiry, and to very much be transparent in our dealings with the media,” Pridham said.

“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 program, our men’s program.

“There’s deep disappointment within the club at what has occurred, and we know that many people are hurting, and we are providing support to our players, to their partners, to as many people we can, to our fans and members.”

The Swans were in ongoing negotiations with the AFL over the penalties, according to a source with knowledge of the situation who was not authorised to speak publicly. They were aligned that the matter was serious. The AFL Players Association has been kept informed.

The Swans said in a statement on Wednesday that the AFL was supportive of the club’s sanctions.

By banning three of their best players for the rest of the season, the Swans have significantly dented their chances of winning their first flag in 14 years, but Pridham said the on-field implications were not a consideration for the board. Pavlich, Cox and football boss Leon Cameron also had input into the ban.

“I think the fact that we’ve got to the place where we are today, and we’ve effectively suspended the players for the balance of season when we’re heading into a final series just tells you how seriously we’ve taken it.

“Clearly, something has gone wrong,” Pridham said. “They shouldn’t have been in that situation of being out that late. And the only way we can deal with it is to put our foot down incredibly hard, which we’ve done.

“I think a very important point to make is that we, as a football club, that is our business, and to effectively torpedo our season by making a decision such as this just tells you how seriously we are taking it.”

Asked if the five would play again for the club, Pridham said: “We just have to wait and see what happens going forward”.

This masthead has contacted the representatives of Heeney, Bice, Jordon and Warner.

This masthead also contacted a representative of Blakey, who stated Blakey was not involved in the incident and was not asked to speak with the police even informally. The representative confirmed Blakey had remained in Melbourne on Monday to travel back to Sydney with his four teammates.

The players learnt of their penalties from Pavlich on Wednesday morning.

“They’re incredibly disappointed in their actions,” Pavlich said. “They know they’ve let a lot of people down. They know they’ve impacted the women involved. They are remorseful about the hours of Monday morning, and we’ll get them back to the club and around their teammates and the staff at the right time.”

Pavlich said the Swans had offered their support to the women but would not reach out to them out of respect for the police investigation.

“We’re deeply concerned about their welfare and the wellbeing of those women,” Pavlich said.