Four-time premiership Hawk Jordan Lewis has declared Sydney’s 2026 premiership hopes are over, claiming the team would struggle to compartmentalise sexual assault allegations that have engulfed several key players.
Victoria Police are investigating an alleged sexual assault and have interviewed several Swans players after an incident at the Pullman hotel in East Melbourne in the early hours of Monday morning.
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Swans chief executive Matthew Pavlich refused to offer any further details of the alleged events, but said the club was “extremely shocked and disappointed”.
CODE Sports journalist Jon Ralph reported on Fox Footy’s On The Couch on Monday night that the Swans were “working through the timing of standing down those players”, adding they could stand down some — or all — of those involved.
‘They will stand down some, or all 5’ | 01:49
“The AFL does not have a no-fault stand-down clause in its regulations, it does assess each incident on a case-by-case basis,” Ralph told On The Couch. “But it must be said it stood down Tanner Bruhn from Geelong last year after a rape case. All charges were eventually dropped and Chris Scott, the Geelong coach, said that process was ‘one of the most egregious injustices’ he can remember.
“This case is completely different, but if Sydney did initiate the standing down of those players, it would mean the AFL wouldn’t have to make an extremely challenging decision.”
Ralph said the case “could bring down Sydney’s premiership aspirations”, while it could also lead to “more criminal ramifications in months ahead”.
The Swans’ victory over Essendon on Sunday night locked them into second spot, guaranteeing them two home finals at the SCG.
Despite their strong AFL ladder position, Lewis said the Swans couldn’t win the flag now.
“My honest opinion? You put a line through them,” Lewis said on Fox Footy’s On The Couch.
“I don’t think you can come back (from) an instance of this nature and this serious to then push it to the side and become a premiership team in 2026.
Lyon: ‘It’s a disaster for Sydney’ | 02:41
“They’re too hard to win, you need everything to go right. But this will be going on in the background … there’s still this ongoing investigation that’s hanging over the head of everyone that’s involved.
“So, from a footballing perspective, 2026 is done.”
Triple premiership Tiger Jack Riewoldt labelled the situation “disastrous” for all parties.
“To only think 12 hours before the alleged incident has occurred, Dean Cox sat in the bowels of the MCG after what was a pretty poor performance from the Sydney Swans, and spoke about not being lazy and not doing the wrong things, making sure you tick every single box to potentially be there on that last Saturday in September,” Riewoldt said.
“They couldn’t look further from it at the moment.“
The Swans didn’t fly home after Sunday night’s win over Essendon due to Sydney Airport’s 11pm curfew.
But triple premiership Lion Jonathan Brown said the Swans should’ve looked at alternative arrangements.
“My place is not far from the Pullman and I drove past and saw the Sydney bus out the front this morning,” Brown said on Monday night. “I thought: ‘Geez, that’s odd. Why wouldn’t they go home last night?’
Swans statement over alleged incident | 00:56
“I know there’s curfews at Sydney Airport, but they have to ask themselves a question: Did they do everything they possibly could to get those boys home back in their own bed? That’s one question mark.
“And then what players are doing going out a couple of weeks before a final series? They only need to look outside their hotel room (at the MCG) to be reminded about what happened on that ground two years ago when they were embarrassed on Grand Final day. That would’ve been motivation enough not to be going out a couple weeks before finals.
“Premierships are hard to win – and they’re even harder to win when there’s issues off the field and there’s problems just taking away from what’s going on the field.”
Seven-time All-Australian Nathan Buckley stressed the seriousness of the alleged incident while also outlining the potential ramifications for Sydney and the players involved.
“I think the other thing is that there’s an alleged victim, or victims, involved in this,” Buckley told On The Couch. “So while there’s an element on this side of it, there’s a very serious element on the other side that Victoria Police will go and face – and I’m sure that Sydney and the AFL will fully comply with. That is one side of it, but we can’t speak to that as such.
“But the other side of it, on the footy side, it’s a terrible situation for Sydney or those players and the decisions they’ve made, whether legal or otherwise – we’re talking about the decisions to go out – that have put their teammates and the club and the game into disrepute.
“Whether legal decisions or illegal decisions, allegedly, that’s going to be something they’ll have to account for.”