The AFL faces an “awkward” situation at next week’s Brownlow Medal count, where Sydney’s Isaac Heeney shapes as a candidate to win the award.
Heeney, as well as Swans teammates Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice, are serving a season-ending club suspension for breaching the club’s behavioural standards in mid-August.
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Four of those players are the subject of an ongoing police investigation, with Bice having been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon previously confirmed none would receive invitations to Brownlow Medal night at Melbourne’s Crown Palladium, though all five remain eligible to win the award.
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But as Nine journalist Sam McClure explained, the league is faced with an uncomfortable situation on Monday night.
“The AFL and Channel 7, over the course of the weekend, refused to at least acknowledge the possibility to me and what they will do if Isaac Heeney, who is still eligible to win the Brownlow Medal, actually salutes on Monday,” McClure said on Nine’s Footy Classified.
“A lot of people might be thinking, well, Nick Daicos is the unbackable favourite to win it. Just consider that when the home-and-away season finished, Champion Data had Isaac Heeney knocking off Marcus Bontempelli, Ed Richards, Nick Daicos and Max Gawn as the best player in the competition.”
That is based on Champion Data’s player ratings, which ranked Heeney first in the competition at the end of Round 24.
“Consider, again, that this is the first time that umpires are actually allowed to look at statistics,” McClure continued.
“We have a scenario where the AFL is actively, behind the scenes, barracking for Daicos to win to avoid any awkwardness.”
McClure added that the AFL’s predictors suggest that Heeney, Warner and Blakey will collectively poll “upwards of 50 votes”.
It comes after the five stood-down Sydney players were ruled out of All-Australian contention in late August, with the squad announcement initially delayed.
“This is going to be an incredibly delicate situation for the AFL to navigate, given that four of the five are still the subject of an ongoing police investigation,” he said.
“If we’re talking about those three players with 50 votes, that’s a lot of time — that’s potentially 25, 30 times of these names being read out.”
Heeney, Warner, Blakey and Jordon remain the focus of an ongoing Victoria Police Sexual Crimes Squad investigation.
Three women reportedly made various allegations of sexual assault and inappropriate touching without consent after a party involving Swans players at the Pullman East Melbourne hotel on August 17.
News.com.au does not suggest that the allegations are true, only that they have been made.
It was reported in early September that at least one of the alleged victims had given further statements to police following the emergence of a recording of the three alleged victims speaking in the days after the incident.
Originally published as AFL forced into awkward situation as Sydney Swans detail emerges ahead of awards ceremony