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Sydney chief executive Matthew Pavlich said the club was \u201cextremely shocked and disappointed\u201d in a short statement when he fronted media on Monday.<\/p>\n
Responding to the shocking story on Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360, Melbourne great Garry Lyon called it an \u201cunmitigated disaster for the Sydney Swans and for the game\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose pictures (of the Pullman) one week out from the finals series is an absolute disaster,\u201d he began. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey deserve innocence until proven otherwise and we understand there\u2019s an investigation. (But) they\u2019ve been a pillar on this game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you go to the footy side of it. Dean Cox has worked his arse off all year, the players have worked their backsides off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are a game out from a finals series, they can\u2019t be moved out of the top two, they\u2019ve got a qualifying final at home to look forward to at a sold-out SCG.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat should be all we\u2019re talking about … it\u2019s an absolute disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley said the details were \u201cmortifying\u201d for \u201cplayer, club and code\u201d and must raise internal questions, regardless of what comes of the police probe. <\/p>\n
Whateley pointed out the delicate balancing act the second-placed club now faced with honouring its \u201crevered culture and reputation\u201d a week out from a home qualifying final. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the police do their work, the Swans have their own internal inquiry,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cCentral to that is going to be, what degree of partying was taking place after a Round 23 game against Essendon at the MCG?<\/p>\n
\u201cShould there be formal charges, that\u2019s where the AFL steps in. It doesn\u2019t have a set policy on no-fault stand downs the way the NRL does.<\/p>\n
\u201cSydney, with that revered culture and the reputation they have forged in their community and football more broadly, has this agonised choice potentially between that \u2014 all they stand for \u2014 and a premiership quest, which has them sitting in second place one week out from finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are unenviable decisions for those in charge. Which might be totally resolved once the police investigation is done. But for a football club right now in this middle ground, they have big decisions to make.\u201d <\/p>\n
Reactions to the Sydney story on AFL 360.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Lyon said it\u2019s \u201cunimaginable what is going through (players\u2019) minds\u201d on the eve of finals and there’s \u201cno comprehension to be had with this. <\/p>\n
The Demons legend questioned the impact it would have on Swans coaches and other players in an incident he thinks threatens to derail the \u201cunity\u201d of the locker room. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I think about is the coaching staff and everybody else. Players within the group who have made sacrifices and got themselves to a point where they\u2019re ready to launch,\u201d Lyon said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe unity of the group fractures that quickly on the back of something like this. And this is a really strong (club with) strong unity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere would be members of this team now shaking their heads going: \u2018What could have motivated those players to get themselves in this situation?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon said standing the players involved down would be \u201cof grave consideration\u201d for the Swans, \u201cregardless of whether charged are laid in the short term\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cRight now this footy club is in a crisis, make no mistake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a crisis for the AFL, they don\u2019t want this, they\u2019re about to embark on the most important time of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they\u2019ve got plainclothes cops and cop cars running around the Pullman on the back of a night out. Nothing worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whateley added: \u201cI\u2019m shocked. It feels like a throwback to, I thought initially the \u201880s. It might even be a throwback further than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon responded: \u201cIt\u2019s footy trip stuff that\u2019s been a horrible part of the culture way back. Thankfully now, less and less.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we as a code have to cop what comes our way now, because we\u2019re backing into a dark spotlight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney\u2019s alleged sexual assault hotel incident under police investigation has been labelled an \u201cunmitigated disaster\u201d for the club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-858463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}