{"id":860516,"date":"2026-08-19T06:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T06:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/860516\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T06:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T06:46:10","slug":"torpedo-our-season-swans-bosses-left-ashamed-as-season-ending-bans-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/860516\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Torpedo our season\u2019: Swans bosses left \u2018ashamed\u2019 as season-ending bans explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney Chairman Andrew Pridham and CEO Matthew Pavlich have emphasised the Swans are \u201cdeeply embarrassed and ashamed\u201d with the behaviour of five of their players, who have been suspended for the remainder of the 2026 season. <\/a><\/p>\n

All of Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice were sanctioned by the club on Wednesday morning<\/a> for their behaviour prior and separate to an alleged sexual assault incident in East Melbourne.<\/a><\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pridham and Pavlich fronted the media at midday to explain the action they took against the players for \u201cbreaching our standards as a club\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say we\u2019re disappointed is an understatement. We\u2019re deeply embarrassed and ashamed that the poor choices of five of our players, and the impact it\u2019s had (on everyone),\u201d Pavlich told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to understand that this sanction is only as it relates to the players\u2019 behaviours, and the standard we expect and were expecting post-game on Sunday night and into Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working very closely with the five players involved, and the AFL who were very supportive of this approach. We\u2019ve also been chatting at length with the AFL Players\u2019 Association.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do the Swans have a culture problem? | 01:42<\/p>\n

READ MORE…<\/p>\n

\u2018NOT THE HEART OF THE ISSUE\u2019: What must not be lost amid Swans fallout on \u2018seismic day\u2019 for AFL<\/a><\/p>\n

SEASON DONE: Bombshell bans confirmed for FIVE Swans players<\/a><\/p>\n

Several reports on Monday revealed that in the wake of their club\u2019s six-goal win over Essendon on Sunday evening,<\/a> Heeney, Warner, Jordon and Bice all spoke with Victoria Police in relation to the broader incident at the Pullman Hotel.<\/p>\n

Police are investigating an allegation of sexual assault made following the incident, which has since been referred to the Sexual Crimes Squad.<\/p>\n

Foxfooty.com.au is not suggesting any of the aforementioned players are under investigation by police, only that they are assisting with enquiries.<\/p>\n

Swans bombshell as sanctions delivered | 02:22<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the outset, I want to offer a sincere apology to the community, our many, many fans,\u201d Pridham said on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur corporate partners have been amazingly supportive of us (in) understanding that we are attempting to deal with this matter as honestly as we can, given the constraints of the police enquiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur thoughts go out to everybody that has been impacted by these events. We know it\u2019s impacted many, many people. Ranging from the partners of our staff, our players (men and women) … there\u2019s deep disappointment in the club with what has occurred. We know many people are hurting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pavlich, who is in his first year at the Swans as their chief executive, went on to clarify a number of \u201cmistruths\u201d that have been circulating regarding the quintet of players leading up to their suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of mistruths … Can I be really clear on a couple of things?\u201d Pavlich said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll five players have not been formally interviewed by police, no charges have been laid whatsoever. There\u2019s a lot of mistruths out there which we\u2019re trying to manage as best we can.<\/p>\n

‘We’ve completely missed the point here’ | 01:59<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to be clear on that. There are issues related to the police matter that we can\u2019t talk about. I just want to make that crystal clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a club statement released two hours earlier at 10:01am, the Swans said: \u201cThe AFL is supportive of the club\u2019s sanctions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect there is an ongoing investigation by Victoria Police and the actions we have taken today are independent of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ban handed down to the quintet will see them unavailable for as little as three matches, or as long as five. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe respect there is an ongoing investigation by Victoria Police and any actions we take are independent of this,\u201d the Swans said as part of a statement released on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club believes the players are in serious breach of expected Club behaviour and standards, and it is appropriate to take firm action and highlight that any sanction we impose relates solely to those breaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Re-live the club\u2019s press conference our live blog below. If you can\u2019t see the blog,tap here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney Chairman Andrew Pridham and CEO Matthew Pavlich have emphasised the Swans are \u201cdeeply embarrassed and ashamed\u201d with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-860516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860516","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=860516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}