![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/P06-260820-304.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFive Australian rules footballers have been banned for the remainder of the Australian Football League (AFL) season by the Sydney Swans for breaching player codes of conduct during a stay at a Melbourne hotel that has led to a police investigation into allegations of sexual assault.<\/p>\n
The Swans issued a statement yesterday saying that \u201cRiley Bice, Nick Blakey, Isaac Heeney, James Jordon and Chad Warner will not be considered for selection for the remainder of the 2026 AFL Season,\u201d ruling them out of a regular-season game this weekend and the playoffs series.<\/p>\n
The Swans said the club-imposed sanctions were independent of an investigation by Victoria state police. No charges have been laid, and no player has been identified as being involved in an alleged sexual assault.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo: AP<\/p>\n
Police were called to a hotel in East Melbourne early on Monday when a woman made a complaint to staff there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe respect there is an ongoing investigation by Victoria Police and the actions we have taken today are independent of this,\u201d the Swans statement said, adding that the AFL \u201cis supportive of the club\u2019s sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swans chief executive Matthew Pavlich told a news conference on Wednesday that the club sanctions were imposed for a series of postgame code of conduct breaches. Swans players were staying at the hotel after a game on Sunday because a commercial flight would not have got the squad back to Sydney in time before an airport curfew.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was staying out late, it was drinking, it was continuing their night, it was bringing women back to the hotel,\u201d Pavlich said. Such behavior \u201cwas a long way short of what we expect of our players.<\/p>\n
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon earlier released a statement saying the allegations were \u201cdeeply concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the matter remains under police investigation, it raises broader issues for our game and our responsibilities as a sport,\u201d Dillon said. \u201cThe woman who made the report to police is entitled to privacy and care, and that should be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Sydney Swans condemn all forms of abuse and disrespectful behavior toward women,\u201d the Swans said in a statement ahead of a club board meeting on Tuesday. \u201cAny conduct that causes offense or harm to others is unacceptable and falls well short of our expectations. All women deserve to be respected and feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sydney Swans chairman Andrew Pridham apologized for the actions of the players and said that there was deep disappointment within the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo effectively torpedo our season by making a decision such as this tells you how seriously we\u2019ve taken it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five Australian rules footballers have been banned for the remainder of the Australian Football League (AFL) season by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,28604,28603],"class_list":["post-861160","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","tag-the-taipei-times","tag-28603"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861160","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=861160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}