{"id":862922,"date":"2026-08-21T07:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T07:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/862922\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T07:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T07:04:13","slug":"sydney-swans-incident-aflw-captain-lucy-mcevoy-absolutely-wants-say-in-future-of-five-players-colin-oriordan-comments-reaction-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/862922\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Swans incident: AFLW captain Lucy McEvoy \u2018absolutely\u2019 wants say in future of five players, Colin O\u2019Riordan comments; reaction, video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney AFLW<\/a> captain Lucy McEvoy said she would \u201cabsolutely\u201d want to be given input on whether or not the five men\u2019s players at the centre of sexual assault allegations<\/a> would be allowed to return to the club.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, AFL<\/a> legend Matthew Lloyd<\/a> said he expected some, if not all five players would leave the club<\/a> in the wake of the scandal, while leading journalist Jake Niall went as far as to say at least some of their careers could be over.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sydney Swans AFLW Coach Colin O\u2019Riordan and captain Lucy McEvoy spoke to media on Friday afternoon.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

McEvoy said the club was yet to address with the women\u2019s group what any potential return might look like, but was hopeful it would do so \u201cwhen the time is right\u201d.<\/p>\n

McEvoy fronted media outside Swans<\/a> HQ on Friday afternoon alongside coach Colin O\u2019Riordan, himself a former Swans player.<\/p>\n

Both said they were fully supportive of the sanctions the club had imposed on the players so far<\/a>. McEvoy added the women\u2019s group had also felt \u201cfully supported\u201d by the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re extremely disappointed with what\u2019s occurred at the beginning of the week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had some really open conversations as a group \u2026 and with the club more broadly, and we\u2019ve felt the support both internally and externally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe girls are working through their emotions as they see fit for themselves personally, and we wrap our arms around everyone as we do the whole club and community.\u201d<\/p>\n

McEvoy also praised the club for its transparent dialogue with the women\u2019s group, which had also been directly addressed by men\u2019s captain Callum Mills<\/a>, and separately by coach Dean Cox and other senior figures.<\/p>\n

She said Mills was \u201cquite remorseful on behalf of the men\u2019s program\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a really classy human being, Millsy. The respect he has for us and the respect we have for him and the way he\u2019s handled himself this week is second to none,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t have asked more from him as a captain of the men\u2019s program, and we really appreciate him taking the time to wrap his arms around us as a football club.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Riordan said the club remained \u201cunited\u201d across the men\u2019s and women\u2019s programs, and would remain that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have taken a big (cultural) hit \u2026 we know we\u2019re in a position where we have to repair a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur trust is broken within a lot of people, but as a club, we\u2019re incredibly united. I\u2019ve seen it in the AFLW program coming across from the men\u2019s. This is a united club \u2013 it always has been and always will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scandal has completely overshadowed the build up for what will be a historic double header at the SCG this Sunday, where the women will take on the Bombers<\/a> before the men play North Melbourne<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A campaign for fans to support the women\u2019s team, but boycott the following men\u2019s match has been gaining momentum.<\/p>\n

Both McEvoy and O\u2019Riordan encouraged fans to attend the women\u2019s game and try to break the attendance record, but stopped short of condemning the boycott.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a good chat this morning as a group \u2026 this is a wider (than) football issue, but it was quite nice to talk about football and prepare these girls for what is going to be a huge game this weekend,\u201d O\u2019Riordan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can be a beacon of light to every woman out there who wants to be them, and they\u2019re huge role models for so many women. That\u2019s what we\u2019re really leaning into this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome support the team and let them be the beacon of light. Rock up to the SCG and support them because they deserve it more than anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney AFLW captain Lucy McEvoy said she would \u201cabsolutely\u201d want to be given input on whether or not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":862923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-862922","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\/862922","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=862922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}