{"id":863527,"date":"2026-08-21T19:32:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/863527\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T19:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:32:17","slug":"the-women-whose-diehard-support-of-the-sydney-swans-has-given-way-to-dread-and-a-sense-of-betrayal-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/863527\/","title":{"rendered":"The women whose \u2018diehard\u2019 support of the Sydney Swans has given way to \u2018dread\u2019 and a sense of betrayal | AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people who meet Polly Burridge these days know her as \u201cthat Swans girl\u201d. The 30-year-old is a vocal and public fan of the Sydney AFL<\/a> team, making social media content about the club, networking with other fans, and co-hosting a Swans-devoted podcast, True Bloods. It\u2019s a long way from the girl who was bullied for loving AFL as a kid growing up in the NRL heartland of south-west Sydney.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very, very big part of my identity and how I define myself as a person,\u201d Burridge says.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a closeness that\u2019s made the maelstrom surrounding the club this week so much harder to take.<\/p>\n

Victoria police are investigating an alleged sexual assault early on Monday morning at the Pullman Hotel in Melbourne, where the Sydney men\u2019s team had been staying after their game against Essendon on Sunday.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning, the club separately stood down five high-profile players<\/a> for the rest of the season for being \u201cin serious breach of expected club behaviour and standards\u201d, with the Swans chief executive, Matthew Pavlich, saying of the offending behaviour: \u201cIt was staying out late, it was drinking, it was continuing their night, it was bringing women back to the hotel, it was a long way short of what we expect from our players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swans fan Polly Burridge says it feels \u2018weird and yuck to put the red and white on at the moment\u2019. Photograph: supplied<\/p>\n

None of the men have been arrested or charged in relation to the sexual assault investigation. But the combination of these events has not only struck the club\u2019s fanbase, but ricocheted through the wider football community.<\/p>\n

Swans fans, club leaders and women who play Australian rules football<\/a> have described to Guardian Australia a sense of fatigue and frustration at what they see as yet another demonstration of a footballing culture that undermines and devalues women.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a particularly acute sense of betrayal, they say, because Sydney was a club that had publicly championed<\/a> its commitment to inclusion and diversity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen four losing grand finals in my lifetime and nothing of that can even remotely compare to this,\u201d Burridge says. \u201cThe initial gut reaction when the news was coming through \u2026 was just this dread that I had never ever felt with this footy club.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Swans men\u2019s coach, Dean Cox, and captain, Callum Mills, apologised to \u201cthe AFLW players, our female staff and the women in our lives, our partners, mothers, sisters and all women within the community\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take full responsibility, and we are deeply sorry,\u201d Cox said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of work to do for our football community and the community in general \u2026 We\u2019re willing to put that work in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swans AFLW captain Lucy McEvoy at a press conference at the club\u2019s headquarters on Friday. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi\/AAP<\/p>\n

The Swans AFLW captain, Lucy McEvoy, said on Friday afternoon<\/a> her team was \u201cincredibly disappointed\u201d about what had happened, but \u201cwe know the actions of those five players are not a reflection of the broader club\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe girls are working through their emotions as they see fit for themselves. Personally, we wrap our arms around everyone as the whole entire club,\u201d McEvoy said. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt the club has taken a reputational hit this week. And we\u2019ll do whatever we can as a club, in both programs, to make sure we build back the trust and respect of our members and fans and the community more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the Swans AFLW team is set to play a highly anticipated double header at the SCG alongside the men\u2019s team \u2013 an event that was intended to be a celebration of the progress of the women\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

Burridge says she has been \u201cgoing back and forth\u201d on whether to stay for the whole afternoon. \u201cNo matter what, I\u2019ll be there to support the girls. Whether I stay for the boys\u2019 game as well, it remains to be seen,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to go and support the boys who have done the right thing and aren\u2019t doing anything wrong. But at the same time, it still does feel weird and yuck to put the red and white on at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carmen Chong, a Swans fan and amateur footballer in Melbourne, says the events of the past week \u201cmade me so disappointed in the club\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in Sydney, the Swans were everything when it came to footy. Moving around the country a bit, they were always an important link home,\u201d Chong says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really thought their culture was better than that, but at the same time, taking a step back and seeing how big football is in places like Melbourne, it\u2019s not surprising that privileged men think they can always get away with unacceptable behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of behaviour just signals to community footy that this society thinks this is fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markI\u2019m almost back to wondering if it will change \u2026 The needle\u2019s barely moving.Amateur club president Lydia Holt<\/p>\n

Lydia Holt, the president of Melbourne\u2019s West Brunswick Amateur Football Club, recognised among the footballing community for its progressive gender politics, says her community is feeling \u201cquite exhausted, and a bit empty, because this issue just persists\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve almost stopped wondering when it will change,\u201d she says, \u201cand I\u2019m almost back to wondering if it will change \u2026 The needle\u2019s barely moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holt says West Brunswick has made it a priority to invest and support all its teams equally, but says in community football generally, \u201cit\u2019s quite clear\u201d that men\u2019s teams and programs often \u201cget elevated over their W peers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe default is the boys\u2019 club and everything that comes with that,\u201d Holt says. \u201cSo they get access to better facilities, better training times. They\u2019ll be on the better oval. More resources \u2013 not just funding resources but literally just the [playing] times, the actual surface of the oval and where they\u2019re playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not really taking this proactive stance and putting a lot of initiative to really address the issues, that default [will] just perpetuate itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drew Menard and his two adult daughters are deep and lifelong Swans fans, but are now reconsidering their memberships. Menard has coached girls\u2019 and senior women\u2019s community football, and his daughters, 21 and 18, are talented players. \u201cJunior footy was our church. Every Sunday morning we shared a ritual and [were] part of a greater, accepting community,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

double quotation markI don\u2019t know what the Swans … can do to convince me that all of the talk about diversity … wasn\u2019t just rhetoric.Swans fan Drew Menard <\/p>\n

While he feels that \u201cmost of the public discourse that clubs make about equity is all lip service,\u201d he says, \u201cthe Swans have always been very forward facing with diversity and inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked that anyone on the Swans could even do this. It never existed on my radar; maybe other clubs, but not the Swans. They\u2019re squeaky clean,\u201d Menard says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what really hurt was my oldest daughter\u2019s response of \u2018fuck them!\u2019 She has been a diehard fan since she could walk, and we\u2019ve all had so much excitement about this year maybe being the one again. The disgust in her voice broke my heart \u2026 I don\u2019t know what the Swans as an organisation can do to convince me that all of the talk about diversity, gender or otherwise, wasn\u2019t just rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jane Ryan, the president of the inaugural VFLW premiers, the Darebin Falcons, in Melbourne\u2019s inner north, said the allegation was \u201cdeeply confronting for everybody\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFundamentally, I don\u2019t put it back to AFL, I put it to society,\u201d Ryan says. \u201cThese are things that we see over and over again.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating a safe sporting environment is much broader than preventing sexual violence. We\u2019ve got to challenge attitudes and behaviours that make people feel excluded, unsafe or unwelcome. And that\u2019s regardless whether it\u2019s sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or other forms of discrimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cSport just has to be somewhere where everyone belongs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most people who meet Polly Burridge these days know her as \u201cthat Swans girl\u201d. The 30-year-old is a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-863527","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\/863527","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=863527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}