{"id":864658,"date":"2026-08-22T18:34:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T18:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864658\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T18:34:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T18:34:17","slug":"afl-news-2026-matthew-lloyd-weighs-in-on-sydney-swans-cultural-issues-following-late-night-drinking-and-sexual-assault-allegations-tom-hawkins-slams-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864658\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Matthew Lloyd weighs in on Sydney Swans cultural issues following late night drinking and sexual assault allegations; Tom Hawkins slams club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Essendon<\/a> captain Matthew Lloyd<\/a> believes the biggest questions Sydney<\/a> must ask themselves internally now revolve around the culture of the club, how it degraded this far and how long has it been broken.<\/p>\n

It comes after Isaac Heeney<\/a>, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, Riley Bice and James Jordon were suspended for the remainder of the season<\/a> after a night of partying that got so out of hand it blew up their season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

All five Swans players have been suspended for the remainder of the season.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Swans have strongly condemned<\/a> the actions of the players, apologised to the alleged victims, who have made a sexual assault complaint to the police, and have said their culture has taken an enormous hit.<\/p>\n

No charges have been laid.<\/p>\n

However, Lloyd questioned if this was a one-off incident. He believes the leaders at Sydney need to take ownership of the drinking culture that he feels has become a part of the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the senior core players are the most important people at a footy club for the standards that are set and what you look up to when you first walk in,\u201d Lloyd told 3AW on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow they carry themselves, how they act and that can filter down in a positive or a negative way to you as a young footballer coming into the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Sydney, I\u2019ve heard \u2018we\u2019ve got a lot to rebuild with our culture\u2019, but I\u2019d love to ask them how their culture got to this point.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long has this been going on? Is partying like this and inviting girls back to your hotel room something you do three or four times a season? Have you been doing it for years? Is it only that you\u2019ve been caught? Is this what you think is acceptable and the way you act towards women? Who do they think they are?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are no bigger or better than anyone else just because you kick a piece of leather around. Some get ahead of themselves in that regard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I often think about for me and why it was so important as a leader to set the tone when people first walk through the football club and the way they speak to the person who hands out their gear, the boot studder, receptionist, how they speak out on the field, it\u2019s really important.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I put back on Sydney. I would be shocked if that was the first time they\u2019ve partied like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, captain Callum Mills suffered a significant shoulder injury wrestling with a teammate during a drunken Mad Monday incident. <\/p>\n

\"Callum<\/p>\n

Swans captain Callum Mills speaks to media.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Geelong champion Tom Hawkins was similarly scathing on Friday night, saying society has a long way to go when it comes to the treatment of women and AFL players have a responsibility to be leaders in that space.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been nothing short of a debacle, and I won\u2019t touch on the alleged allegations of what went on, but it is becoming a bit of a societal issue, treatment towards women, in particular by men,\u201d Hawkins told Fox Footy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ve got a duty as a code and a responsibility as leaders within the game, particularly as players, to really try and champion that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I\u2019m a father that\u2019s got two daughters, I\u2019ve got sisters. So when I think about it through that lens, it\u2019s really troublesome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019ve been strong and confronted what has been the issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked what Callum (Mills) came forward and said, but there\u2019s still a hell of a lot to play out from a Sydney Swans point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Essendon captain Matthew Lloyd believes the biggest questions Sydney must ask themselves internally now revolve around the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-864658","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\/864658","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=864658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}