{"id":864916,"date":"2026-08-22T23:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T23:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864916\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T23:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T23:52:12","slug":"up-to-eight-rival-clubs-chase-banned-star-as-swans-five-futures-up-in-the-air-review-launched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864916\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Up to eight\u2019 rival clubs chase banned star as Swans Five futures \u2018up in the air\u2019, review launched"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the Swans Five is already being linked with a move away from Sydney at season\u2019s end, and \u201cup to eight\u201d clubs are reportedly interested. <\/p>\n

It comes as the Swans, led by chairman Andrew Pridham, launch a review into the events that led to the suspensions of Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice. <\/p>\n

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Sydney\u2019s season spiralled into crisis in the early hours of Monday morning, with a post-match celebration in Melbourne ultimately triggering a Victoria Police investigation and the dramatic standing-down of the five players in question. <\/p>\n

Detectives from the Sexual Crimes Squad continue to investigate an alleged sexual assault at the Pullman Hotel, while the Swans maintain no players have been interviewed by police as yet. <\/p>\n

The club\u2019s culture and standards have come under fire after the revelation of the wild night partying on the eve of finals. <\/p>\n

And on Saturday, Herald Sun chief football reporter Jay Clark said the futures of the five Sydney players banned for the rest of the season were \u201cmost certainly up in the air\u201d. <\/p>\n

In particular, Blakey, who Clark said could be courted<\/a> by as many as eight Victorian clubs this offseason, naming five who could potentially be in play. <\/p>\n

Hawkins: ‘We’ve got a duty as a code’ | 00:54<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stress that the alleged victims in that alleged sexual assault at the Pullman Hotel in the early hours of Monday morning are the primary concern here, and that all football matters really come secondary to their welfare at the moment,\u201d Clark began on Fox Footy\u2019s Super Saturday Live. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s fair to say the futures of those five players \u2014 Blakey, Heeney, Warner, Bice and Jordon \u2014 (it\u2019s) unclear whether they\u2019ll play another game for the Sydney Football Club. <\/p>\n

\u201cNick Blakey is certainly a player of very strong interest for Melbourne clubs. <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe up to eight clubs will be chasing Nick Blakey, including St Kilda (who) want a half-back. <\/p>\n

\u201cNorth Melbourne, obviously, Melbourne have two first-round picks, (and) Collingwood and Carlton will do their due diligence, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blakey has ties to North Melbourne via his father, John, who played 359 games for Fitzroy and North Melbourne between 1985 and 2002.<\/p>\n

The left-footer picked a path to the Swans over the Kangaroos \u2014 where he could have been a father-son pick \u2014 in 2018, with John an assistant coach at Sydney at the time. <\/p>\n

The Roos and Saints could use more counterattacking class, while the Demons have a rich draft hand and have also reportedly targeted Hawthorn rebounder Bailey Macdonald this year.<\/p>\n

Mills supports sanctions to Swans 5 | 01:31<\/p>\n

It comes as Pridham confirmed to The Age on Saturday that the club will launch a comprehensive review into why the events of early Monday morning occurred. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo culture is perfect,\u201d Swans chairman Andrew Pridham told the Age on Saturday<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have never said it is. Clearly we need to look into what went wrong. The standards we set were not the problem. It is that they were breached. We need to understand why this happened. We will do this thoroughly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revered \u2018Bloods culture\u2019 is under heavy scrutiny at present, and former Swans assistant coach Josh Francou joined the chorus questioning the club\u2019s \u201cstandards\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf John Longmire was still at the helm, I\u2019m confident this wouldn\u2019t have unfolded,\u201d Francou told ABC Sport on Saturday. <\/p>\n

\u201cHaving worked with him for four years, I know how seriously he took standards, preparation and accountability; and he knew his responsibility to uphold the \u2018Bloods culture\u2019 \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cHe set clear expectations and made sure players knew the standards required. For me, this isn\u2019t just about one night out; it\u2019s about the culture and leadership that allows it to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the Swans Five is already being linked with a move away from Sydney at season\u2019s end,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-864916","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\/864916","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=864916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}