{"id":912419,"date":"2026-10-01T16:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T16:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/912419\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T16:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T16:18:25","slug":"afl-news-2026-isaac-heeney-wins-bob-skilton-award-sydney-swans-best-pullman-five-absent-from-award-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/912419\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Isaac Heeney wins Bob Skilton award, Sydney Swans best, Pullman Five absent from award, reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suspended Sydney Swans<\/a> player Isaac Heeney<\/a> has claimed his third consecutive Bob Skilton Medal as the club\u2019s best player, winning the top honour at the 2026 awards function despite his absence.<\/p>\n

Heeney chose not to attend the ceremony<\/a> at Sydney\u2019s Town Hall following a club-imposed suspension for breaching team standards<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Heeney won the award but was absent from the event. \u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

He and four teammates, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon, and Riley Bice, were suspended for the remainder of the 2026 season after partying into the early hours following a victory over Essendon in Melbourne in August.<\/p>\n

The players\u2019 suspension for breaching club standards is separate from the police investigation into allegations of sexual assault<\/a> inside a Pullman East hotel room. <\/p>\n

Bice has been cleared by Victoria Police of any wrongdoing<\/a>, and no charges have been laid against the other four, who have maintained their innocence and denied any criminal wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

When tickets for the awards event went live in June, the Bob Skilton medal was described as awarded to \u201cour best and fairest player\u201d. But on Tuesday, the Swans quietly shifted the wording to \u201cthe club\u2019s most valuable player\u201d in a social post about the individual awards. <\/p>\n

Votes for the Bob Skilton Medal are distributed by the team\u2019s coaching staff based on player performance after every game, with each player eligible to receive up to five votes from a single member of staff. <\/p>\n

Of the so-called Pullman Five<\/a>, Heeney, Warner, Blakey and Jordon all finished in the top 10 in votes for the medal.<\/p>\n

Heeney used a video message to accept his award, apologising to his teammates and the wider Swans community. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was told about this honour, it was the first time I smiled and felt positive about the future in a long time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to say to everyone \u2013 in particular my teammates, the Swans players, the AFLW, and the staff \u2013 from the depths of my heart, I\u2019m truly sorry for putting you through the extreme difficulty you\u2019ve had to endure, as it\u2019s had a huge impact on our club.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single day I was away from the club was heartbreaking, knowing that I couldn\u2019t make a contribution. Every single day, I think about what could have been.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m incredibly excited about what this group can do. I can\u2019t wait to get back to training with the boys, get better, and tackle next year together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing attendees at Thursday\u2019s awards night, Swans chairman Andrew Pridham said the players involved \u201cstrenuously deny the allegations\u201d and deserve the presumption of innocence.<\/p>\n

“When our heroes disappoint us, it’s a reminder that our players can make mistakes, as we all know. All of us, in that spirit, have made mistakes at times in our lives, and we must remember that,” Pridham told the room.<\/p>\n

“As we know, the players have strenuously denied the allegations. We respect that those in our club and the wider community can be distressed by these things. <\/p>\n

\u201cLikewise, we must also acknowledge \u2013 and I\u2019ve seen it up close and personal \u2013 that our five players and their families are also hurting, and our thoughts must also be with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut let me be equally clear that the decision to allow the players to remain eligible does not diminish our concern and respect for everyone affected. Likewise, the players deserve to have us continue to apply the basic right of the presumption of innocence until fully proven otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite missing the last three games of the season, Heeney finished with 431 votes as ruckman Brodie Grundy was awarded the Adam Goodes trophy and finished on 400 votes and Charlie Curnow was awarded the Peter Bedford trophy, with 398 votes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Suspended Sydney Swans player Isaac Heeney has claimed his third consecutive Bob Skilton Medal as the club\u2019s best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-912419","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\/912419","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=912419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}