The shocking allegations that’ve seen five AFL players stood down – Watch on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\nHeeney, who won back-to-back Bob Skilton Medals as the club’s best and fairest in 2024 and 2025, has been widely reported as the primary target of the investigation although no charges have been laid and AAP isn’t suggesting any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Leading dental brand Colgate has suspended a lucrative sponsorship deal with the 30-year-old vice-captain, who along with his teammates has apologised for their behaviour at the Melbourne hotel early on Monday.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, book publisher Allen & Unwin said it had “paused promotion” of Heeney’s two existing ‘Little Isaac Footy Fever’ children’s books and suspended publishing of a third while the police investigation was under way.<\/p>\n
Apparel and boot supplier Nike also suspended sponsorships of Heeney and Warner, while the pair were stood down as ambassadors for Telstra.<\/p>\n
AAP has contacted Heeney’s management and the Swans for comment.<\/p>\n
Also on Thursday, former co-captain Kieren Jack said Sydney’s famed “Bloods culture” felt “broken” in the wake of the allegations.<\/p>\n
Jack said he was “devastated, disappointed and very troubled” by the alleged actions and a lack of respect for women could not be tolerated.<\/p>\n
“Bloods culture’ is spoken about. This was built and maintained through a core pillar of respect,” Jack wrote on an Instagram story.<\/p>\n
“Respect for each other, respect for the club, your family, the opponent, supporters and importantly, community. <\/p>\n
“Right now this feels broken.”<\/p>\n
Jack’s thoughts echoed those of John Longmire, his 2012 premiership coach.<\/p>\n
“The culture of the footy club has taken a big hit and it will take time for everyone to rebuild the trust in the football club,” Longmire told Fox Footy on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Coach between 2011 and 2024, Longmire, who is currently the club’s executive director of club performance said the on-field ramifications of banning the players wasn’t a priority for Swans hierarchy.<\/p>\n
“It was just incredible deep sadness … and that is probably where we’re still sitting,” he told Fox Footy on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
“It’s flattening for a lot of people,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Swans will name an extended squad on Thursday night to face North Melbourne on Sunday afternoon at the SCG, with the line-up decimated by the absence of the banned players.<\/p>\n
In second place, they are assured of hosting two finals as they seek to win the club’s first premiership since under Longmire in 2012.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Matthew Pavlich and chairman Andrew Pridham sent a letter to the community apologising for the distress caused and emphasising their disappointment.<\/p>\n
Pavlich was earlier on Thursday asked if he had a message for Swans fans ahead of the match, which is a double-header with Sydney’s AFLW team.<\/p>\n
“Keep supporting us. We’re sorry we are putting you all through this,” he said at Swans headquarters on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
“It’s been really challenging day for [supporters], for us, for all our people who we care deeply about.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got two games to look forward to on Sunday, the double-header, and the girls are really excited about their match.<\/p>\n
“We’re excited to have a huge crowd at the SCG.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sponsors are deserting Isaac Heeney amid a police investigation into the Sydney AFL superstar and four Swans teammates.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-574895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-australia","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}