Amid challenging circumstances, both Sydney’s AFL and AFLW teams will now turn their attention to Sunday’s Swans double-header at the SCG.
Sydney on Wednesday announced it wouldn’t consider Riley Bice, Nick Blakey, Isaac Heeney, James Jordon or Chad Warner for AFL selection for the rest of the 2026 season after breaching the club’s behavioural standards.
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It follows an alleged incident at the Pullman hotel in East Melbourne on Monday morning, which is now the subject of a Victoria Police sexual assault investigation.
Swans players reportedly told women invited to their hotel room that they were “carpenters”.
But The Age is now reporting they weren’t the only men in the room with an ex-AFL player and a “mystery man” also partying in the room, where drugs were allegedly present.
Seven’s Mitch Cleary went further and said on the evening news bulletin: “It’s understood Victorian police detectives who have travelled to Sydney for further inquiries are working off claims there were up to nine different men in the room over the course of the Party Girls booking.
“But the Swans insist only five of them were currently listed AFL players.”
The ABC’s report says police sources allege an “arrangement was reached … to pay extra to take drugs, believed to be cocaine, from the women’s breasts and buttocks”.
Seven says woman who took the booking now “fears for her life” having been identified online.
“I’m so scared … this is so dangerous for our safety,” she said.
It’s not suggested the Swans players were responsible for the drugs being there or they took them, only that they were there.
It’s understood police did not have the power to drug-test the players as they were not “doing an activity where it is illegal to be under the influence”.
The Swans face North Melbourne in a Round 24 ‘deadrubber’ clash at the SCG as they’re already locked into second spot for the upcoming finals series. But they’ll now head into their September campaign without those five key players.
Before the Swans-Roos AFL clash on Sunday, Sydney’s AFLW team will take on Essendon in a bid to record a second straight win.
Both AFL and AFLW Swans teams trained on Wednesday at the SCG, with the men’s program linking up arm-in-arm for a huddle during their session.
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