Sydney Swans players Isaac Heeney, Riley Bice, James Jordon, Nick Blakey, Chad Warner suspended for 2026 AFL season remainder
Updated ,first published
Five Sydney footballers – Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, Riley Bice and James Jordon – have been suspended by their club for the rest of the season.
On Tuesday night the club had flagged that the board was meeting to discuss sanctions for a group of players whose conduct in Melbourne this week was described by the club as “in serious breach of expected club behaviour and standards”.
The Swans have been in ongoing negotiations with the AFL, according to a source with knowledge of the situation who was not authorised to speak publicly. The AFLPA has been kept informed.
The Swans said in a statement on Wednesday that the AFL was supportive of the club’s sanctions.
There is a separate ongoing police investigation into a sexual assault allegation following events at the Pullman East Melbourne hotel on Sunday night and into Monday morning after the Swans’ victory over Essendon. The investigation is being handled by Victoria Police’s sexual crimes squad.
“We respect there is an ongoing investigation by Victoria Police and the actions we have taken today are independent of this,” the club said.
This masthead has contacted the representatives of Heeney, Bice, Jordon and Warner after two senior industry sources said they were spoken to by police.
This masthead is not suggesting any of the players are under investigation by police, just that they are assisting with inquiries.
This masthead also contacted a representative of Blakey, who stated Blakey was not involved in the incident and did not speak with the police even informally. The representative confirmed Blakey had remained in Melbourne on Monday to travel back to Sydney with his four teammates.
Swans CEO Matthew Pavlich and chairman Andrew Pridham will front the media at 12pm.
Coach Dean Cox arrived at Swans HQ early on Wednesday morning where he was asked if there was still a feeling of disappointment in the club. Cox said: “yeah, there is”.
More to come.
