AFL CEO Andrew Dillon says there’s risk in trading for besieged Sydney Swans players while Victoria Police investigation is still going on; AFL grand final, MCG, NFL, Pullman Hotel
Updated ,first published
AFL boss Andrew Dillon says the league will leave it to the clubs to decide whether they wish to trade for any of the five suspended Sydney Swans players amid an ongoing police investigation into allegations of sexual assault against potentially four of the five.
Dillon said the AFL still reserved the right to sanction the relevant players – Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice – for their behaviour at the Pullman following the conclusion of the police investigation.
But any decision on stand downs – the AFL can stand down players who face criminal charges – would hinge on the nature and severity of any charges.
Heeney, Warner, Blakey and Jordon are persons of interest the in a police investigation stemming from the night. Three women have alleged they were sexually assaulted and touched inappropriately without consent. No charges have yet been laid, and the players have all denied criminal wrongdoing.
Dillon’s comments were in a wide-ranging interview with this masthead in which he also condemned the abuse of umpires by Hawthorn captain James Sicily and defender Tom Barrass and expressed a desire for the AFL to eventually sell a portion of its media rights to a global streamer like Netflix.
Up to clubs to do due diligence on Swans trades
He said clubs had to do their due diligence if they were interested in acquiring any of the Swans players and take on the inherent risks. Police have confirmed that Bice is not a suspect and is being treated only as a witness in the investigation.
“I think from an AFL point of view, it would be it’s business as usual,” Dillon told this masthead, when asked how the AFL would handle any trades. “So, ultimately, it will be for the Swans, and I don’t know where the Swans are at with the players … If there’s a club that was looking to acquire one of those players or any others, you do your due diligence, and that’s where that there will be uncertainty for the foreseeable future while there’s a police investigation still going.”
Dillon said it would be up the clubs to make their own calls. “Then it’s you do your due diligence, and you understand there’s obviously risks that come. There’s risk with them staying with the Swans, obviously, and there’s risk if they leave,” he said.
Dillon, whose initial response to the Pullman episode was one of “disbelief”, said if any charges were laid before the Swans returned for pre-season, the nature of those charges would determine if and when the accused players could come back to the club and train.
“It depends what the charges are, depends when they’re laid … there’s rules at the AFL’s disposal for stand down and the like. There might be club sanctions as well in relation if there was charging as well. So, we’d work with the club and the players’ association and the players looking at the AFL rules … if that eventuates.”
The five Swans returned to the club on Wednesday and met with teammates and for exit interviews. This masthead has reported that Blakey has been willing to entertain a trade, while Warner, a restricted free agent next year, has not considered the possibility of moving this year, a well-placed source has confirmed. All five are contracted for 2027 or beyond.
‘Community standards have changed’
While the AFL does not have an automatic no-fault stand-down policy like the NRL’s, Dillon said there was a threshold for charges that would bring stand downs. “It’s not a published one, but you look at what it is, what’s the nature of the charge, and then what’s the potential severity of the charge.”
The AFL had stood down Geelong midfielder Tanner Bruhn, who was charged rape before the charges were dropped last November after a witness admitted to lying in his police statement.
Players have been charged with sexual assault offences in the past and been allowed to keep playing because charges were deemed not commensurate with a stand down, but Dillon said community standards had changed.
“The stand-down rule has been in place for a while … but there are, you know, community standards and other standards change over time,” he said.
“So what might have happened back in 2008 or 2012 isn’t necessarily how it would be dealt with in 2026 or 2027. But, you’ve also got a presumption of innocence, and I think that’s a really important part of you know the Australian justice system.”
The AFL CEO said of his visceral reaction to the Pullman incident, in which some of the five players were accused of inappropriate touching by topless waitresses who had been in the room in the early hours of that August morning: “First one was disbelieving, as opposed to anger … I think it started at disbelief, went through a whole number of other ranges of emotions. I think it’s back at disbelief.”
Dillon said, based on the information the Swans had, they had “handled it as well as they could have in the circumstances.”
Dillon met Netflix execs
The AFL was interested in future deals with global streaming giant Netflix, which had broadcast the NFL game the MCG between the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers, Dillon said.
Dillon had met Netflix executives at a dinner, but had no formal engagement yet. “The Netflix strategy is big events that are global in nature. Now I’m not sure that we’re at that level yet, but I’d love, I’d love us to be there at some stage.”
Asked if the AFL would look at a Netflix deal in future, Dillon said: “Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s hard to know exactly where the broadcast market’s going to be in 10 or 15 years, but I think the one thing we know it probably won’t look like what it does now.”
Netflix has rights to a package of marquee NFL games that includes the Melbourne, Thanksgiving and Christmas games.
Sicily, Barrass ‘crossed the line’
In the wide-ranging interview covering the 2026 season and key issues, Dillon also said:
*That the behaviour of Hawthorn skipper Sicily, teammate Barrass and some Hawk fans in response to umpiring calls late in Saturday’s epic preliminary final had been “far from appropriate” and “really disappointing”, had crossed a line which the club understood.
“I think the reactions of the players and some of the fans was not appropriate, far from appropriate, and really disappointing. I understand the emotion because it was an incredible game and it was intense. But there’s also standards and there’s lines that that shouldn’t be crossed, and I think they were in the terms of the two Hawthorn players, and then a number of Hawthorn fans.”
The AFL had selected umpire Hayden Meyer, who paid the holding the ball decision against Jarman Impey that led to the match-winning goal to Hugh McCluggage, as one of four grand final umpires. Dillon confirmed that Meyer’s selection was an “absolutely” an endorsement of that holding-the-ball decision, one of three that went against the Hawks in the final minute and a half. The AFL boss said all three decisions were right.
“I think it’s rare that you get almost 100 per cent unanimity on an umpire’s decision, particularly holding the ball, and I think we had that particularly with you know with the last decision, and I think the other ones absolutely were there as well.
“For a Hawthorn fan and the Hawthorn players to have three of them in 60 seconds, it’s not ideal, obviously, but they were all there, and I think people who talk about putting the whistle away, well, you’re still going to pay the free kick, whether it’s the first minute or the last minute, particularly when they’re clear.”
New illicit drugs policy will ‘change behaviour’
Player behaviour on drug use would change as a result of the AFL’s new policy. Dillon defended the new illicit drugs policy, arguing it would be tougher. The revised policy abandons the pretence of formal strikes but has more structure if a player does not respond to treatment and continues to abuse drugs.
“I think with the revised policy that’s coming into place… with a tougher and more engaged policy, that I think we’ll see the changes in behaviour.”
AFL chairman Craig Drummond recently declared a zero-tolerance approach to “poor behaviour” in football, saying players either toe the line of the game’s “high standard” or find a job outside the sport.
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Jake Niall is a Walkley award-winning sports journalist and chief AFL writer for The Age.Connect via X or email.