Nobody knows if any of these five will play for the Swans again

August 22, 2026 — 5:00am

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When the siren sounded at about 7.20pm on Sunday night at the MCG, a smiling Isaac Heeney spoke enthusiastically of the weeks to come.

By comfortably beating the bottom-placed Essendon, Sydney had secured second place with a round to play, paving a rails run for the Swans to the last Saturday of September with two home finals.

“We’ve done a lot of work to make sure that if we get back to the last day we’ll make sure we’re mentally ready and physically really prepared,” Heeney said in a post-match interview with Fox Footy on the MCG.

“We’re excited for it, I think that’s the biggest thing. You’ve got to be excited and want it, and the boys do. Hopefully, we can perform well next week and into finals.”

The wild events of the ensuing 12 hours means, from a football point of view, there will be no next week or finals for Heeney, or teammates Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice.

The five were suspended for the rest of the season by the Swans on Wednesday for breaching behavioural standards by staying out late, drinking and inviting women back to their hotel room.

The players have since issued a statement apologising for breaching the club’s standards. But according to a source with knowledge of their position, they have denied criminal wrongdoing.

Their night of debauchery has ruined Sydney’s season, destroyed the reputations of the cleanskin Swans and their pin-up boys, and left the sport with uncomfortable discussions about their treatment of women.

The Swans, who boast to being the most-supported club in the country, are one of the powerhouses of the AFL. This year will be their 25th finals appearance in 31 seasons. No club in that time has qualified for more grand finals than their eight.

They were the last club expected to be caught up in a scandal that has drawn condemnation from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek, both sides of politics in Victoria and wide sections of the community.

Heeney, the Swans’ best, most popular and most marketable player, is at the centre of a police investigation over an incident that unfolded in the early hours of Monday morning in a room at the Pullman East Melbourne hotel. A woman who visited the room has alleged she was sexually assaulted by a player.

The exact events of what took place remain unclear but what is clear is the brazenness of the five Swans, who hired exotic dancers to come to their room while teammates, coaches and club staff slept in rooms on the same floor.

Two sources familiar with the police investigation, but not authorised to speak publicly, confirmed drugs were involved in the early morning incident. However, both said the Swans teammates had denied being responsible for the drugs being there or taking them.

Their night of partying is more synonymous with an end-of-season footy trip than the actions of a club a fortnight before the finals that, until this week, had been seen as a leading contender for the premiership.

The fallout has been far-reaching.

The........

© Brisbane Times