After a week of pain, the healing begins for the Swans and their supporters

August 23, 2026 — 6:45pm

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For the past week, shattered supporters of the Sydney Swans have been processing their complicated feelings, digesting their mixed emotions, trying to figure out where to put all these broken, jagged little pieces.

On Sunday, the best answer anyone’s come up with thus far presented itself at the SCG: here. Put it here. Bring it all to the ground and we’ll sort through it together.

In times of trauma, it can help to be with other people. So, on a glorious Sydney afternoon, the broad church that is the Swans’ fan base – sad, angry, hurt, confused, bemused – congregated at its usual location to do what it usually does, unsure if it would still be like it usually is.

It was, and it wasn’t.

Were it not for the news that rocked their world on Monday, when the first reports emerged of the night of debauchery that took place at the Pullman in East Melbourne, this all would have been so straightforward.

On Thursday, five AFL players – Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, Riley Bice and James Jordon – were suspended for the rest of the season for “breaching club standards”. A separate police investigation continues into an alleged sexual assault.

The........

© Brisbane Times