Sexual assault advocate condemns Swans best and fairest message

A sexual assault advocate has criticised the Sydney Swans’ decision to allow players at the centre of sexual assault allegations to remain eligible for the club’s best and fairest award, after star midfielder Isaac Heeney took home the top honour on Thursday night.

Heeney and teammates Chad Warner, Nick Blakey and James Jordon all featured in the top 10 of polling for the Bob Skilton Medal, which the club earlier this week recast as an award for the Swans’ “most valuable player”.

The four players remain persons of interest in an unfolding investigation by Victoria Police into allegations of sexual assault made by three exotic dancers in a suite of the Pullman Hotel in the pre-dawn hours of August 17.

All of the men deny any wrongdoing and maintain their innocence. No charges have been laid, and the police investigation is ongoing.

“In August the club took action on standards,” chief executive of sexual assault advocacy organisation Full Stop Australia Karen Bevan said. “[The awards] were a chance to show those standards are still being upheld.

“Young fans, junior players and the club’s own AFLW players will take their cues from what they see celebrated.”

The four players – plus Riley Bice, who was cleared by police but is considered a witness to what happened in the hotel room – were suspended by the club for breaching the Swans’ behavioural standards but were still eligible for the award.

At the gala ceremony, millionaire businessman and Swans chair Andrew Pridhman, who has been a club director for 24 years and led the board for 13 years, said “player conduct and performance are very separate matters”.

At the Sydney Town Hall event Warner polled fourth in the best and fairest voting, Blakey came seventh, while Jordon was 10th.

“[On Thursday], a room full of people applauded, and somewhere in the audience, at home and in the club membership, there were people who have experienced sexual violence – that’s who we think about,” Bevan said of the awards.

“Victim survivors pay close attention to who gets listened to, who gets celebrated and who gets forgotten.”

Recently retired Swan Taylor Adams and a third mystery man were also in the hotel room as chaotic events unfolded, but they are considered by police to be witnesses.

None of the five players attended the Thursday night event.

The three exotic dancers were engaged by the Sydney players to perform in one of the players’ hotel rooms after a night of wild partying.

The team, coaches and club officials were staying at the Pullman following its round 23 win against Essendon on August 16, with the cost of the Swans’ accommodation paid for by the AFL.

All three women have made separate statements to Victoria Police about the events that unfolded in the hotel room.

Police have said a further update on the matter is not expected until the end of October.

Pridham told Thursday’s awards ceremony that making the players ineligible for the season’s club honours would be “inappropriate and in excess of the sanction” they had received for breaching the club’s behavioural standards.

Earlier this week, this masthead reported that two of the women at the centre of the allegations have been medically assessed and found to be suffering severe trauma-related disorders following events at the hotel in the pre-dawn hours of August 17.

A source close to the women, but not authorised to speak publicly, said details of the women’s fragile mental health had been documented in numerous official medical reports, one of which extended to more than 40 pages of clinical detail, they said.

They said the women had been medically assessed, including extensive psychological evaluations, following the incident and that the pair had been found to be variously struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and adjustment disorder. The source said the women were now undergoing treatment.

The next key milestone for the club in managing the fallout from the Pullman scandal is the unfolding trade period, with Blakey said to be unhappy with the Swans’ handling of the Pullman affair and wanting to leave the club.

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon has said it is a matter for clubs to decide whether they wish to trade for any of the five suspended Sydney Swans players, but that any decision involves risk as the police investigation remains incomplete.

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