00:01There's a lot we don't know. We do know that several players were involved in an alleged
00:06incident in Melbourne at the Pullman Hotel. Victoria Police is investigating allegations
00:12of a sexual assault that took place allegedly in the early hours of Monday morning in East
00:17Melbourne where the Sydney Swans were staying. No doubt you would have seen and your viewers
00:20would have seen the vision of plainclothes police, you know, attending that hotel. Important
00:25to give voice to Victoria Police's most recent update confirming they've spoken to a number
00:30of people as part of these allegations and their investigation into them and worth giving
00:34voice to the fact that their updates, no one's been arrested and no formal interviews have
00:39taken place at this point in time. As you say, four players from the Sydney Swans at this
00:44point understood to be linked to it. Isaac Keeney, Chad Warner, James Jordan, Riley Bice,
00:48two of those among the biggest stars in not only the Sydney Swans but the game of Aussie
00:52rules football and I think what we're seeing as a consequence of this story with the intense
00:58scrutiny and interest in it but the vacuum left as a consequence of the lack of details
01:05is inevitably a sort of football lens being put onto it by the AFL industry and the AFL media
01:11more broadly and what makes this story so significant is we're talking about a club revered for its
01:16culture. It's not just a club in many respects. This is an ambassador for the code of AFL beyond
01:22the traditional heartland of Western Australia, South Australia and indeed Victoria. They have
01:27had immense success under the so-called bloods culture installed by Paul Roos in the early
01:332000s. Two premierships, five losing grand finals, perennial finals contenders across that journey.
01:39Maybe even more significant than that has been the fact they've been able to instill this, as I say,
01:44lionised culture that has underpinned that success. Well, that culture has been rocked, hasn't it, by
01:50these allegations and we're going to see an intense examination of the club. Those 45 seconds from
01:55Chief Executive Matthew Pavlich that we've seen across 48 hours of coverage. Dean Cox, the coach,
02:01captain Callum Mills, star women's player Chloe Malloy, all door stopped on their way into the Sydney Swans
02:07facility today, all understandably tight-lipped as they sort of try to let due process take its course.
02:12But I still think that Matthew Pavlich's 45-second press conference was so significant. The fact that
02:20he spoke at all was significant, that they've chosen to do that. And then the brevity, for me,
02:25it means that you're choosing your words exceedingly carefully, word by word, line by line. They would have
02:29gone through this as a team and the broad silence felt really loud. And what stood out from that
02:34conference, as I say, really short, is three words, shocked and disappointed. So Pavlich's saying
02:40he was shocked and disappointed. This has taken place and the players have found themselves in
02:43this situation. When you are choosing your words so carefully and you choose those three words,
02:48it underlines the seriousness of the situation. And I think what we're saying, as I said, is as much
02:54an examination of the club as it is the players who are potentially at the centre of these allegations
03:02from Victoria Police. They essentially put it on the record that it's been referred to their
03:06integrity unit. I think it's fascinating the fact that you've got the two biggest scandals
03:11in the AFL this year coming from two of their biggest clubs in Geelong and, of course, the
03:15Sydney Swans. So we had the Geelong concussion situation last week. The chair of the AFL,
03:21essentially the boss of the AFL, was party to that Geelong concussion situation. And now you've
03:26got the Sydney Swans, whose own chief executive only joined AFL House less than a year ago,
03:32Tom Harley, who is deeply respected and, you know, has an exceptional reputation as a player
03:38and then an administrator in the game. And if Caroline Wilson's reporting is to be understood
03:45to be correct, he's going to play a part in leading this investigation. So a former Sydney
03:49Swan, you know, person who's now in a senior position at AFL House. It's kind of fascinating
03:55to me to see, I think our colleague Bob Murphy says it well, that it's a big industry and
04:00it's a small community. And it's what's upset a lot of people who are perhaps a little bit
04:04adjacent to the football community to put a lens of football over something that is so
04:09much more serious. But you understand why it has to be there. Because ultimately we're
04:15talking about a team that is top two, that is trying to win a premiership, that is one game
04:19left of the home and away season. There's an industry push you're hearing more and more to
04:24potentially consider standing down these players. That's going to be an unprecedented course
04:31of action when you consider that, unlike the NRL, which has a no-fault stand-down clause,
04:36the AFL does not have that clause. They have, along the journey, essentially tried to do
04:40this on a case-by-case basis. And if you think back to Tanner Bruin, the Geelong footballer
04:44who was accused of sexual assault last year, sat out the entire VFL-AFL season. The distinction
04:50here in the Sydney Swans case is that these players at this point in time haven't been
04:54charged. So are the club, will the AFL look to stand them down? That sort of remains to
04:59be seen and that's what sort of hangs in the air ahead of the final home and away
05:03fixture of the season and indeed the final series.
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