Latest Developments: Swans Leaders Speak Out on Shocking Scandal and Reveal “Extremely Hard” Conversations With Five Players
Sydney Swans coach Dean Cox and captain Callum Mills admit they are still in the dark about aspects of the alleged scandal as they concede the team’s culture “has taken a massive hit”.
Speaking at a formal press conference for the first time since Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, Riley Bice and James Jordon were suspended for breaching team standards, the leaders said they had had “extremely hard” conversations with the five players.
Cox conceded he had not thought about football once this week but the pair both hoped the AFL team would be able to “bind together to be better for this”.
“We all have women in our lives we deeply love. I would like to express that respect for women is of the highest priority for both myself personally and our football club,” Cox began.
“We have some fantastic women working in our football club, both in the AFLW program and on staff, and our thoughts are with them and I apologise to them, along with the women in the community, for the actions of the players.
“We are extremely disappointed at the actions of the players and the sanctions imposed by the board show that how serious we take these matters to those women involved. I hope everyone is getting the support they need.
“A culture isn’t perfect. One thing that we do know is our culture has taken a hit. The thing you need to understand about a culture is how you respond and the actions you take following being hit.
“We are going to work through, and as hard as we possibly can, to get the trust back from the community, to get to the culture where we’re desired to be, where we once have been.”
Sydney have stressed their club-imposed sanctions, ruling the five players out for the rest of the season including finals, are independent of the police investigation.
And as both Cox and Mills repeatedly batted away questions because of the investigation, the coach said the Swans are still trying to get to the bottom of the situation.
“I wasn’t in the room,” Cox confirmed while adding he was “unaware” who else was beyond the five players.
Asked if other staff members were, he said: “I cannot comment on what happened in the room, it is a police investigation. So we’re still trying to find out information as well.”
7NEWS Melbourne’s Mitch Cleary previously reported Victorian sex crime detectives who have travelled to Sydney for further inquiries are working off claims there were up to nine different men in the hotel room over the course of the night.
The Swans insist only five of them were currently listed AFL players, and issued a further statement on the issue after the press conference.
“The Sydney Swans can confirm that all investigations carried out by the club have consistently indicated that the only representatives of the club in the room central to the police investigation were the five players who have been stood down,” the club said.
“We have every reason to consider that reports to the contrary are simply false. We are respecting the process with the relevant authorities and will refrain from commenting on police matters.
“We would also like to take this opportunity to condemn some of the misinformation being reported and are now considering our legal position on those matters.”
Heeney, Warner, Blakey, Bice and Jordon are helping police with their inquiries.
No charges have been laid and 7NEWS is not suggesting any wrongdoing, only that there are allegations of sexual misconduct being investigated by police.
Cox said he had spoken with the playing group after the game against Essendon last Sunday “about what’s required to make the right decisions” before their Monday morning flight home.
“These obviously aren’t the right decisions and that’s why we’ve acted as a football club and come down with these sanctions,” he said.
Mills said the five players “had let us down” but shied away from addressing his relationship, citing the police investigation.
“My position is that I fully support the sanctions that have been handed down by the club,” he said.
Cox added he had spoken to the five players and would continue to support them “but we are fully supportive of the decision the board made — that is unanimous”.
“I’ve spoken to them about their welfare and that’s what I’ll always do,” Cox said.
“I can’t ask them any questions or speak to them about what happened that night because it is a police investigation. But as you can imagine everyone at the football club, everyone in general, has had different emotions — and they’ve gone through all of them.
Asked how the five players are, he said: “Like people would expect, and that’s everyone. The time that’s needed to work through those emotions and how they change is happening in those four walls as well.”
Mills later said he had had “extremely hard” conversations with the five players.
“I think what this has caused is for us to put the mirror up to all men within society and all men within the club, and that we need to do better,” he said when asked about AFL education programs.
“Our club has taken a massive hit with its culture, and we deem that those behaviours that were displayed on the weekend were far from what we believe is the standard that we need them to be.”
Mills had addressed the AFLW players privately, saying he acknowledged their pain and was deeply apologetic “for the actions of a few within our group”.
He said he was “deeply shocked and disappointed” as he issued a public apology to the club’s AFLW players, their female staff “and the women in our lives — our partners, mothers, sisters and all women within the community”.
“We take these allegations extremely seriously and we hope the women involved are getting all the support they deserve,” he said in his prepared comments.
“We’re really disappointed of the actions of these five players and as a playing group, we fully support the club’s decision on the sanctions handed down.
“We take full responsibility and we are deeply sorry.”
The coach said he will now attempt to turn his attentions to North Melbourne and the Swans’ AFLW-AFLW double-header at the SCG.
SOURCE: 7 NEWS
https://7news.com.au/sport/afl/sydney-swans-leaders-dean-cox-and-callum-mills-admit-club-is-in-the-dark-over-aspects-of-hotel-scandal-still-trying-c-22757423
