The Sydney Swans have engaged external advisers to review the embattled AFL club’s culture following the Melbourne hotel incident in August which led to the suspension of five players, and Tom Papley’s alleged positive roadside drug test this week.
The Swans CEO, Matthew Pavlich, on Thursday expressed the club’s disappointment at being dragged into another off-season scandal after Papley, one of the team’s most experienced players, allegedly returned a positive result for methylamphetamine when pulled over by police on Monday morning.
Papley is not expected to be sanctioned by the club until the results of a secondary saliva sample are revealed in at least four weeks. He was also issued with a court attendance notice for driving with a suspended licence due to non-payment of a parking fine.
“We’re bitterly disappointed that we’re here talking about this today,” Pavlich said. “We’re really disappointed in Tom himself. We voiced that pretty directly to him yesterday. We apologise unreservedly to our members, fans and corporate partners.
“We’ve let them down again. We must be better. It’s a really disappointing time for the footy club, but given this is a police matter, we cannot make any further comment.”
The Swans sent a letter to club members on behalf of Pavlich and the club chair, Andrew Pridham, later on Thursday to further apologise “for the distress recent incidents involving players from the club have caused”.
“Our priority is care, respect and support for those affected,” the letter added.
It also laid out the steps taken by the club in the wake of the hotel incident in Melbourne after which five players – Isaac Heeney, Nick Blakey, Chad Warner, Riley Bice and James Jordon – were suspended for breaching the club’s standards, including drinking and bringing women back to their hotel.
It is understood police are treating Bice as a potential witness in a separate investigation into an alleged sexual assault at the Pullman hotel, while Heeney, Warner, Blakey and Jordon remain part of that investigation which is ongoing. No one has been arrested or charged and the players have reportedly denied any criminal wrongdoing.
The Swans board commissioned a “comprehensive examination” of the club’s AFL program in early September which is expected to be completed by the end of the year. As part of the process, an independent review will be conducted by workplace culture company Intersection , led by Natasha de Silva, to advise on club protocols and programs and “achieve meaningful change wherever necessary”.
“What is already clear from our work to-date is that the actions and attitudes of some within our club has damaged and diminished the many great things we do, and the great people who do them,” the letter said. “This is unacceptable and must change.
“The standards we expect of every player and employee, on and off the field, are central to who we are. They reflect the behaviour rightly expected of professional athletes and public role models. The incident involving Tom Papley this week and the separate incident in Melbourne in August, fall a long way short of those expectations.”
