Sydney Swans bring in outside advisers to review club culture
The Sydney Swans have engaged outside advisers to review the club's culture after a run of off-field incidents involving players. Workplace culture company Intersection, led by Natasha de Silva, will carry out an independent review and advise the club on its protocols and programs, The Guardian reported on Thursday 5 November.
Five players have been suspended for breaching club standards, including drinking and bringing women back to their hotel. The five are Isaac Heeney, Nick Blakey, Chad Warner, Riley Bice and James Jordon. The review follows an incident at a Melbourne hotel in August.
Police are treating Bice as a potential witness in a separate investigation into an alleged sexual assault at the Pullman hotel. Heeney, Warner, Blakey and Jordon remain part of that ongoing investigation. No one has been arrested or charged, and the players have reportedly denied any criminal wrongdoing.
A separate matter involves Tom Papley. He allegedly returned a positive result for methylamphetamine, a stimulant drug, when police pulled him over on Monday morning. He was also issued a court attendance notice, which is a formal order to appear in court, for driving with a suspended licence. The licence was suspended over an unpaid parking fine.
The club is not expected to sanction Papley until a secondary saliva sample, a second test of the same kind, is analysed. Those results are not expected for at least four weeks.
The Swans board commissioned a full examination of the club's AFL program in early September. That work is expected to be finished by the end of 2026. In a letter to members, chief executive Matthew Pavlich and chair Andrew Pridham apologised for the distress caused by the recent player incidents.
Players are not charged with anything in the Pullman matter, and the allegation is under police investigation. Papley's result is a test result, not a finding, and the club has yet to act on it. The outside review will look at how the club sets and enforces its standards, and the board's wider examination will run until year's end.
