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Banned Sydney Swans players apologise to AFL club

Swans players Chad Warner and Isaac Heeney addressed the club for the first time since their ban.

Swans players Chad Warner and Isaac Heeney addressed the club for the first time since their ban. Photo: AAP

Sydney’s five suspended players have offered an apology to teammates and colleagues after ending their weeks-long exile from the AFL club.

Swans vice-captain Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice on Wednesday appeared at Swans HQ for the first time since being banned for breaching club standards in August.

Each individually spoke and apologised to staff and the club’s AFL and AFLW playing lists.

Heeney was the only player after the club meeting to address media, doing so with a brief statement.

“It was really nice to address the whole club,” he said on Wednesday evening.

“I was thankful they could give us their time and understanding, so yeah, it was really good.”

Warner and Bice first arrived together at the club’s base at Moore Park, followed by vice-captain Heeney, Blakey and Jordon in the same car.

Only Heeney and Warner spoke to media upon arriving.

Warner, flanked by a silent Bice, said he was “just here for my exit interview”.

Asked if he was going to say sorry or anything at all, Warner said: “I don’t know.”

Heeney did not answer when he was asked if he had a message to fans.

The five have not spoken in public since a club statement was issued following their round 23 match against Essendon in August.

Their club-imposed suspensions are separate from a police investigation into sexual assault allegations.

No charges have been laid, and AAP is not suggesting any wrongdoing on the part of the five suspended players.

All five are contracted for next year, with Blakey signed to the club until 2031.

Warner and Jordon come off contract at the end of 2027, while Heeney and Bice are signed until the end of 2028.

Blakey is reportedly seeking a trade to Victorian rivals, but football boss Leon Cameron had dismissed those rumblings as “speculation” earlier this month.

Victoria Police’s eight-week timeline prediction on their investigation into the Pullman Hotel incident — which was first flagged on September 2 — takes in the free agency and trade period from October 2 to October 14.

Main ball-winners Heeney and Warner weren’t invited to Monday night’s Brownlow Medal at Crown Palladium, but remained eligible for the award.

Heeney and Warner are expected to be frontrunners for Sydney’s Bob Skilton Medal, to be held after Saturday’s grand final.

Swans chief executive Matthew Pavlich spoke to reporters earlier on Wednesday and said the club would hear the group out.

“I want them to be themselves,” Pavlich said of what he wanted to hear from the players.

“I want them to come in and do what we’d normally do at the end of a season, which is, yeah, player exit meetings.

“If they’ve got something to say to their player group, if they’ve got something to say to the club, then we’ll hear them out then.”

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028

-AAP

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