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The five players who remained in Melbourne during the early stage of the police investigation as the rest of the team returned to Sydney on Monday were: Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner and Nick Blakey, plus ex-Demon and tagger James Jordon and mature second year defender Riley Bice.

Instead, the AFL and the club have been examining the conduct of the players before and around the alleged incident, and whether their behaviour fell sufficiently below the standards expected of AFL footballers to warrant sanction under the league’s broad disrepute provisions.

Once the Sydney Swans recognised that there was far more at stake than the team they would field in the 2026 finals series, the decision to ban five key players for the remainder of the season became logical.

The Swans’ hierarchy - led by new chief executive Matthew Pavlich and their chairman Andrew Pridham - were unsurprisingly described as “filthy” with the reckless decisions in those wee hours, irrespective of whether the matter proceeds into a serious criminal charge or not.

Swans players 'sincerely remorseful' over allegations Swans chairman Andrew Pridham has offered a "sincere apology" after and the five players stood down "sincerely remorseful" over sexual assault allegations. You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Victoria Police’s Sexual Crimes Squad is investigating allegations involving five Sydney Swans players who returned to their Melbourne hotel in the early hours of Monday after a night drinking following their MCG victory.

The group of five players, who had remained in Melbourne on Monday behind the rest of the team as it travelled back to Sydney, attended separate meetings with senior club and team officials away from Swans headquarters after driving home to NSW.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon who had hitherto been silent on the scandal on Tuesday night released a statement that foreshadowed strong action.

There is no doubt that the players will not play this weekend in what is a dead rubber anyway against North Melbourne, but the expectation of close observers – not the Swans – is that the five will miss a bare minimum of two matches. The penalty is almost certain to be uniform.

After the Sunday twilight game victory over Essendon, the club had been forced to stay in Melbourne because of the early curfew at Sydney airport. Swans players and officials went out for drinks after the late game. Senior coach Dean Cox as well as a number of the players were on film outside the Harlow, a bar in Church Street Richmond and, according to one witness, about 15 players – Heeney, Warner, Bice and Jordon among them – went on to the trendy Queen Street bar, Her. They were, the source said, there until close to 2am.