AFL bars the five suspended Swans players from the Brownlow

Five suspended Sydney Swans players will not attend the Brownlow Medal ceremony, AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon confirmed on 24 August 2026 at the launch of the finals series. The decision closes off any possibility the players might appear at the league's most-watched individual awards night while a police investigation remains open.

Dillon was direct at the finals launch. "The actions of five players have fallen well short of the standards our game expects and community deserves," he said.^[1] The Brownlow exclusion arrives days after the Swans moved against the group, and signals the league is prepared to act on its own terms even as a criminal process continues.

What Dillon said at the finals launch

Dillon told reporters the players would not receive invitations to the Brownlow Medal.^[1] Dillon framed the season-long suspensions the club had already handed down as a form of institutional accountability, saying "There's been accountability for those players."^[1]

Dillon was careful to separate the club and league's conduct standards response from the question of criminal guilt. By confirming no AFL inquiry would begin while police work continued, Dillon drew a line around what the governing body is prepared to adjudicate and what it is not.

The AFL's position on its own inquiry

Dillon said the AFL would not conduct its own enquiries into the incident until after the Victoria Police investigation was finished.^[1] That position tracks with how both the league and the club have handled the matter since the incident became public. The Swans moved first, imposing season-ending suspensions they described as independent of the police process.

No independent AFL finding on what happened at the hotel will emerge until police either lay charges or close their investigation, and there is no confirmed timeline for that. For the five players, the current consequences are the season-long ban and the Brownlow exclusion, with further league action possible once police conclude their work.

How the Swans reached the suspension decision

On 19 August 2026, the Sydney Swans suspended Riley Bice, Nick Blakey, Isaac Heeney, James Jordon and Chad Warner for the remainder of the 2026 season over an incident at a Melbourne hotel.^[2] The club described the suspensions as flowing from a breach of club standards rather than from any finding of criminal wrongdoing.

Heeney and Warner in particular have been central to Sydney's season. Their absence for the finals effectively ends the Swans' 2026 premiership hopes, stripping the side of experienced contributors at the most important stretch of the year.

The club's statement said the board acted independently of the police investigation, a framing the AFL has since echoed.^[2] A club imposing internal discipline for a breach of behavioural standards does not require a criminal finding and does not prejudge the outcome of a separate investigation.

Where the Victoria Police investigation stands

Victoria Police's Sexual Crimes Squad is investigating a report of sexual assault at an East Melbourne hotel.^[1] The alleged incident took place in the early hours of 17 August 2026. No charges have been laid and the investigation is ongoing.

All five players are presumed innocent. The police investigation is independent of both the club's disciplinary process and any potential AFL inquiry, and a criminal investigation of this kind can take months to conclude.

Dillon's position at the finals launch was that conduct standards and criminal liability are separate questions, and that the league's answer to the first does not wait on the second. At the finals launch on 24 August, Dillon confirmed the Brownlow exclusion stands regardless of how the police process unfolds, with any further AFL inquiry held pending the outcome of the Victoria Police investigation.

Civil claims are forming alongside the police investigation

Lawyers for the women are now preparing civil action as well. John Karantzis, a partner at Carbone Lawyers acting for two of the women, called the alleged conduct "abhorrent", said the women are suffering "severe stress and anxiety", and claimed more than five men were in the hotel room, accusing the Swans hierarchy of not yet being fully transparent. [4] His firm has been asked to prepare claims for damages in the Victorian Supreme Court. A third woman, who put multiple sexual assault allegations to police, has separately engaged Jackson Pannam, a senior lawyer at Slater and Gordon, to examine a civil claim. [5]

Reported details of the night remain allegations. Among them: that one woman became enraged after a man in the room slapped her buttocks four times when three had allegedly been agreed, and that police were told of drug use in the room. [6] None of the five suspended players has been charged, no allegation has been tested in any court, and the players are entitled to the presumption of innocence.