A sordid allegation about what several Sydney Swans players did inside a Melbourne hotel room has come as \u201cno surprise\u201d to the man who blew the whistle on all 18 AFL clubs two years ago.<\/p>\n
Sydney stars Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice have been suspended by the club for the remainder of the AFL season as police investigate a sexual assault allegation from inside a room at the Pullman Hotel on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
The five players were stood down for the remainder of the season, including finals, for breaching club expectations in the early hours of Monday morning when they continued drinking and brought several women back to a hotel room.<\/p>\n
Heeney is reportedly at the centre of the police investigation into an alleged sexual assault. <\/p>\n
While the focus rightly remains on the allegation of sexual assault and the welfare of the woman who made the allegation, details alleging illicit drug use are also filtering through.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to several police sources who spoke to the ABC<\/a>, detectives have been told some Sydney players paid adult entertainers to allow them to consume drugs, believed to be cocaine, \u201cfrom the women\u2019s breasts and buttocks\u201d.<\/p>\n No arrests have been made and none of the five players have been formally interviewed by police.<\/p>\n But Federal MP Andrew Wilkie, who used parliamentary privilege in 2024 to allege the AFL was engaged in a systemic cover-up of illicit drug use, says he is \u201cnot surprised that the allegation is now circulating that drugs were being used at the Pullman Hotel by some AFL players\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking exclusively to news.com.au, the independent MP said the league failed to adequately address his bombshell revelations about illicit drug use, including that \u201cthe game has been secretly manipulated by the AFL\u201d and that players were given secret, \u201coff-the-books tests\u201d and told to \u201cfake an injury\u201d if they tested positive. <\/p>\n \u201cIn my opinion, the League\u2019s response to my 2024 revelations in the parliament of a secret drug testing regime was defensive and half-hearted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cMoreover it then took them the better part of two years to roll out reforms that were well short of what was needed to effectively clean up the sport. Perhaps some players might have figured it was largely business as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n The AFL said at the time that there was not an illicit drug problem in the sport and defended the practice of having doctors test players, but did not respond directly to claims that players faked injuries to cover up test results.<\/p>\n The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and Sports Integrity Australia (SIA) do not consider illicit drugs \u201cperformance-enhancing\u201d and don\u2019t test for them outside match day.<\/p>\n The AFL has a three strikes policy for a player that tests positive to illicit drugs on match days, but players are not named until the second or third strike.<\/p>\n Mr Wilkie, and former Melbourne Demons team doctor Zeeshan Arain, alleged in 2024 that tests were being carried out prior to match day with the aim of protecting a player\u2019s reputation if they tested positive.<\/p>\n \u201cHere is what happens as it has been described to me,\u201d Mr Wilkie told parliament in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cThe AFL wants a player to play at all costs, and so the cover-up begins. If there are no illegal drugs in the player\u2019s system (picked up during alleged off-the-books testing), they are free to play.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there are drugs in their system, the player is often asked to fake an injury. They are advised to lie about their condition while the results of the off-the-books tests are kept secret and never shared with Sport Integrity Australia or WADA.<\/p>\n \u201cIn other words, hundreds of thousands of Australians will watch the game not knowing that the game has been secretly manipulated by the AFL. Thousands of Australians will also bet on the game not knowing that the game has been secretly manipulated by the AFL. <\/p>\n \u201cSo the next time you hear a player has a hamstring injury, you could be forgiven for wondering what\u2019s really going on.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Arain told Mr Wilkie that multiple players from other teams came to Melbourne \u201cwith pre-existing cocaine dependencies more than suggesting that drug testing workarounds are in fact commonplace in the AFL\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking to news.com.au, Mr Wilkie said that \u201cas a general principle\u201d he supports harm-minimisation \u201cbut AFL players are also high-profile role models in our community so should be held to higher standards\u201d.<\/p>\n He also pointed out that his concern and first thoughts are for the safety and welfare of women at all times and \u201cthat\u2019s the most important thing to be talking about right now\u201d.<\/p>\n AFL reporter Tom Morris was the first to report allegations of drug use linked to the Swans stay at the hotel on Sunday night and Monday morning. <\/p>\n He said it is \u201cunclear which players were involved\u201d but that \u201cmultiple players\u201d were allegedly taking cocaine.<\/p>\n Sydney Swans chief executive Matthew Pavlich was pressed on whether the five players were tested for illicit drugs after police arrived at the Pullman in the early hours of Monday morning.<\/p>\n \u201cWere they tested for illicit drugs?,\u201d Pavlich was asked, but he did not immediately answer the question.<\/p>\n A second reporter followed up, asking Pavlich: \u201cThe second part of the question. The drug testing, did you do that on those five players?\u201d<\/p>\n Pavlich said: \u201cThat\u2019s potentially part of the police matter which we aren\u2019t going near.\u201d<\/p>\n The drug bombshell from 2024 turned the football world on its head. <\/p>\n Commentator and long-time AFL reporter Gerard Whateley called the revelations \u201cthe story you could never prove\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a beat reporter back in the day this was the story you could never prove,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHigh profile player, untimely hamstring injury, lingered longer than might have been anticipated. Suspicions were on every street corner.<\/p>\n \u201cThe illicit drugs policy has always been shrouded in secrecy. And the tension piece between player welfare, privileged medical information and brand protection has been a constant debate since it was first introduced.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has never won public approval or confidence. But the AFL and players have always been unrepentant about that \u2014 sighting a voluntary code with welfare as the principal consideration.<\/p>\n Dr Peter Larkins went a step further<\/a>, claiming every club doctor had an arrangement with the AFL that players could have positive drug tests covered up.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was a system deliberately put in place to assist players to get off the system if they were caught up in societal drug use,\u201d Larkins said at the time.<\/p>\n Then-Swans chief executive Tom Harley addressed the revelations at the time, denying he had ever witnessed doctors lying about injuries. <\/p>\n \u201cThe illicit drugs policy in the AFL, we are absolutely all aware that it\u2019s a medical model. We put enormous trust and faith into our medical practitioners and our doctors,\u201d Harley said.<\/p>\n Port Adelaide president David Koch said he was shocked upon hearing the allegations.<\/p>\n \u201cI am absolutely stunned by it,\u201d he told local radio in SA.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously the AFL will be investigating it closely. To have a deliberate route to avoid testing seems beyond belief to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Read related topics:Melbourne<\/a>Sydney<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sordid allegation about what several Sydney Swans players did inside a Melbourne hotel room has come 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