{"id":78224,"date":"2026-08-23T04:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T04:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/78224\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T04:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T04:43:11","slug":"fans-banner-removed-by-scg-security-during-sydney-swans-aflw-win-over-essendon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/78224\/","title":{"rendered":"Fan\u2019s banner removed by SCG security during Sydney Swans\u2019 AFLW win over Essendon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney Swans<\/a> fans came out in droves to support the AFLW<\/a> team on Sunday ahead of the men\u2019s team\u2019s first match since five teammates were suspended for the rest of the AFL<\/a> season for breaching club standards.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s team opened Sydney\u2019s first SCG double-header with a 9.12 (66) to 6.6 (42) win over Essendon in front of 16,672 fans \u2014 more than double the Swans\u2019 previous record AFLW crowd.<\/p>\n

It marked a bright spot at the end of a difficult week for the club, with the crowd building ahead of the AFL clash with North Melbourne later on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

The men\u2019s team will take the field without banned quintet Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, Riley Bice and James Jordon.<\/p>\n

The Swans\u2019 club-imposed bans are independent of a police investigation. 7NEWS is not suggesting any wrongdoing, and none of the players have been interviewed, arrested or charged by police.<\/p>\n

As the fallout continues in the background, attention turned back to football on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Fans arrived early at the SCG and some quickly unfurled banners to support the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe confident. Be courageous. Stand proud even when it hurts,\u201d one read.<\/p>\n

Another read: \u201cThe Swans are nothing without W.\u201d<\/p>\n

One more simply said: \u201cSupport women.\u201d<\/p>\n

But one banner with more blunt language was quickly removed by security.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo more d***heads please,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n

The Reddit<\/a> user who posted the photos wrote: \u201cWell that banner didn\u2019t last long … barely even three minutes before security came over and took it away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SecuritySecurity spoke with the fan and removed the banner. Credit: Reddit<\/p>\n

Some Sydney fans threatened to walk out of the SCG after the AFLW game but a large crowd built throughout ahead of the men\u2019s clash.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t sure what we were expecting but to see the support we\u2019ve received today is just unbelievable,\u201d AFLW captain Lucy McEvoy told Fox Sports after full-time.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members and fans are so tight, they know we\u2019re united as a club and we\u2019re better than what we were at the start of the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so grateful to have the support we do today and the girls were able to turn it on for them today, so it was really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

McEvoy had fronted a press conference with coach Colin O\u2019Riordan on Friday, after the AFLW team had been addressed by men\u2019s captain Callum Mills earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

She said they still had \u201ca few nervous girls\u201d on Sunday morning but the support spurred them on.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just hear it right now, it\u2019s absolutely unbelievable,\u201d McEvoy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when we ran out at the start of the game through the banner it was just absolutely unbelievable. But we absolutely turned it on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s team arrived on the SCG for their warm-ups during the AFLW celebrations, hugging players and thanking fans for their support.<\/p>\n

The women sung the song in the middle of the ground in full view of supporters.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe AFLW side arrives on the SCG for the double-header. Credit: AAP\"SwansSwans fans supported the AFLW team on Sunday. Credit: AAP<\/p>\n

\u2018Downright disgrace\u2019 as Collingwood given huge AFL wildcard leg-up<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Party time as Cats, Crows tune up for finals with big wins<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney Swans fans came out in droves to support the AFLW team on Sunday ahead of the men\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[77,12143,227,595,261,247,5009],"class_list":["post-78224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-afl","tag-aflw","tag-lifestyle","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-swans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}