{"id":85155,"date":"2026-09-01T16:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/85155\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T16:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:05:18","slug":"sydney-swans-stars-tipped-to-leave-as-coach-dean-cox-reveals-contact-with-five-suspended-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/85155\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney Swans stars tipped to leave as coach Dean Cox reveals contact with five suspended players"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney Swans could let go the five players that have been stood down by the club amid interest from AFL rivals.<\/p>\n

The club made the decision to suspend the players following a breach of behavioural standards.<\/p>\n

Code Sports <\/a>reports Swans are aware rival clubs will make plays for Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a growing internal belief the Swans will need to move on one or more of those players to make profound change,\u201d Jon Ralph and Lauren Wood\u2019s report states.<\/p>\n

The club is awaiting the conclusion of a Victoria Police investigation after an allegation of sexual assault was made.<\/p>\n

All five Swans have strenuously denied any criminal wrongdoing, and no charges have been laid over the alleged assault.<\/p>\n

News.com.au is not suggesting any of the men in the room engaged in the conduct alleged, only that it has been alleged.<\/p>\n

The five players stood down until the end of the season will likely attract interest from other AFL clubs.<\/p>\n

\"More<\/p>\n

\u201cSydney knows its rivals will come for its banned players at absolute warp speed,\u201d Ralph said on Fox Footy\u2019s Midweek Tackle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s faced with an impossible decision. It\u2019s my understanding they\u2019re coming to the realisation they might have to move on some of those players to make profound cultural change. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to signify how much they\u2019re prepared to change, it\u2019ll almost take a step back from a performance point of view.<\/p>\n

\u201cWest Coast almost did that – they pulled back on those on-field performances, so much of the cultural stuff, and this might be a similar move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile coach Dean Cox has revealed he is in contact with the five players that have been stood down.<\/p>\n

However he stressed they have not discussed the ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I\u2019ll always do is support my players,\u201d Cox said on Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m staying in dialogue with those five players whilst they\u2019re away from the football club. I speak about their welfare, how they\u2019re going and if we can support in any way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t spoken to them at all about the police investigation. Also I think we need to understand there\u2019s an investigation in process. We need to get all the facts on that, before we make any assumptions.<\/p>\n

\u201c(My chats are) purely about support, and I\u2019ll continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swans chairman Andrew Pridham revealed the club would look into why the standards they set were breached.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo culture is perfect. We have never said it is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly we need to look into what went wrong. The standards we set were not the problem. \u201cIt is that they were breached. We need to understand why this happened. We will do this thoroughly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read related topics:Sydney<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney Swans could let go the five players that have been stood down by the club amid interest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[140077,140093,140091,140085,87249,140096,140067,140083,140082,40178,112136,140084,76772,37695,63309,140079,37232,140081,111024,41009,140095,107252,106230,38242,108467,56917,63117,140092,100500,140069,140075,406,120955,128006,140078,6017,28257,140090,135452,12318,407,403,140068,140089,40761,12327,52131,140088,140071,38152,140086,140087,77113,140076,140073,52296,107247,12558,1712,4381,5063,111355,140074,247,5009,108361,140072,39770,140094,61038,42262,140070,38199,38263,111377,112111,43345,115605,39779,40870,43826,94384,41762,43078,50912,28256,113609,111373,140066,140080,58999,33486,10265],"class_list":["post-85155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-impossible-decision","tag-s-afl-360","tag-s-midweek-tackle","tag-s-report-states-the-club","tag-a-breach","tag-a-growing-internal-belief","tag-a-performance-point","tag-a-revelation","tag-a-similar-move","tag-a-step","tag-a-victoria-police-investigation","tag-absolute-warp-speed","tag-afl-rivals","tag-all-the-facts","tag-an-allegation","tag-an-impossible-decision","tag-an-investigation","tag-any-assumptions","tag-any-criminal-wrongdoing","tag-any-way","tag-behavioural-standards-code-sports","tag-chad-warner","tag-coach-dean-cox","tag-contact","tag-cox","tag-detail","tag-dialogue","tag-down-however","tag-five-players","tag-five-suspended-players","tag-five-swans","tag-fox-footy","tag-fresh-allegations","tag-growing-fallout","tag-his-first-full-interview","tag-interest","tag-isaac-heeney","tag-its-banned-players","tag-its-rivals","tag-james-jordon","tag-jon-ralph","tag-lauren-wood","tag-my-chats","tag-my-players","tag-my-understanding","tag-nick-blakey","tag-no-charges","tag-no-culture","tag-one-or-more","tag-one-thing","tag-other-afl-clubs-the-sydney-swans-investigation","tag-plays","tag-process","tag-profound-change","tag-profound-cultural-change","tag-ralph","tag-riley-bice","tag-rival-clubs","tag-sexual-assault","tag-support","tag-swans","tag-swans-chairman-andrew-pridham","tag-swans-stars","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-swans","tag-sydney-swans-stars","tag-the-alleged-assault-news-com-au","tag-the-club","tag-the-club-and-players","tag-the-conclusion","tag-the-conduct","tag-the-cultural-stuff","tag-the-decision","tag-the-end","tag-the-five-players","tag-the-football-club","tag-the-men","tag-the-ongoing-investigation","tag-the-players","tag-the-police-investigation","tag-the-problem","tag-the-realisation","tag-the-room","tag-the-season","tag-the-standards","tag-the-swans","tag-the-swans-players","tag-their-welfare","tag-those-five-players","tag-those-on-field-performances","tag-those-players","tag-view","tag-west-coast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85155","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=85155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}