00:01Coach Gene Cox and Captain Callan Mills walked out to this press conference here at Swan's HQ at Moorpark this
00:10morning,
00:11flanked by their chairman, the CEO, as well as multiple teammates that have not been involved in this scandal,
00:18which has engulfed the club this week.
00:22Now, the pair of them begun the press conference by acknowledging that the club's culture is not perfect and that
00:30it had taken a hit.
00:33The pair also apologised to their fans and their wider community, as well as the AFLW.
00:40A culture isn't perfect. One thing that we do know is our culture has taken a hit.
00:49The thing you need to understand about a culture is how you respond and the actions you take following being
00:56hit.
00:57We're going to work through, and as hard as we possibly can, to get the trust back from the community
01:04to get to the culture where we're desired to be, where we once had been.
01:10We're really disappointed of the actions of these five players.
01:13And as a playing group, we fully support the club's decision on the sanctions handed down.
01:19We take full responsibility, and we are deeply sorry.
01:23We have a lot of work to do for our football community and for the community in general.
01:28That's as honest as I can be, is that, you know, we're willing to put that work in.
01:33I think one thing, the stance we made against these actions were really firm.
01:37You know, we took accountability for it, we stood up for it, and now we have to forge forward.
01:43We have to do it as well as we possibly can, and that's our focus.
01:48The pair were also repeatedly asked about the alleged sexual assault investigation
01:54being conducted by Victoria Police's Sex Crime Squad.
01:58Now, they did deflect from those questions, saying that it was an ongoing police investigation,
02:04and they could not comment, but Coach Dean Cox said that he was not in the room.
02:10Now, to give you the latest update on that, our Victoria Police detectives have been told
02:16that adult entertainers were hired to join Isaac Heaney, Chad Warner, Riley Bias, James Jordan,
02:23and Nick Blakey in the hours after they won their game against Essendon on Sunday evening.
02:29Detectives were also told some players paid extra to consume drugs off the women's bodies,
02:37but it's unclear how many or which players were allegedly participating in that drug taking,
02:45and police are not investigating that alleged drug taking as a criminal activity.
02:50It's actually forming their alleged sexual assault investigation,
02:56and police became involved in that after one of the women made a complaint.
03:01She was alleged to have been touched without consent.
03:06Now, there has been no charges laid, and as far as we know,
03:10the players have not been formally interviewed.
03:13Captain Callum Mills said he'd spoken to those five players,
03:17and he said there was not a rift in the club.
Comments