Suspended Swans players to return to the club for first time since suspension

Sydney Swans players Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, Riley Bice and James Jordon have returned to the club’s Moore Park headquarters for the first time since they were suspended for breaching club standards during a late-night incident in Melbourne.

Amid glares from onlookers in the busy Entertainment Quarter precinct, the ‘Pullman Five’ arrived at the Royal Hall of Industries on Wednesday afternoon for their routine end-of-season interviews.

But there was nothing routine about their entrance, as people lining up for a concert at the adjacent Hordern Pavilion craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the players who have been at the centre of one of the AFL’s biggest scandals in recent memory.

For all bar Warner – the only player to have been photographed since the incident at the Pullman Hotel in Melbourne in the early hours of August 17 – it was the first public sightings of them in weeks.

Other players trickled into the club throughout Wednesday afternoon, while a large contingent of staff were seen walking down the stairs of their building for what was presumed to be an all-club meeting in the minutes ahead of their arrival.

Just after 5pm, the five players arrived in two cars, with Warner and Bice together in one, and Heeney, Blakey and Jordon in the other – but they had little to say to the awaiting media pack, which had been camped outside the club since the morning.

“I’m just here for my exit interview,” Warner told a large press pack.

“I’m looking forward to addressing the playing group,” said Heeney, who also offered concern to a cameraman who fell over a bollard as the players walked towards the entrance.

The five players were suspended by the Swans last month for the rest of the AFL season, sidelining them for their final home-and-away match against North Melbourne, their stirring qualifying final win over reigning premiers Brisbane Lions and their heartbreaking preliminary final defeat to Fremantle on Friday night.

The Swans’ club-imposed suspensions were separate from a Victoria Police investigation into allegations of sexual assault at the Pullman. No charges have been laid, while Bice is no longer considered a person of interest by police.

Exit meetings are end-of-season reviews, typically held between coaching staff and individual players.

“It’s a natural thing the players will come in,” Swans chief executive Matthew Pavlich said on Wednesday morning.

“We have our exit meetings and the players will come in. The players at some point will have a chat to the broader group and the club.

“I want them to be themselves and I want them to come and do what they normally do – their player exit meetings.”