u/Ardeo43

Swans senior player Isaac Heeney has been revealed as the focus of a sexual assault investigation.

The woman at the centre of the scandal engulfing the Sydney Swans completed a formal complaint to police on Tuesday about what occurred in the East Melbourne hotel room.

A source familiar with the investigation, but not authorised to speak publicly, said the woman attended a city police station to provide a formal statement about what unfolded at the Pullman hotel on Monday morning.

Her official version of events, which involves an act of touching beyond what was agreed, will form the basis of Victoria Police’s ongoing investigation.

A second source with knowledge of the incident, but not authorised to speak publicly, said five players were in a room with naked women, with one performing lap dances.

They said Heeney, who was clothed, was the subject of the complaint.

All have denied any wrongdoing.

On Monday, police announced detectives from the Sexual Crimes Squad had taken carriage of the probe.

The Sydney Swans had been staying at the hotel after playing Essendon at the MCG on Sunday night, ahead of plans to return home the next day.

A number of players had allegedly been drinking, and two women were invited to their hotel sometime after 2am.

What happened next is the subject of the complaint filed by one of the women, the details of which have not been made public.

Sydney Swans players Chad Warner, James Jordon, Isaac Heeney, Riley Bice and Nick Blakey.

The two women left the hotel room and were joined by a third woman in the foyer, where there was a commotion, this masthead has previously reported.

Detectives attended the hotel to collect evidence and CCTV footage on Monday. None of the players involved has been formally interviewed.

At least five players returned to Sydney that night in a rental car, driving the eight-hour trip instead of flying to allegedly avoid the media gathered at both airports.

Sydney Swans CEO Matthew Pavlich confirms that the police are investigating in an incident involving several players in a Melbourne hotel.

Representatives of Isaac Heeney, Riley Bice, James Jordon and Chad Warner were contacted for comment after two senior industry sources identified them as part of the group returning together.

A representative of Nick Blakey denied any involvement, and stated Blakey had not been asked to speak with the police even informally. Blakey had remained in Melbourne to travel back to Sydney with his four teammates. He is also one of the group subsequently suspended by the club.

This masthead has previously reported that all five players had been prepared to speak with police on Monday, but only one was ultimately questioned.

A source with knowledge of the incident, but not authorised to speak publicly, said police told the group they were not ready to conduct a formal interview or speak with any of the players acting as witnesses.

The source said leading Melbourne criminal lawyer Tony Hargreaves was called in to assist the players before they were told they were free to return home.

AFL chief Andrew Dillon said on Tuesday – before the complaint was filed – that the allegations were “deeply concerning”.

“The woman who made the report to police [on Monday morning] is entitled to privacy and care, and that should be respected,” he said.

“It is important that the police process is allowed to run its course.”

Victoria Police declined to comment.

Liberal MP Moira Deeming will not apologise to Matthew Guy for claiming he put her into a headlock at a community function, despite conceding she did not understand the technical meaning of the term before making a complaint to police.

Speaking through a statement provided by her lawyer on Monday, Deeming denied she had made a false complaint and said she would not apologise for “something she has not done”.

“Our client instructs us to make clear that she categorically rejects any suggestion that her complaint was falsely made and considers any such allegation to be entirely without foundation and highly defamatory,” lawyer Tim Houweling said.

“A decision by police not to pursue charges is not a finding that a complaint was falsely made.”

Houweling said everyone should be entitled to make reports without fear of reprisal, and that Deeming’s allegations to Victoria Police were made “honestly, in good faith and only as a matter of last resort”.

“Following unsuccessful attempts to resolve the incident confidentially and through the Liberal Party’s internal processes, Ms Deeming was advised by senior Liberal Party officials to report the matter to Victoria Police.”

Deeming had accused Guy of assaulting her by putting her in a headlock during a public dinner on May 23.

CCTV footage from inside the Macedonian community event instead showed Guy briefly put his arm on Deeming’s shoulder as the pair leaned forward to hear one another in the middle of a crowded room. Opposition Leader Jess Wilson and Guy both called on Deeming for an apology after police confirmed they had found no offence after investigating the complaint, including viewing the footage.

Houweling said on Monday he had been instructed by Deeming that her complaint to police aligned with her memory and understanding of the event at the time and that she had only seen the footage once it was released to the media last week.

“She accepts that she misunderstood the technical meaning of the term ‘headlock’, but maintains that she used it in good faith to describe what happened,” he said.

“Without attributing motive to the other party, our client maintains that from her perspective this physical contact by a senior male colleague in the workplace was unexpected, unwelcome, physically painful and caused her to feel fear and confusion.

“This incident was exacerbated by our client’s prior history of being a victim of rape and sexual abuse, and having PTSD both from that and from what has occurred over the last more than three years.”

Houweling said the CCTV footage showed Guy “pulling her towards him while maintaining a grip around her neck and upper shoulder area as she attempted to pull away”.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush on Friday told 3AW that video footage taken inside the venue was the decisive evidence for investigators.

“Often it is a matter of perception, but we deal with reality, and we deal with evidence. And that is what we have made our decision based on,” he said. “It is mainly based on the video that is in the public domain ... I think everybody has come to a similar conclusion.”

Guy on Friday said there was no ambiguity in the security camera footage.

“I did not do what was alleged. The CCTV proves this, it did from the start, and Victoria Police agree,” he said at the time.

Wilson on Monday reiterated that Guy deserved an apology, and said she had explained that to Deeming personally.

The opposition leader previously said she would meet with Deeming in person once she returns from an overseas conference.

Houweling said Deeming had accepted the offer to meet with senior Liberals to “continue working towards an internal resolution”.

There is a broad consensus within the Victorian Liberals that Deeming cannot remain within the party following the saga.

Several senior Liberal figures, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal party matters, told The Age that Deeming’s accusation had exhausted the patience of even her most loyal supporters, and she was now completely isolated from the party.

With speculation about a 20th team increasing, I don't understand at all why anyone thinks a third WA team is a good idea.

It's not that Perth isn't capable of having another team on metrics and economics. If we did a hard reset of the AFL with 20 brand new teams, you'd be putting at least 3 and maybe even 4 in Perth. But that's not how things work, Perth already has 2 teams that most AFL supporters follow.

How does anyone expect huge numbers (an entire club worth essentially) of Eagles and Dockers fans to abandon their team for a brand new franchise created out of nothing? Particularly the diehard supporters that turn up week in, week out no matter how bad the team is on the field?

This isn't to say there aren't legitimate challenges the WA teams face i.e. travel burdens and the Eagles members wait list. But WA3 isn't the answer.

Slapping the name Joondalup or whatever on a new team which plays out of Optus anyway doesn't mean people in the northern suburbs of Perth who have been Eagles supporters for decades, in many cases their entire lives, suddenly jump over to Joondalup. And the ship has long sailed on elevating a WAFL team (or combination/merger of WAFL teams), it doesn't have anywhere near the supporter base to compete in the AFL.

And a SW WA team is probably an even worse idea - it's a region with 170k people. That's the population of Darwin but spread over an entire region rather than a city, with even less of a corporate base, and where they'd still be competing for hearts and minds with the Eagles and Dockers supporters who don't abandon their club anyway.

Even in the best case scenario WA3 doesn't grow the game, it just cannibalises the Eagles and Dockers. There's virtually no untapped supporter base like in Western Sydney/Gold Coast or if you expand to markets without a team like Canberra and the NT.

Canberra and the NT have their own major challenges that would need to be dealt with to be the 20th team, and both are far from perfect, straightforward options. But to me WA3 seems like by far the worst of the realistic options for a 20th team.

Maybe I'm missing something, or I'm wrong and there's a large percentage of Eagles and Dockers fans ready to jump ship to a brand new team?