Opinion
On the walls somewhere at the Sydney Swansโ HQ would be a series of words; a set of values that the club stands for or, at least, believes that they do. At one stage those words were hard, disciplined, united. Iโm sure they are now something different yet just as vague.
Every football club does this exercise in identity. They think long and hard about values then place them somewhere by the entrance, or in the change room, so that 50 times a day, players and staff are confronted by the words in the hope that they seep into their minds and create a culture.
As a former Swans player, I am devastated that a group of players could make a series of choices that create this situation.
The pre-emptive caveat against any backlash for appearing to prioritise a manโs football career over a womanโs wellbeing: โYes, weโre a football show, so we have to do our due diligence on how this will impact the season.โ
My caveat: I do not have one ounce of care for the impact this will have on the Swansโ season or anything football-related. This is a game that involves chasing a ball around an oval that is propped up by a business machine to mean more than it ever should.
But still, there is a football conversation here. One that extends beyond this season, beyond the five games that five players have been suspended for, beyond the four walls of the Sydney Swans.
Though the club has been profiteering off its place at the top of the footballing cultural epoch for decades, the Bloods and their supposedly humble, knockabout culture provides the most pertinent example of what football clubs truly stand for.
Time and time again, when each club has a crisis โ a sexual assault allegation, a drug scandal, a Mad Monday fiasco โ we peer through the lens at something that is hidden by game-day mania and smiling players with pearly white teeth who pose for photos with children. We see that these role models earn their mantle without any reason.
Because when given the true chance to be role models over the past few days, not a single player nor coach has stood firm. The chief executive said he was disappointed that players had โfound themselvesโ in this situation. The captain of the club, having had time to prepare and think about what he values, to be a leader and stand up for something, could only find it in himself to say he didnโt know the facts and couldnโt comment. And the club itself has now said that they โcondemn all forms of abuse and disrespectful behaviour towards womenโ. Something so painstakingly obvious that the fact it has to be written down at all illuminates how disparate their values are from the actions of its players.
Each party here is saying the lines they are fed in an attempt to put the right plugs in the right PR crisis holes as they emerge. Because thatโs their priority: minimising damage to the club, the people inside the four walls and the four walls themselves; not the fans, nor the victims of any incident.
Because make no mistake about it, that is all a football club ever values: they operate in the business of wins and losses and through a series of savvy media campaigns and selected social media posts. They cosplay as social instruments and create role models for fans to hold in high regard without ever actually knowing who they are.
It is all well and good to condemn all forms of abuse and accept money from sponsors on social and political justice issues. To receive pats on the backs from fans for โstanding for somethingโ, but that is all take and no give. Without significant action, that is an easy business decision and not a sign of culture. I would like to hear a Swans leader say: โThis is an ongoing investigation, but if any of our players were involved in a sexual assault, they would not be welcome at this club any more.โ That would not admit guilt, would not intervene with the criminal investigation, but be a fair statement by a club who seems so vehemently against gender-based violence. It would put a value ahead of the wins and losses and the loyalty of โmateshipโ between players.
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