I still have the messages. The late-night texts from a member of the Sydney Swans organisation who, despite having a fiancée at home, seemed to take a keen interest in me.
Given everything that has unfolded at the club this past week, I have to admit, none of it comes as a huge surprise.
I feel for Steffie Waters, who, through no fault of her own, has found herself caught up in the scandal engulfing her fiancé, Isaac Heeney, and the once-respected footy club.
Heeney and four teammates have been stood down for the remainder of the season for breaching team standards by staying out late, drinking and calling three strippers to their hotel after the Swans’ victory over Essendon last Sunday.
That decision, of course, is not judgement on the sexual assault allegations, which the Swans say is for police to determine. The Mail does not suggest any of the named players are under police investigation or involved in any wrongdoing.
Still, my own personal experience with a Swans figure – who isn’t one of the named players in the hotel scandal – has left me with a rather jaundiced view of the club’s culture, and only deepened my sympathy for Steffie.
Isaac Heeney and four teammates have been stood down for the remainder of the season for breaching team standards by staying out late, drinking and calling three strippers to their hotel
I was sent these pestering texts in August 2025 after running into a member of the Sydney Swans organisation last year. I didn’t respond to a single one. Not then, and not since
To protect his privacy, I won’t identify the man, his role or whether he remains a part of the team today.
The person behind this story doesn’t matter. It’s the broader culture his conduct seemed to reflect that is relevant.
Our first significant encounter happened in June 2024, when I was having Friday drinks with friends at The Royal, a rough-around-the-edges Merivale pub and Bondi institution.
I spotted the Swans figure, whom I had met years earlier, having drinks with another high-profile (now former) Swansman, after what clearly had been a very boozy lunch.
We had a brief catch-up about what we had both been up to since we last crossed paths.
He told me about his girlfriend. I told him about my partner. All innocent chit-chat.
I went back to my friends, who were playing pool. He later asked if he could join us because his friend had ‘disappeared’.
Of course, I said yes.
I ran into a Swans figure I’d met a handful of times before at The Royal in Bondi (pictured)
Perhaps my friendliness was misconstrued. At some point later, he suggested, ‘Should we get a bag?’
It might shock some, but as a Bondi resident, it’s hardly the most unusual question to be asked on a Friday night.
Then came the second invitation.
‘Do you want to go back to mine? Don’t worry, my girlfriend and I don’t live together.’
I politely declined.
‘No thanks, I have a boyfriend and I don’t roll that way,’ I told him.
He immediately became sheepish, apologised and made a speedy exit.
It was only later that I discovered his ‘girlfriend’ was, in fact, his fiancée.
I feel for Steffie Waters, who, through no fault of her own, has found herself caught up in the scandal engulfing her fiancé, Isaac Heeney, and the once-respected footy club. Last week, she fled Sydney for Noosa, where she was exclusively pictured by the Daily Mail
Fast-forward to August 2025 – a little over a year later – and we crossed paths again, this time on a Sunday evening at another eastern suburbs institution, The Oak in Double Bay.
He was there with a sizeable contingent of Swans figures. I was there on a date. I was introduced to the group and, to be fair, they were perfectly polite and friendly.
Then they left. And my phone started going off.
The same man began bombarding me with calls and messages, asking whether I was kicking on.
‘Where you heading now?’
‘What you doing?’
‘You still out?’
And so on.
August 24 last year – the night I ran into a Sydney Swans figure while I was on a date
I didn’t respond to a single one. Not then, and not since.
It’s now been a year to the day since that night, so if history is anything to go by, I suppose I’m due to cross paths with him again any minute.
Which brings me to the extraordinary events currently engulfing the Swans.
The club has stood down Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice for the remainder of the 2026 season following their big night out, saying the players breached behavioural standards.
Various reports alleged that women were brought back to the team’s hotel in East Melbourne.
And now, the allegations have become considerably more serious.
Untested claims of sexual misconduct have emerged from three women at the centre of the investigation into the players’ night at the Pullman East Melbourne.
One woman has alleged she was the victim of multiple sexual assaults, according to her lawyers.
The other two women, who were engaged as topless waitresses for the players and their friends, have separately alleged they were subjected to sexual conduct beyond what they had agreed to, with multiple men.
The Pullman East Melbourne hotel, where the scandal took place
Those allegations have been reported to police and are expected to form part of the investigation into potential criminal conduct.
Police have also been alerted to the possible existence of a recording relating to what happened inside the hotel in the early hours of last Monday.
The three women were hired for the private gathering following the Swans’ victory over Essendon at the MCG.
The woman who has alleged multiple sexual assaults is represented by Slater & Gordon lawyer Jackson Pannam, with the firm confirming the allegations had been reported to Victoria Police.
The other two women are represented by Carbone Lawyers.
Sources close to those women, who are not authorised to speak publicly, said they had alleged to police that sexual conduct occurred beyond what they had consented to while working at the party.
Victoria Police has so far described its investigation as relating to ‘a report of a sexual assault’.
Asked whether the investigation had been broadened to include the two other women’s separate allegations of sexual conduct without consent, police declined to comment further.
To be absolutely clear, none of the men involved have been accused of wrongdoing by police in relation to these allegations, and they remain allegations only.
But with each passing day, the picture emerging from that hotel room is getting murkier.
Heeney has reportedly found himself at the centre of the investigation, although the Swans have strongly pushed back against reports that players had already been interviewed by police, saying no player had been interviewed at that stage.
The players have not returned to the club since being stood down.
For Heeney in particular, the fallout has been brutal, with endorsement deals and ambassadorial roles dropped. Meanwhile, Steffie has escaped to Noosa to be with her sister and brother-in-law as the scandal back home swirls around her fiancé.
Heeney and his fiancée had grand plans for a home renovation before the hotel scandal
Steffie’s face said it all as she broke down in tears in Noosa on Friday while on a phone call
On Friday, the Mail published exclusive photographs appearing to show her without her engagement ring, although reports suggest she hasn’t called off the engagement.
I have no idea what will happen to that relationship.
What I do know is that I still have those messages from the other Swans figure sitting on my phone.
And perhaps the strangest part of this whole saga is that, when I look back at that night at The Royal, I remember thinking how brazen it was for a man with a fiancée waiting at home to make a pass at a woman who’d just told him she had a boyfriend.
At the time, I dismissed it as one sleazy Friday-night encounter.
Now, watching the club implode, it feels more revealing.
I can only imagine what Steffie must be going through. I hope she has people around her she can lean on.
Heeney has not been charged with any crime and has yet to publicly respond to the allegations. But, at the very least, it appears he considered it acceptable to spend time in a hotel room with strippers less than a year after asking Steffie to marry him.
That, in itself, is a bitter enough blow.
And if my experience is anything to go by, what happens on the field is only part of the story when it comes to this football club.
