On Wednesday, the Sydney Swans announced that five players — Riley Bice, Nick Blakey, Isaac Heeney, James Jordon and Chad Warner — would be banned for the remainder of the AFL season, inclusive of finals, for breaching club standards.

CEO Matthew Pavlich and chairperson Andrew Pridham were clear that the sanctions related to partying late at night, drinking and bringing women back to their hotel, and did not relate to sexual assault allegations or infer guilt on any party.

Concurrently, Victoria Police's Sexual Crime Squad is investigating an alleged sexual assault that occurred at the Pullman Hotel that evening.

It is not known who the allegation is against, but previous conversations about the merits of the AFL introducing a "no fault stand down policy", such as the one employed by the NRL, have centred around the message it sends to have players take the field who are facing such matters.

The club itself defined the suspensions as a "torpedoing" of its season; in effect acknowledging that the standards breach issue was and should be bigger than sport.

The NRL policy, implemented in 2019, sees players automatically stood down if they face serious jail charges (those carrying a jail sentence of 11 or more years).

To be clear, this is not the situation currently being faced by the AFL players, with no charges having been laid.

But the purpose of the NRL policy is to send the message — as then ALRC commission chairperson Peter Beattie put it — "that the game does not tolerate violence against women or children."

The AFL's lack of such a policy has previously seen players such as Jordan de Goey — who in 2021 continued to play while charged with indecent assault, a charge that was later withdrawn — take to the field.

While players are entitled to the presumption of innocence until they clear their name, it is worth asking if this sends the wrong message about the seriousness of the issue of violence and disrespect of women.

The Swans' decision, then, is one step on the road to accountability.

Catharine Lumby, an academic who worked as a gender advisor to the NRL for 15 years, welcomed the move as the "least they should do".

"Whether they like it or not, these young men are role models to younger men and society in general," Professor Lumby told the ABC.

Patty Kinnersly, CEO of Our Watch, Australia's national body for the prevention of violence against women, which works closely with the AFL, echoed those sentiments.

"We know that sporting stars and clubs in this country are influential, and they literally reach millions of people, and so when we see our sporting stars behaving well, setting an example, that really feeds through the rest of the community," she told ABC's 730.

"As a sports-loving nation, what sporting organisations do actually does influence how other people behave and act."

Accountability means reckoning with misogynistic cultures

The Swans' move comes at a time for the AFL to engage in a more thorough reckoning with a misogynistic culture that enables the conditions for violence against women, or disrespect of women, to occur.

When Pridham was asked about educating the players on respect for women, for example, he replied that "our male team have by and large always displayed complete respect for women, so I don't think that's something that's of concern".

Pavlich, meanwhile, added that "all I've seen so far at this football club, barring this significant incident, is that we are one club and we treat and respect women incredibly well".

The problem is, an "incident" like an allegation of sexual assault cannot be counted out or treated as an exception to the norm.

They also do not arise out of a vacuum, but in an Australian Rules Football culture that overlooks the seriousness of such allegations, especially when it comes to "stars" of the game.

When Nicky Winmar's statue was swiftly removed after his domestic violence conviction in July, for example, many rightly pointed to the irony of the AFL continuing to have Wayne Carey, who pleaded guilty in 1996 to indecent assault, in its Hall of Fame.

This week's events provided a chance for the Swans' leadership, and the AFL more generally, to take a stand on not just a breach of club standards, but the issue of sexual assault more broadly, as one with no place in the game.

"It's just a bunch of blokes PR-ing at the moment," Professor Lumby said, adding that she wanted to hear from the team's AFLW players and senior female leaders.

"I want to see the research [proving the club's respect for women]. Make it public. What do you know about off-field culture? Also show me the money when it comes to who you're employing. What about how many women are in senior positions?"

Rachael Burgin, a senior lecturer at Swinburne University, and CEO of Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy (RASARA), added that the Swans' move was not necessarily a "win for accountability".

"Sydney have really focused on how the players breached the standards of the club, but this was defined as only about being out late and drinking," Dr Burgin said.

"It's absolutely a missed opportunity to say that sexual violence — even separately to the report made by a woman on Monday morning — is also a significant breach of club standards.

"Sexual violence impacts every aspect of a victim-survivor's life. Victim-survivors bear the physical, emotional, psychological and economic costs. Yet, the fact that a woman has made a report to police of sexual violence is completely invisible.

"Club leaders can comment on the broader national conversation without discussing the investigation.

"The AFL and clubs need to take responsibility for the culture that allows rape and sexual assault to thrive in Australia."

Cultural change could start with AFL making public stand

Times like these test the passion of women who are committed fans of the men's game.

Following men's sport has always been deeply conflicted; to love the game at the same time as being routinely appalled by the off-field behaviour of the men who may represent your team on field.

The latest sexual assault allegations also provide an opportunity for renewed conversation about what broader action the AFL could be taking to stamp out violence against women.

Lily Fetter, member of The University of Melbourne's WEAVERs, a group of women who have experienced domestic, family violence and/or sexual violence, and co-design research projects and training programs, argues this could start with the introduction of a dedicated round.

"When it comes to tackling domestic and sexual violence, it's an enormous problem," Fetter said.

"It's an epidemic and it's not going to be fixable by one individual. It takes a whole of community response, and that's where organisations like the AFL have such a wide reach and a really significant level of influence.

"Can you imagine [how powerful it would be] in the lead-up to the grand final, if the AFL took a lead in things like public advertising to say 'family violence is not OK, you're not alone and there's support out there'?"

Dr Burgin agreed with Fetter that the "AFL is one of the most powerful cultural institutions in this country", but said holding a themed round could be seen as tokenistic if deeper cultural changes were not made.

"Holding a round to awareness of violence against women is performative, when the AFL is complicit in constructing Australia's misogyny problem," she said.

"We need national standards for how sporting clubs prevent and respond to violence against women, transparent reporting on clubs' compliance with those standards and we need governments to regulate that.

"Frankly, women in this country who love and play football, including those in the ALFW, deserve a competition that takes their safety as seriously as it takes the score."