Latest / Outspoken the Podcast / The Sydney Swans Saga

Transcript

The Sydney Swans Saga · Outspoken the Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
0:06
Speaker 1: hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week.
0:10
Speaker 2: I'm Kate Torber.
0:11
Speaker 1: And I'm Sophie Torber and coming up on today's show,
0:14
Speaker 1: Sam Guggenheimer hits out at her former management and the
0:18
Speaker 1: AFL is rocked.
0:19
Speaker 2: By sexual assault allegations.
0:21
Speaker 1: But first, Sky Wheatley has shut down claims she's an alcoholic,
0:25
Speaker 1: declaring she's now sober and never wants to drink again.
0:29
Speaker 1: The revelation comes a week after news broke that she
0:31
Speaker 1: was charged with drink driving after blowing twice over the
0:35
Speaker 1: legal limit outside a McDonald's. Now, Skye appeared in the
0:38
Speaker 1: magistrate's court yesterday, Kate. We are pre-recording this episode, so
0:41
Speaker 1: we are yet to find out how that all has unfolded.
0:45
Speaker 1: What we do know, though, is that Skye was feeling
0:47
Speaker 1: very confident after hiring a new lawyer. Yeah, so during
0:50
Speaker 1: an update on her Instagram stories, Skye called her new
0:53
Speaker 1: lawyer an angel sent from the heavens. She even made
0:57
Speaker 1: the unorthodox move to publicly shout out the lawyer. tagging
1:01
Speaker 1: her Instagram account. Now, the lawyer in question is Belinda Robinson,
1:05
Speaker 1: and it seems like she has a bit in common
1:07
Speaker 1: with Sky. So they're both in their early 30s, and
1:10
Speaker 1: they've also both.
1:11
Speaker 2: Been on reality TV.
1:12
Speaker 1: So Belinda actually appeared on Jimmy Nicholson's series of The
1:16
Speaker 1: Bachelor in 2021. She only made it to episode two,
1:19
Speaker 1: but she made quite a dramatic exit. So she said,
1:22
Speaker 1: he's missed out on the shining light that I am.
1:25
Speaker 1: I hope that's how she acts in the courtroom, very
1:27
Speaker 1: dramatic like that, because that could be quite entertaining to watch.
1:30
Speaker 1: Going by what Sky said, it seems like they've really clicked.
1:33
Speaker 1: And I think it helps that Belinda isn't your typical lawyer.
1:36
Speaker 1: So she is the face of her own firm. I
1:39
Speaker 1: get the vibe she's all about generating publicity. On her
1:42
Speaker 1: professional Instagram, she shares a lot of news updates about
1:45
Speaker 1: entertainment cases. For instance, she posted an update about the
1:50
Speaker 1: trial involving Beauty and the Geek contestant Tamika Chesser. Now
1:53
Speaker 1: she's on trial for murder. And I want to point
1:56
Speaker 1: out that these aren't cases that Belinda is heading up.
1:58
Speaker 1: She's not involved in any of these cases. She just
2:00
Speaker 1: knows that they'll generate engagement and she obviously seems interested
2:04
Speaker 1: in them.
2:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it seems like she's.
2:05
Speaker 1: Quite excited to be involved in Skye Wheatley's case because
2:08
Speaker 1: no doubt it will generate a lot of headlines.
2:10
Speaker 2: Well, we're talking about it now.
2:13
Speaker 1: Now, this isn't the first lawyer to assist Skye with
2:15
Speaker 1: her drink driving case. She's revealed she originally had a
2:18
Speaker 1: male lawyer who she claimed wasn't getting shit done, nor
2:22
Speaker 1: was supportive enough for her. In contrast, she has gushed
2:26
Speaker 1: about how supportive and proactive Belinda is. Now, as you
2:29
Speaker 1: touched on earlier, Soph, Sky also used her Instagram story
2:32
Speaker 1: to shut down suggestions she is an alcoholic.
2:36
Speaker 2: Let's take a listen to what she said.
2:38
Speaker 3: I'm going to just tell you this. It's kind of
2:40
Speaker 3: like it's not a joke and it's like not funny.
2:45
Speaker 3: But I think that people genuinely think that I'm an alcoholic.
2:49
Speaker 3: I'm not an alcoholic. Like I don't drink every day.
2:52
Speaker 3: I just don't know my limits, which I think is
2:55
Speaker 3: fair to say. And it is very much an ADHD
2:58
Speaker 3: thing that like, and, and when I was doing this
3:01
Speaker 3: Q top course, I realized the reasons why I was
3:06
Speaker 3: drinking and it was to drown the pain.
3:09
Speaker 1: She then went on to say that she goes Monday
3:10
Speaker 1: to Friday without drinking unless she's making spag bol midweek.
3:14
Speaker 2: I'm guessing that's because she adds red wine to the
3:16
Speaker 2: sauce and has it sip herself. I'm guessing so.
3:19
Speaker 1: She then contradicted herself by telling this story about how
3:23
Speaker 1: she was offered a wine midweek at her best friend's
3:25
Speaker 1: house and her bestie's husband was shocked that she said no.
3:29
Speaker 2: Let's take a listen.
3:31
Speaker 3: Well, Skye, I.
3:33
Speaker 2: Really didn't think you had it in you.
3:35
Speaker 3: And he was genuinely being dead set serious and I was.
3:37
Speaker 2: Just like, Thank you so much. I think that's called
3:43
Speaker 2: verbal diarrhea. I mean, there were clearly a lot of
3:45
Speaker 2: in jokes, which didn't really land.
3:47
Speaker 1: She finished up by saying, I'm sober now. Like, so
3:50
Speaker 1: don't want to touch alcohol, not even one drink for
3:52
Speaker 1: the rest of my life. I'm actually really surprised that
3:55
Speaker 1: she's speaking so openly on her social media about the
3:58
Speaker 1: legal proceedings and how she's built her legal team. Because
4:01
Speaker 1: if anything, I think that the public aren't siding with
4:05
Speaker 1: Skye and On our recent reels where we covered the
4:08
Speaker 1: initial drink driving incident, people were angry at her and
4:12
Speaker 1: so they should be because this is a very serious incident.
4:15
Speaker 1: But I think that's why she's going on her Instagram
4:17
Speaker 1: story because she's been quite vulnerable. She's opening up and
4:20
Speaker 1: I think she is generating a little bit of sympathy
4:23
Speaker 1: her way.
4:23
Speaker 2: But how can you defend blowing two times over the
4:26
Speaker 2: legal limit?
4:27
Speaker 1: It's not that she's gone on her stories though and
4:29
Speaker 1: has defended her actions. If anything, she said she's really
4:32
Speaker 1: disappointed in herself. She said she's done the wrong thing.
4:34
Speaker 1: She's somewhat taken responsibility. But I think there is an
4:37
Speaker 1: element of now openly sharing, you know, that there's a
4:40
Speaker 1: lot going on in her life. She's talking a lot
4:42
Speaker 1: about going to therapy and learning things about herself. So
4:44
Speaker 1: I think she is trying to sway that public perception
4:47
Speaker 1: to have a bit of sympathy her way. One thing
4:49
Speaker 1: that stuck out to me over the last couple of
4:51
Speaker 1: weeks is Sky keeps referencing a best friend. And for years,
4:55
Speaker 1: Sky has referred to her longtime friend and business partner,
4:58
Speaker 1: Tori DeLong, as her best friend. Now, they had a
5:01
Speaker 1: falling out in October last year around the time Skye
5:04
Speaker 1: and her ex-boyfriend Lockie were on one of their many breaks. However,
5:08
Speaker 1: they rekindled their friendship a month later. However, at the moment,
5:11
Speaker 1: Tori is nowhere to be seen. And Skye keeps referring
5:15
Speaker 1: to this new friend, Tara Stratford, as her best friend.
5:18
Speaker 2: There's also another girl, Emily, that they've been hanging out with.
5:22
Speaker 2: Are you trying to allude that maybe Tori.
5:24
Speaker 1: is behind the Daily Mail leak that we spoke about
5:27
Speaker 1: last week.
5:28
Speaker 2: I actually didn't even think of that.
5:29
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to say, are you alluding
5:31
Speaker 1: that there might be some truth to the rumors that
5:33
Speaker 1: she and Lockie hooked up because Skye shut those down
5:35
Speaker 1: on her podcast a couple of months ago and I
5:37
Speaker 1: don't think that they are true at all. In terms
5:40
Speaker 1: of Skye's friendships though, she did make a dig about
5:43
Speaker 1: an old friend using her.
5:45
Speaker 2: Let's take a listen. This is not a therapy session,
5:48
Speaker 2: but like I actually haven't.
5:52
Speaker 4: I have not.
5:53
Speaker 3: Had many genuine friends in my life. Like I have,
5:57
Speaker 3: but majority of the time they're not and they want
6:02
Speaker 3: something and they use me and they.
6:08
Speaker 2: End up being fake.
6:11
Speaker 3: And yeah, it's fucked.
6:14
Speaker 5: It's fucked out here.
6:16
Speaker 2: I've heard her speak about this before.
6:19
Speaker 1: And how this is something that has troubled her since
6:21
Speaker 1: high school, just feeling like people are using you or
6:24
Speaker 1: don't actually like you. Well, she also mentioned that she
6:27
Speaker 1: got a text message from someone the other day saying
6:29
Speaker 1: we should go to dinner on Sugar Mama. And she
6:31
Speaker 1: said while the comment was meant as a joke, it
6:34
Speaker 1: actually brought up a lot of old trauma for her.
6:36
Speaker 1: Despite this text message, it seems like her new friends
6:39
Speaker 1: are really rallying behind her. The trio was actually out
6:42
Speaker 1: on Saturday night driving around listening to music in a car.
6:46
Speaker 1: Now Sky uploaded a video of her sitting in the
6:49
Speaker 1: back of the car while her friends blared rap music
6:52
Speaker 1: and it looked like they were having a bit of
6:54
Speaker 1: a dance party in the car. I don't think it
6:56
Speaker 1: was a good look. One passenger was whipping her hair
6:58
Speaker 1: back and forth. The driver drove with one hand on
7:01
Speaker 1: the wheel and the other was pointing to the music
7:04
Speaker 1: and you could hear Sky screaming and singing from the
7:06
Speaker 1: back seat.
7:07
Speaker 2: It looked like they were out partying.
7:09
Speaker 1: Sky didn't share any other Instagram stories after this initial post.
7:13
Speaker 1: So we don't know if they were on their way
7:14
Speaker 1: out to a club. I mean, potentially they could have
7:17
Speaker 1: just been having a fun time in their car themselves,
7:20
Speaker 1: but it didn't really look good considering Sky is facing
7:24
Speaker 1: drink driving charges and her and her friends are sort
7:26
Speaker 1: of driving around. I'm not suggesting that they were breaking
7:29
Speaker 1: road rules, but you know, things looked a bit wild
7:32
Speaker 1: in the car.
7:33
Speaker 2: It's just the optic wasn't good.
7:34
Speaker 1: Yeah. She's trying to avoid jail time. Don't look like
7:37
Speaker 1: you're then partying it up in another car. It looks
7:39
Speaker 1: like you're not really reflective or remorseful for what's going on.
7:43
Speaker 1: I just think I'd be having a bit of a
7:44
Speaker 1: social media hiatus at this point. Yeah.
7:46
Speaker 2: I mean, she's clearly not in a very good space
7:48
Speaker 2: at the moment.
7:49
Speaker 1: As I touched on earlier, she's been talking a lot
7:51
Speaker 1: about her therapy sessions. In this most recent Instagram story,
7:55
Speaker 1: she spoke about how She ended up going overtime in
7:58
Speaker 1: a two-hour therapy session because she was bawling her eyes
8:00
Speaker 1: out so much and she didn't want the session to end.
8:03
Speaker 1: She also made a comment about how this drink driving
8:06
Speaker 1: incident has come as a major setback during a time
8:08
Speaker 1: where she.
8:09
Speaker 2: Is already going through, quote, a literal mental breakdown.
8:12
Speaker 1: Presumably this is about her breakup with Lockie Waugh and
8:15
Speaker 1: their subsequent living situation. Yeah, because they've been splitting their
8:18
Speaker 1: time between living at their house with their kids. On
8:20
Speaker 1: the other days that Sky's not there, she has been
8:23
Speaker 1: living with her mum. Yeah, and on Friday night, her
8:25
Speaker 1: and her mum were out grocery shopping and Skye shared
8:28
Speaker 1: that she almost left her phone in the trolley.
8:31
Speaker 2: She said she.
8:31
Speaker 1: Chucked it into a Woolies bag because she was just
8:34
Speaker 1: so over the conversation she was having with someone on
8:37
Speaker 1: the phone.
8:38
Speaker 2: She then said this.
8:38
Speaker 5: Because I'm doing this thing with this particular person, it's
8:43
Speaker 5: someone really close to me, a big, big, someone who's
8:48
Speaker 5: had a big impact on my life and I'm just
8:52
Speaker 5: obsessing and hyper fixating and getting a really bad anxious attachment,
9:00
Speaker 5: really bad anxious attachment.
9:02
Speaker 2: Like it's getting really bad.
9:03
Speaker 4: So I'm like, stop.
9:05
Speaker 3: I've calmed down now.
9:06
Speaker 5: I'm like, let go, Sky.
9:09
Speaker 3: Let it go.
9:10
Speaker 1: Let go.
9:13
Speaker 5: I can't let go.
9:15
Speaker 2: Does this mean they're getting back together?
9:18
Speaker 1: I don't think they are because also she dropped in
9:21
Speaker 1: another Instagram update. that she had a woman coming over
9:24
Speaker 1: to look at the house who wants to move in
9:26
Speaker 1: on the 21st of September. So Sky reiterated that it
9:30
Speaker 1: really is crunch time. I mean, I don't think that
9:32
Speaker 1: that means that a reconciliation is totally off the cards
9:35
Speaker 1: because I think the house has been the centre of
9:38
Speaker 1: a lot of their issues, the renovating.
9:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's the only thing that's keeping them together,
9:42
Speaker 2: I think. Well, they're kids. Sorry, my bad.
9:45
Speaker 1: It's one of the things keeping them together because when
9:48
Speaker 1: they broke up at the end of last year, Sky
9:51
Speaker 1: basically said they ended up getting back together because it
9:54
Speaker 1: was just too difficult to do the renovations while they
9:56
Speaker 1: were fighting. So it seems like this house has always
9:58
Speaker 1: provided a band-aid. And if they sell it, I don't
10:02
Speaker 1: think that they're going to get back together.
10:05
Speaker 4: I had my life rocked in August 2025. The people
10:10
Speaker 4: that I thought were the closest to me weren't the
10:12
Speaker 4: closest to me.
10:14
Speaker 1: Sam Guggenheimer has issued a warning to young creators signing
10:17
Speaker 1: with agencies. Read your contract. The 24-year-old influencer opened up
10:22
Speaker 1: further about a legal battle between her and her management,
10:26
Speaker 1: which she says rocked her life. Now, Kate, it was
10:29
Speaker 1: back in April that Sam first spoke about.
10:31
Speaker 2: This legal battle. Yeah, that's right.
10:33
Speaker 1: So during a podcast episode, she claimed that she had
10:35
Speaker 1: been silenced due to ongoing legal and representation issues dating
10:39
Speaker 1: back to June 2025. Why did I get in my
10:42
Speaker 1: head silent or silenced? Now, it seems like the legal
10:46
Speaker 1: dispute has been somewhat resolved as on the weekend, Sam
10:49
Speaker 1: divulged details about the case. Now, for legal reasons, we
10:52
Speaker 1: won't be naming Sam's former management agency We also want
10:56
Speaker 1: to reiterate, these are allegations made by Sam and have
10:58
Speaker 1: not been independently verified. Now let's get into the allegations.
11:02
Speaker 1: So Sam said she was just 19 when she was
11:05
Speaker 1: approached by the agency. At the time, she had around
11:09
Speaker 1: 50,000 followers and was just doing social media on the side.
11:12
Speaker 2: So she was working at Kukai.
11:15
Speaker 1: She ended up having a meeting with the agency and
11:17
Speaker 1: said that she signed the contract immediately because she was
11:20
Speaker 1: so excited by it. She admitted she didn't read the
11:23
Speaker 1: contract properly and was unaware it was a rolling contract
11:27
Speaker 1: rather than.
11:27
Speaker 2: A fixed term contract.
11:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, so for those not familiar with rolling contracts, they're
11:31
Speaker 1: quite common in the industry. So they generally renew automatically
11:35
Speaker 1: after the initial terms unless one party gives notice to
11:38
Speaker 1: end it.
11:39
Speaker 2: Sam said she only.
11:40
Speaker 1: Became aware of this clause when she attempted to terminate
11:43
Speaker 1: the contract after she was unhappy with with proposed changes
11:46
Speaker 1: to her revenue share from the agency.
11:49
Speaker 2: Now, Sam claims in.
11:50
Speaker 1: June 2025, while she was living in London, she received
11:53
Speaker 1: an email saying that the agency was increasing their revenue
11:56
Speaker 1: percentage share due to inflation and management costs. According to Sam,
12:00
Speaker 1: a lot of influencers ended up leaving the agency over
12:04
Speaker 1: this proposed change. So she followed suit and gave notice
12:07
Speaker 1: to the agency. And she says that the agency accepted
12:10
Speaker 1: that notice. However, she alleges that she later received an
12:14
Speaker 1: email from her former agency stating that she was still
12:17
Speaker 1: in contract until October 2026.
12:20
Speaker 2: Due to the rolling nature of the contract.
12:22
Speaker 1: Now, Sam alleges the agency told her that if she
12:25
Speaker 1: didn't see out the contract, then she could be liable
12:27
Speaker 1: for close to $ 200, 000 based on projected lost earnings. It
12:31
Speaker 1: was at this point that she then enlisted the help
12:34
Speaker 1: of lawyers to try and get her out of the contract.
12:37
Speaker 2: Sam said this about the experience.
12:40
Speaker 4: Fucking damaged me going through a massive legal case over
12:46
Speaker 4: something you signed when you were 19 and didn't understand
12:52
Speaker 4: the extremities of it. And then I ended up finding
12:55
Speaker 4: that contract and reading it through and realizing it was
12:58
Speaker 4: not protecting me as an individual at all. And it
13:02
Speaker 4: quite literally screwed up my whole life.
13:05
Speaker 2: It's a tough one.
13:06
Speaker 1: I think it is a good warning to young creators
13:09
Speaker 1: to actually read the contract that is in place. I
13:12
Speaker 1: don't necessarily think it's the agency's fault though for her
13:15
Speaker 1: not reading the contract. I feel for Sam in the
13:17
Speaker 1: fact that 19 is so young and I can imagine
13:20
Speaker 1: how exciting it would be to be approached by this
13:22
Speaker 1: agency and you'd be just wanting to quickly sign and
13:25
Speaker 1: get all these perks. But I'm quite torn because she's
13:29
Speaker 1: packaging it up as this cautionary tale that she claims
13:32
Speaker 1: she's sharing in a bid to protect other young women.
13:35
Speaker 1: But The advice that she handed out wasn't really that helpful.
13:39
Speaker 1: So she told her followers to read their contracts properly
13:41
Speaker 1: and advocate for themselves, which is good advice. But then
13:44
Speaker 1: she said, oh, get your parents or chat GPT to
13:47
Speaker 1: read over the contract. Now, if I'd gone through this
13:50
Speaker 1: legal case, I'd be saying, get a lawyer to read
13:52
Speaker 1: over it. I think she's just saying chat GPT because
13:55
Speaker 1: a lot of young vulnerable people probably couldn't afford to
13:58
Speaker 1: get a lawyer. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
14:00
Speaker 1: I mean, you're obsessed with ChatGPT.
14:02
Speaker 2: What are you going on about?
14:03
Speaker 1: I am, but you can actually open yourself up to
14:06
Speaker 1: further legal issues if you do put confidential documents into ChatGPT.
14:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you don't have to put the whole document.
14:11
Speaker 2: You could just put a few clauses or lines in
14:13
Speaker 2: there without anyone's names.
14:15
Speaker 1: Yeah. I know it's cynical, but I can't help feel
14:18
Speaker 1: that this is a part of a comeback strategy to
14:20
Speaker 1: help change her image because she has been getting a
14:22
Speaker 1: bad rap online for The last couple of years, I
14:25
Speaker 1: think it mainly resulted.
14:26
Speaker 2: From her friendship breakdown with Izzy Armitage. You know, she
14:29
Speaker 2: called it out herself.
14:30
Speaker 1: She said she's been acting like a mean girl after
14:32
Speaker 1: she was cancelled over those fat phobic comments that she
14:35
Speaker 1: shared that her bestie Bill Barker made. But I feel
14:39
Speaker 1: like she's trying to blame it on the agency because
14:41
Speaker 1: she said, oh, you know, I was feeling really angry
14:43
Speaker 1: about this legal battle. And, you know, I didn't present
14:47
Speaker 1: myself online the way I would have wanted to because
14:49
Speaker 1: of it. But surely you've got to take a little
14:52
Speaker 1: bit of responsibility for the way you act in other situations.
14:55
Speaker 2: It can't all be because of this legal case. Yeah,
14:57
Speaker 2: I totally get what you mean.
14:59
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, I think that
15:00
Speaker 1: she's obviously speaking about this legal case now because it
15:03
Speaker 1: is something... large that's been going on in her life
15:06
Speaker 1: behind the scenes that she can only open up about
15:08
Speaker 1: now for legal reasons. She just made this comment like, oh,
15:12
Speaker 1: you know, my old management can't take away the connection
15:14
Speaker 1: that I've built with my community. And I miss being
15:17
Speaker 1: everyone's best friend and the girl that I used to be.
15:20
Speaker 1: I just think she's flattening it a bit to say, oh,
15:22
Speaker 1: all of my issues have stemmed from this one legal case.
15:25
Speaker 1: And it's difficult because we've only heard Sam's side of
15:28
Speaker 1: the story In terms of the agency, do you think
15:31
Speaker 1: that their conduct has been reasonable in terms of her contract? Well,
15:34
Speaker 1: it's really difficult to say because we've only heard Sam's
15:36
Speaker 1: side of the story. I mean, we don't know what
15:39
Speaker 1: the agency told Sam about the contract initially and whether
15:42
Speaker 1: the terms were adequately.
15:44
Speaker 2: Explained to her.
15:45
Speaker 1: It's difficult to comment because we haven't seen the contract.
15:47
Speaker 1: I can understand why influencers would have been allegedly leaving
15:50
Speaker 1: this agency in their droves if they just had the
15:53
Speaker 1: power to suddenly change the percentage that they were receiving
15:56
Speaker 1: from brand deals.
15:57
Speaker 2: Because That would be a substantial amount of money.
15:59
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, though, I think that
16:01
Speaker 1: this is just a big lesson to read your contract.
16:05
Speaker 1: The AFL has been rocked by allegations of sexual assault
16:09
Speaker 1: against Sydney Swans players. Three female adult entertainers allege they
16:13
Speaker 1: were booked by the star players and then subjected to
16:15
Speaker 1: disgusting and abhorrent behaviour. So if this is absolutely massive news,
16:20
Speaker 1: how did it unfold? Well, on Monday night, news broke
16:23
Speaker 1: that Sydney Swans players were being investigated for over an
16:26
Speaker 1: alleged sexual assault at the Pullman Hotel near the MCG. Now,
16:30
Speaker 1: the players and club officials stayed overnight at the hotel
16:34
Speaker 1: following their win against Essendon. Now, a couple of days later,
16:38
Speaker 1: the club announced that it had suspended five players for
16:41
Speaker 1: the rest of the AFL season for breaching club standards
16:44
Speaker 1: for drinking and bringing women to the hotel. Now, the
16:47
Speaker 1: five players stood down were Vice Captain Isaac Heaney, Chad Warner,
16:52
Speaker 1: Nick Blakey, James Jordan and Riley Bice. And for those
16:55
Speaker 1: not across the footy world, these are big name players.
16:58
Speaker 1: These aren't your rookies. Yeah, when news broke, but they
17:01
Speaker 1: hadn't yet named the players, I didn't anticipate they would
17:05
Speaker 1: be such big names, particularly because there were five involved.
17:09
Speaker 2: For some reason, I thought, oh, maybe they'll be rookie players.
17:11
Speaker 4: Yeah.
17:11
Speaker 1: Now, as the week has gone on, more details of
17:14
Speaker 1: the night have started to emerge. The media are reporting
17:17
Speaker 1: that three female adult entertainers were hired in the early
17:21
Speaker 1: hours of the morning for lap dances. One of the
17:24
Speaker 1: women alleges multiple incidents of sexual assault took place in
17:28
Speaker 1: the hotel room. The three women reported the incident to
17:31
Speaker 1: Victoria Police and said sexual acts beyond what they were
17:34
Speaker 1: paid to perform took place. Multiple senior police sources have
17:38
Speaker 1: also told the ABC they understand an arrangement was allegedly
17:42
Speaker 1: reached in a hotel room for players to pay extra
17:46
Speaker 1: to take drugs, believed to be cocaine, from the women's
17:49
Speaker 1: breasts and buttocks. I do want to point out that
17:52
Speaker 1: these claims have been reported, but they are not proven.
17:55
Speaker 2: Well, this is an ongoing investigation.
17:57
Speaker 1: Reports are also emerging that the Swans players allegedly told
18:01
Speaker 1: the entertainers that they were carpenters and could not pay
18:04
Speaker 1: the full rate. It is believed that one of the
18:06
Speaker 1: entertainers was also allegedly locked out of the room whilst naked.
18:11
Speaker 1: And she was the entertainer who allegedly raised the alarm
18:15
Speaker 1: to Swans officials at the hotel and Now, it's been
18:19
Speaker 1: reported that one of the entertainers is believed to have
18:22
Speaker 1: suffered an asthma attack during the booking. Her father told
18:26
Speaker 1: the media she was struggling for breath, so sought aid
18:29
Speaker 1: from hotel staff. I need to point out that no
18:32
Speaker 1: arrests have been made and charges are yet to be
18:35
Speaker 1: laid against the Sydney Swans players. The exact circumstances of
18:39
Speaker 1: the incident are still to be determined, but what we
18:42
Speaker 1: have outlined is what is being reported in the media
18:45
Speaker 1: thus far. I also want to point out that none
18:47
Speaker 1: of the five players have been formally interviewed by police,
18:50
Speaker 1: but they have reportedly spoken to investigators. The most recent
18:55
Speaker 1: reports claim that there were up to nine men in
18:57
Speaker 1: the hotel room. The Sydney Swans has come out and
19:00
Speaker 1: insisted that only five of them were currently listed players.
19:04
Speaker 1: So the identities of the other men are not known. Now,
19:07
Speaker 1: recently it's also been announced that the five players will
19:09
Speaker 1: be banned from attending the Brownlow. I mean, that doesn't
19:12
Speaker 1: come as a surprise. I don't think that they would
19:14
Speaker 1: be attending even if they were allowed to. Now, when
19:17
Speaker 1: the news broke, media began instantly speculating what this means
19:21
Speaker 1: for Sydney's season, because at that point they sat second
19:24
Speaker 1: on the ladder. And They really were grand final contenders.
19:28
Speaker 1: And there was this real heavy focus on the game
19:30
Speaker 1: rather than the impact that this alleged incident had on
19:33
Speaker 1: the women at the centre of it. This style of
19:37
Speaker 1: reporting received immediate backlash. Abby Chatfield articulated it so well.
19:42
Speaker 1: Let's take a listen to what she said.
19:44
Speaker 6: Right now, there is a prioritisation of the impact that
19:50
Speaker 6: this alleged incident will have on the game, the game
19:54
Speaker 6: where they throw a ball around. That impact is being
19:58
Speaker 6: prioritised over the impact this incident could potentially have had
20:05
Speaker 6: on the alleged victims.
20:09
Speaker 2: Sadly, I wasn't really surprised by the coverage.
20:11
Speaker 1: I expected this, particularly from the mainstream media and the
20:15
Speaker 1: sports world.
20:16
Speaker 2: At the end of the day, they care more about football.
20:19
Speaker 2: Football is life for them.
20:20
Speaker 1: They don't care about alleged victims or women. I mean,
20:23
Speaker 1: that is what this essentially is about. I actually did
20:26
Speaker 1: my master's thesis on the tabloidization and celebritization of the
20:30
Speaker 1: AFL media and This was 15 years ago. And I
20:33
Speaker 1: only think it's recently that we've seen a shift in
20:36
Speaker 1: how media report. And that is solely down to social media.
20:40
Speaker 1: Because if Abby Chatfield didn't come out and call out
20:43
Speaker 1: this behavior from the media, they would have just continued
20:45
Speaker 1: as normal. Yeah, I did notice that the tone slightly
20:48
Speaker 1: changed after Abby Chatfield's video and a couple of other
20:52
Speaker 1: high profile women spoke out against it. Now, I want
20:55
Speaker 1: to talk about Isaac Heaney because he is reportedly at
20:58
Speaker 1: the centre of the police investigation. Out of all of
21:02
Speaker 1: the five Swans players involved, his dramatic fall from grace
21:05
Speaker 1: has received the most media attention. Well, he's the most well-known,
21:09
Speaker 1: isn't he? He's the vice captain. Well, before this alleged incident,
21:12
Speaker 1: the 30-year-old had a pretty squeaky clean reputation. Back in 2024,
21:16
Speaker 1: Batuta Advocate touted him as the clean-cut nice boy that
21:20
Speaker 1: all mums would want their daughters to date. I mean,
21:22
Speaker 1: That headline has not aged well.
21:24
Speaker 2: He's a bit of a fan favourite at the Swans.
21:27
Speaker 1: And it's not just because he's good on the field.
21:29
Speaker 1: I mean, last year he was the leading goal kicker.
21:31
Speaker 1: He's a three-time All-Australian player. But he was viewed as
21:35
Speaker 1: a very wholesome role model for kids. He even writes kids' books. Yeah,
21:40
Speaker 1: I mean, he has a huge online social media presence.
21:43
Speaker 1: He's got 114,000 followers on Instagram. And that's led him
21:47
Speaker 1: to sign a lot of lucrative endorsement deals. And as
21:50
Speaker 1: you said, Kate, even release a kid's book. Since the
21:53
Speaker 1: alleged incident, Nike, Colgate and Telstra have suspended sponsorship deals
21:58
Speaker 1: with the forward. His publisher has also suspended publishing of
22:02
Speaker 1: his third book while the police investigation is underway. Before
22:05
Speaker 1: this alleged incident, it also appeared that Isaac's personal life
22:09
Speaker 1: was flourishing. So in October, he proposed to his long-term girlfriend,
22:12
Speaker 1: Stephanie Waters, and the.
22:14
Speaker 2: Proposal looked picture perfect.
22:16
Speaker 1: He popped the question on the beach during a romantic
22:19
Speaker 1: off-season holiday in French Polynesia. The couple captioned the post
22:23
Speaker 1: beyond grateful. Now, Stephanie is what you would expect. She
22:26
Speaker 1: is absolutely stunning.
22:27
Speaker 2: She and Isaac had Barbie and Ken vibes going on.
22:30
Speaker 1: They're both very blonde. She has a following of her own.
22:33
Speaker 1: So she has over 30,000 followers on Instagram. The majority
22:37
Speaker 1: of her content is happy snaps with Isaac. There are
22:40
Speaker 1: a lot of overseas trips on Instagram as well as
22:43
Speaker 1: awards night. Her life looked very glamorous. There was one
22:47
Speaker 1: photo that made headlines last year though. So at Christmas time,
22:50
Speaker 1: the couple don matching jumpers. Isaac's had the phrase official
22:54
Speaker 1: stocking stuffer across it, while Stephanie's read I'm the stocking.
22:58
Speaker 1: Now at the time, the photo was seen as playful
23:01
Speaker 1: and lighthearted, but there really is a different vibe to
23:03
Speaker 1: it now.
23:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably would have archived that one.
23:07
Speaker 1: What I've been finding increasingly uncomfortable is how much of
23:10
Speaker 1: the media attention has now been focused on Stephanie. So
23:14
Speaker 1: Since the news broke on Monday, the press and paparazzi
23:17
Speaker 1: have been hunting her down. Not only has her face
23:20
Speaker 1: been plastered all over the front pages of newspapers across
23:23
Speaker 1: the country, but the media have been tracking her every move.
23:27
Speaker 2: That's the thing.
23:27
Speaker 1: I don't actually think I could identify by picture the
23:31
Speaker 1: four other Swans players involved, but I could definitely identify her.
23:34
Speaker 1: I feel uncomfortable that they've been using her engagement photo
23:37
Speaker 1: on the front page of the paper. It's kind of
23:39
Speaker 1: this gotcha moment, this humiliation that Can you believe that
23:43
Speaker 1: you thought you were engaged to this nice guy and
23:46
Speaker 1: then all of these allegations have come out? I mean,
23:49
Speaker 1: Abby Chatfield has spoken out about, hey, we need to
23:52
Speaker 1: think about the women at the center of these allegations.
23:55
Speaker 1: And the media have gone, okay, okay, that's what the
23:58
Speaker 1: public want. They want us to take these allegations seriously
24:01
Speaker 1: and talk about the effect it has on women.
24:03
Speaker 2: But then in the next breath, we're going, oh, look
24:06
Speaker 2: at all these women that dated these guys. What idiots
24:09
Speaker 2: they are.
24:09
Speaker 1: Yeah.
24:10
Speaker 2: And it's about them. It's almost like they're the ones
24:13
Speaker 2: under investigation. It just seems to be this weird glee
24:16
Speaker 2: involved in the reporting.
24:18
Speaker 1: There's sort of this tone, well, you should have known
24:20
Speaker 1: better than for dating an AFL player. What did you expect?
24:22
Speaker 1: Like I have really felt that sense of glee amongst
24:25
Speaker 1: a lot of this reporting. And it's pretty disturbing because
24:28
Speaker 1: on Friday, the Daily Mail tracked Stephanie down. So- They
24:33
Speaker 1: reported that she had fled her Sydney home that she
24:36
Speaker 1: shares with Isaac amid the fallout and that she'd sought
24:39
Speaker 1: refuge at her sister's secluded mountain property on the outskirts
24:43
Speaker 1: of Noosa.
24:44
Speaker 2: And they described her as distraught and shattered. As you
24:47
Speaker 2: would be. Her face is all over this story. I
24:50
Speaker 2: don't understand why media are centering the wives and girlfriends
24:54
Speaker 2: of these AFL players in this reporting. Because attractive women
24:59
Speaker 2: sell newspapers.
25:00
Speaker 1: At the moment, the media can't focus on the alleged
25:02
Speaker 1: victims involved, so they're going to bring the AFL players'
25:05
Speaker 1: partners into it. Now, it really didn't take long for
25:08
Speaker 1: the Daily Mail paps to locate Stephanie Inusa. They captured
25:12
Speaker 1: vision of her taking a phone call outside a parked car.
25:15
Speaker 1: She was visibly in tears, and they honed in on
25:18
Speaker 1: the fact that she wasn't wearing her engagement ring. So
25:22
Speaker 1: they speculated that she ditched it and was reconsidering the engagement.
25:26
Speaker 1: Word on the street actually is that she hasn't been
25:28
Speaker 1: wearing her engagement ring for weeks because apparently the diamond
25:31
Speaker 1: fell out. So I don't know if there is much
25:33
Speaker 1: of a story there. I don't know if it's indicative
25:36
Speaker 1: of where the relationship stands. The fact that the diamond
25:39
Speaker 1: fell out recently just seems like such a bad sign.
25:43
Speaker 1: Trolls have really been targeting her online, which again, I
25:46
Speaker 1: don't understand. She's had to turn off comments on her
25:48
Speaker 1: most recent posts, but comments remain on older photos. Now,
25:52
Speaker 1: the majority of the comments are urging her to break
25:54
Speaker 1: up with Isaac and telling her to run, while another
25:57
Speaker 1: criticized her for supposedly not sticking up for women. I
26:00
Speaker 1: think a lot of corners of the internet were hoping
26:03
Speaker 1: for a bit of a Jules Neal moment from some
26:06
Speaker 1: of these partners. They were thinking that maybe they'd share
26:09
Speaker 1: some sort of fuck you to their other halves. But
26:12
Speaker 1: I think we need to remember that an active police
26:14
Speaker 1: investigation is underway and I think that these women are
26:17
Speaker 1: being careful not to centre themselves in this story and
26:20
Speaker 1: they don't want to jeopardise the investigation. They're also having
26:23
Speaker 1: to come to terms with what's gone down. They probably
26:25
Speaker 1: don't have all of the information at hand.
26:28
Speaker 2: That's what we've.
26:28
Speaker 1: Got to remember, that there are real people involved in
26:31
Speaker 1: this situation and these women are finding out in real time,
26:34
Speaker 1: like everyone else, what's been going down. Well, I mean,
26:36
Speaker 1: we have to be careful about what we say for
26:38
Speaker 1: legal reasons, but if what is being reported is true,
26:42
Speaker 1: these women are dealing with unfaithful partners and have been
26:45
Speaker 1: deeply disrespected and in turn humiliated in the press. So
26:49
Speaker 1: they have a lot on their plate at the moment.
26:51
Speaker 1: I don't think now is the right time for them
26:53
Speaker 1: to be commenting publicly on anything. Can you imagine if
26:57
Speaker 1: you were one of these Sydney Swans players' partners and
26:59
Speaker 1: say the allegations are true, as we've said, the police
27:02
Speaker 1: investigation is still going on, we don't know what is true,
27:05
Speaker 1: what is not, but it would be very difficult to
27:08
Speaker 1: come to terms with what's going on while the media
27:10
Speaker 1: are hounding you and you're being trolled online.
27:13
Speaker 2: It would be very difficult to deal with.
27:15
Speaker 1: I mean, she probably would want space from Isaac, time
27:18
Speaker 1: to think about what's allegedly gone on. I just can't
27:22
Speaker 1: even begin to imagine the torture of dealing with this.
27:25
Speaker 1: And then you've got paparazzi taking photos of you and
27:27
Speaker 1: speculating whether you've got your ring on or it's not on.
27:31
Speaker 2: It's just awful.
27:32
Speaker 1: Obviously, we would like to go into more detail about
27:35
Speaker 1: the female adult entertainers at the centre of this story,
27:38
Speaker 1: but for legal reasons, we don't want to jeopardise the
27:40
Speaker 1: case in any way. So we will hopefully speak about
27:44
Speaker 1: this at another time when the case has been resolved.
27:47
Speaker 1: I want to say though, I don't think we've ever
27:50
Speaker 1: spoken so much about AFL until this year. At the
27:52
Speaker 1: start of the year, it was the Lockie Neal cheating saga.
27:56
Speaker 1: And most recently it was Bailey Smith being caught out
27:59
Speaker 1: for being a serial dater. And I think that this
28:02
Speaker 1: most recent alleged incident has just to expose this systemic
28:07
Speaker 1: and insidious culture within AFL clubs when it comes to
28:10
Speaker 1: their treatment of women. Also recently, we had OnlyFans creator
28:14
Speaker 1: Annie Knight calling out a bunch of AFL players for
28:17
Speaker 1: sliding into her DMs. One of those was allegedly Bailey Smith.
28:20
Speaker 1: The other was Clayton Oliver. And off the back of it,
28:24
Speaker 1: we spoke about how he took a leaf out of
28:27
Speaker 1: Bailey Smith's book and somewhat turned it into a bit
28:29
Speaker 1: of a joke. And he was filmed in the change
28:33
Speaker 1: room singing Annie, Are You Okay? And at the time
28:36
Speaker 1: we discussed how it seemed like a PR move from
28:39
Speaker 1: him to try and disarm Annie's attempt at embarrassing him.
28:43
Speaker 1: But what made us feel uncomfortable was the fact that
28:45
Speaker 1: he flipped that embarrassment back onto her by making her
28:49
Speaker 1: the punchline.
28:50
Speaker 2: And it seems like that. happened with Bailey Smith saga.
28:53
Speaker 1: You know, he ended up making a bit of a
28:55
Speaker 1: joke about the fact that two girls he was dating
28:57
Speaker 1: called him out for taking selfies at the same spot.
29:00
Speaker 2: And it was almost like, oh, well, we'll forgive you
29:03
Speaker 2: because you're this lovable larrikin. You're a hot AFL player.
29:07
Speaker 2: You can do no wrong.
29:08
Speaker 1: It's normal for AFL players to be womanizers and date.
29:12
Speaker 2: A bunch of women. I mean, it's the whole boys
29:14
Speaker 2: will be boys mentality.
29:15
Speaker 1: And you just have to look at the history of
29:17
Speaker 1: how some AFL players have treated their partners. And women
29:20
Speaker 1: that they've come into contact. There's this clear feeling that
29:23
Speaker 1: they can get away with it. They have the money,
29:25
Speaker 1: the status. They're made to feel like they're gods and
29:28
Speaker 1: that the rules don't apply to them. Well, you just
29:30
Speaker 1: have to look at the way the AFL have welcomed
29:33
Speaker 1: back with open arms the likes of former players Wayne
29:35
Speaker 1: Carey and Ben Cousins. I mean, Ben Cousins has multiple
29:39
Speaker 1: criminal convictions. against him, mostly to do with his former partner.
29:43
Speaker 1: Wayne Carey has been charged with assaulting a woman. It
29:47
Speaker 1: just says a lot, doesn't it? Well, it just shows
29:50
Speaker 1: that they're forgiven and everything will blow over in time.
29:53
Speaker 1: I mean, a lot of people are saying, oh, this
29:55
Speaker 1: is the end of these players careers we'll just be
29:58
Speaker 1: we'll just see them picked up by other clubs at
29:59
Speaker 1: the end of the day everyone will forget about it
30:01
Speaker 1: or in the commentary team in 10 years time yeah
30:04
Speaker 1: exactly the thing that always stands out to me when
30:06
Speaker 1: i watch the brown low is just how much some
30:08
Speaker 1: of these players are punching when it comes to their
30:11
Speaker 1: partners i mean these women are absolute glamazons they also
30:14
Speaker 1: are very intelligent and most time have their own businesses
30:18
Speaker 1: and very successful careers And a lot of the time,
30:21
Speaker 1: these AFL players are willing to risk their relationship with
30:25
Speaker 1: these women because they think they can.
30:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it just shows a lack of respect there.
30:30
Speaker 1: I bet there are a lot of players in other
30:32
Speaker 1: sporting codes who are absolutely rattled by the media storm
30:35
Speaker 1: and stance that the AFL has taken on this matter. Well,
30:38
Speaker 1: that is where we're going to leave things today. But
30:40
Speaker 1: if you want to hear more from us, we drop
30:42
Speaker 1: a subscriber-only episode every Thursday for Outspoken Plus subscribers. All
30:46
Speaker 1: the details to sign up are in our show notes.
30:49
Speaker 1: This podcast was recorded on the traditional land of the
30:51
Speaker 1: Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We pay respect to
30:54
Speaker 1: elders past and present.