Guilty before proven innocent.

I’m genuinely interested in hearing thoughts, and please by all means call me out if there is ignorance in my writings here, but I’ve just watched Dean Cox and Callum Mills apologise for the better part of 10 minutes to fans and supporters, but mainly to women as a whole.

One of the questions in the presser today was:

‘Does the AFL and the club have programs in place that teach men and talk to men about respect for women’

To which Callum Mills responded:

“What this has caused is for us to put the mirror up, to all men in society, and all men in the club, and that we need to do better”

The reporting on this saga, and reading comments in both r/AFL & r/sydneyswans, the general consensus is that the actions of the swans players is absolutely deplorable, and that this is another case of men across the world disrespecting women, and that this needs to be a broader conversation about how men treat women.

There is absolutely no place in our world for violence against women, sexual or non-sexual, but what exactly are they apologising to women as a whole for at this stage when there is only an allegation.

I’ve seen influencers and social commentators come out and absolutely smash the swans players and the club for a ‘clearly toxic culture and toxic attitude towards women’ based on what? An allegation?

The drug use is unacceptable. The overstepping of the boundaries of partying is unacceptable at this point of a season. There is no denying that.

Seeing the heaviness of the reporting and commentary around this saga has been confusing and conflicting for many that I’ve spoken to.

There seems to be an expectation that the players, the team, and on some the level the league will have to make amends with women based on what’s taken place, when we don’t actually even know what’s taken place.