Sydney Swans LIVE updates: Women’s and men’s team play first matches following week of scandal

12.02pm‘I think the women need support for what’s gone on’By Clare SibthorpeAs the gates opened, queues filed into the stadium, appearing largely in high spirits. Anthony and Gabrielle were two of the few people not dressed in red and white. The Melburnians’ team is the Carlton Football Club - the Swans are second.The couple said they don’t come to many AFL games, but they’re here today to support the women, and they’ll be walking out before the men’s first bounce.“I think the women need support for what’s gone on,” Gabrielle said.“I really do think that they would be feeling more vulnerable than normal because they never get the support like the men do, and of course that it will grow. But I hope, if anything possibly good can come from it, is that a lot of people get out this weekend and support the AFLW”.11.56amEarlier at the SCGBy Jonathan DrennanI arrived at the SCG early to take a walk around the precinct as I normally do before games and there was a healthy scattering of Swans fans arriving early ahead of the AFLW game.On Friday, the team’s coach Colin O’Riordan and captain Lucy McEvoy spoke powerfully about how the club had taken “a reputational hit”.Both McEvoy and O’Riordan also spoke about how united the club after last week and their hopes that fans come out in force to support their team on Sunday. The men and women’s teams will share the SCG for a double header for the very first time.The Swans are hoping to go for two successive wins after beating Adelaide in round one.Sydney Swans AFLW Coach Colin O’Riordan and captain Lucy McEvoy spoke to media on Friday afternoon.Getty11.46am‘Don’t abandon the club’: Swans fans ready to show support after week of turmoilBy The Giants and the Swans are the fiercest of rivals, but the Western Sydney club messaged their member this week to encourage them to come out and support today’s AFLW game at the SCG.Billie Eder spoke to a variety of fans ahead of today’s games, including a Giants fan who will be there to support both games and a Swans fan who will leave after the AFLW game.Read more here.Kate Bennett and Robert Sharp pose for a photograph at their home in SydneyGeorge Chan11.46am‘I’m proudly red and white until the day I’m in a box’: Swans fans speak ahead of gameBy Clare SibthorpeMore than an hour before the AFLW’s Sydney Swans are set to take on Essendon, dozens of die-hard fans queued up at the members’ gate.“Go the Swannies, all of the Swans,” one woman is heard yelling.Swans fan Owen Moynahan with son Osten (middle) and Osten’s friend JakobClare Sibthorpe Owen Moynahan has been a Swans member for 12 years and has attended most of their games for more than three decades. He said today was “very exciting”.“It’s not very often we get the ladies here, and so we’ve brought the family out to come and support the women’s team and the men’s team today. It should be a really good day,” he said.11.46amWelcomeBy Jonathan DrennanGood afternoon, it’s Jonathan Drennan and I will be bringing you through all of today’s action from the SCG after a tumultuous week for the Sydney Swans football club.I will be joined by my colleagues Vince Rugari and Clare Sibthorpe who are also at the stadium.Today was meant to be a day of celebration. It was the first time the club’s AFL and AFLW teams shared a doubleheader at the SCG and just the second time the women’s squad has played at the stadium.Instead, the Swans had arguably the worst week in their history after five Swans players – Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice – were suspended from play for the rest of this year for their part in the incident that unfolded in a Pullman East Melbourne hotel room in the early hours of last Monday.There are high hopes that the Swans AFLW team will break their home attendance record of 8264, which was set in their first game at North Sydney Oval in 2022.Sydney’s women’s team runs out for its first-round win over Adelaide at Unley Oval on the weekend.AFL Photos1 of 1