Swans coach Dean Cox and captain Callum Mills are fronting a media conference on Friday morning for the first time since the alleged sexual assault scandal erupted.

Sydney has stood down players Riley Bice, Nick Blakey, Isaac Heeney, James Jordon and Chad Warner for the rest of the season for breaching club standards by drinking late into the night and bringing women to the hotel.

Cox started by expressing his and the club’s respect for women, and apologising to them.

“I would like to express the respect for women is of the highest priority for both myself personally and our football club,” Cox told a media pack outside Swans HQ.

“To those women involved, I hope everyone is getting the support they need.”

He vowed to restore the community’s faith in the club and its culture.

“Our culture isn’t perfect. One thing that we do know is our culture has taken a hit,” Cox said.

“The thing you need to understand about a culture is how you respond and the actions you take following being here.

“We going to work through as hard as we possibly can, to get the trust back from the community, to get the culture where we desire to be, where we once had been.”

‘Really disappointed’

A shattered-looking Mills also began by apologising to women.

“I’m deeply shocked and disappointed to be here,” Mills said.

“Firstly I want to apologise to the AFLW players, our female staff, and the women in our lives, our partners, mothers, our sisters, and all women within the community.

“We take these allegations extremely seriously and we hope the women involved are getting all the support they deserve.

“We really are disappointed at the action of these five players and as a playing group, we fully support the club’s decisions on the sanctions handed down.

“We take full responsibility and we are deeply sorry.”

He also said their colleagues in the AFLW team had been hurt by the scandal.

“I addressed the AFLW players, I acknowledged their pain and I deeply apologised for the actions of a few within our group,” Mills said.

He then said it shouldn’t overshadow the double header with both teams at the SCG on Sunday.

“I want to add it’s a historic weekend for the football club, it’s our first double header of AFLW and men’s program together on the SCG,” Mills said.

“And whilst this has overshadowed it, I think it’s an incredible powerful moment we come together and we celebrate that moment of AFLW,”

Police investigation

They are embroiled in a Victoria Police investigation after allegations of a sexual assault at the Pullman East Melbourne hotel in the early hours of Monday.

No one has been arrested and no charges have been laid. NewsWire is not accusing any players of sexual assault, only that they have been involved in the investigation.

Both Cox and Mills have made limited comments during the week, leaving the task of addressing the scandal to chief executive Matthew Pavlich and chair Andrew Pridham.

Sydney secured second spot on the ladder and at least two home finals after surviving a minor scare to ease past last-placed Essendon by 36 points at the MCG last Sunday evening.

But their finals campaign has been thrown into disarray, with fans turning on the team and sponsors walking away.

The Swans take on North Melbourne at home at the SCG on Sunday afternoon for the final game of the home and away season.

The Swans AFLW team, who is taking on Essendon in the second game of their season, has been given equal billing on Sunday in an SCG double-header, which has also been overshadowed by the scandal.

The team’s coach Colin O’Riordan and captain Lucy McEvoy will hold a press conference at 1.30pm on Friday.

More to come