Published: 12:16 BST, 20 August 2026 | Updated: 21:20 BST, 20 August 2026
One of the three lap dancers who provided official statements to police over the Sydney Swans hotel scandal has spoken exclusively to Daily Mail, revealing she feared for her life after her identity was leaked online.
The young woman, whom the Mail has chosen not to name, claims she was at Melbourne's Pullman Hotel in the early hours of Monday after being hired as a topless waitress to entertain several AFL players, who had claimed they were tradies.
Since her name was exposed online, she says she has received a barrage of threats from angry Swans fans who are convinced that the scandal has derailed their team's chances of winning the Grand Final.
'There is one particular person who has messaged me and commented on one of my photos and even contacted my dad,' the dancer said.
'My identity should not be out there. I am in a lot of danger. Some AFL fans are very angry about this and I don't know what they may do.'
Detectives from Victoria Police's sex crimes squad have travelled to Sydney to interview the players involved.
Swans player Isaac Heeney (above, with fiancée Steffie Waters), who voluntarily spoke with police on Monday, was identified on Wednesday as the main focus of the police investigation
One of the three lap dancers who provided official statements to police over the Sydney Swans hotel scandal has spoken exclusively to Daily Mail (stock image)
Isaac Heeney, who voluntarily spoke with police on Monday before returning to Sydney, was identified on Wednesday as the main focus of the police investigation.
However, the dancer who spoke with this masthead said her concerns related to someone other than Heeney.
Heeney and teammates Chad Warner, Riley Bice, Nick Blakey and James Jordon have been stood down for the remainder of the 2026 AFL season after the club found the players had breached its standards by staying out late, drinking and bringing women back to the Pullman East Melbourne hotel early Monday morning.
The women have since said there were a total of nine people in the room and that they gave a discount on their usual fee because they were told the group worked as carpenters, despite some being on AFL contracts worth more than a million dollars.
Amid the fallout, a viral WhatsApp message, purporting to be from someone who was at the Pullman hotel on Monday, claims that a woman in the lobby was overheard telling a Swans official: 'We have everything recorded' from the room.
And on Friday, further rumours swirled that the dancers had a camera 'set up' throughout the entire performance.