Australian Football League partner Paris Tier has apologised after posting a video defending boyfriend Conor Stone amid a police investigation into an alleged sexual assault involving Sydney Swans players in East Melbourne.
Tier, who is dating Greater Western Sydney Giants player Stone, uploaded a TikTok video on Tuesday following reports that police had swarmed the Pullman East Melbourne hotel after the alleged incident. She insisted in the post that not all Australian Football League players are bad people, triggering heavy online criticism that led her to delete the video.
The Sydney Swans have stood down five players for the rest of the season for breaching club standards. The players suspended by the club are Riley Bice, Nick Blakey, Isaac Heeney, James Jordon and Chad Warner. Their ban comes amid a separate police investigation into the alleged sexual assault at the hotel.
In Australian rules football, partners of players are commonly known as WAGs, an acronym for wives and girlfriends. The Australian Football League is the sport's elite professional competition in Australia, with the Sydney Swans and Greater Western Sydney Giants operating as rival clubs based in New South Wales.
Tier shared a video showing herself hugging Stone after a match. Alongside the footage, she published a caption addressing the widespread attention surrounding the sport.
In the caption, Tier wrote that she was tired of comments targeting football players as a group. "I'm so sick of this narrative it's 'AFL men'. It's the person," she wrote in part.
She also placed text directly across the video frame defending Stone's character. "I know the man beside me, and I know the respect he has for women. Let's not let some people's actions define other people," the text stated.
Backlash over social media post
Critics quickly condemned Tier's post, with many social media users calling the response out of touch and accusing the influencer of making the situation about herself. The volume of criticism grew so severe that Tier deleted the video shortly after it was published.
Commenters questioned why Tier chose to highlight her own relationship rather than focus on the allegations. "Why not post about standing with the victim? Or spreading awareness of SA (sexual assault)? So rude of you," one critic wrote on the now-deleted video.
Another commenter expressed relief that the video had been removed. "Glad you made the decision to delete that last post, hope you had a moment of clarity on how out of touch and anti-feminist it was!!!" the user added.
Other social media users described the video content as insensitive toward others affected by the ongoing news. "Find this super disgusting and disturbing people making content out of this. She hasn't thought one minute about.. the other fiancés and girlfriends who may be dealing with so much right now," one comment read.
Another critic asked: "How make someone else's SA about myself and my partner", while another simply told Tier to "read the room."
Apology in comment section
Tier initially responded to the negative feedback by deleting critical comments from her post. However, as backlash persisted, she published a formal apology in the comments section of another recent video on her account.
In her statement, Tier acknowledged that she had acted without fully grasping the situation. "I want to make it clear that I do not condone what happened," she wrote. "I posted a video last night without properly understanding the severity of the situation. I took it down as soon as I did, but I recognise that I should never have posted it in the first place and I'm sorry."
Tier told followers that she was taking time to educate herself before commenting further. She also referenced her previous statements regarding safety, writing: "I've always advocated for women to feel safe in sport and I always will, and I'm sorry that my post did not reflect that."
Details of hotel incident
Tier's apology arrived as police continued investigating the alleged sexual assault. According to a report by the Herald Sun newspaper, witnesses reported seeing two women approach staff at the Pullman Hotel in East Melbourne at around 7am following the alleged incident, asking to be let into a guest room.
The Herald Sun reported that one of the women was hysterical as she claimed she had been touched and overwhelmed by several men inside one of the hotel rooms. Both women became agitated when staff informed them they could not re-enter the room.
Witnesses quoted by the publication said the two women then confronted members of the Sydney Swans team in the hotel foyer, including head coach Dean Cox. Cox reportedly appeared stunned during the interaction. The upset woman ran to a hotel restroom crying shortly before police officers were called to the scene.
A third woman later arrived at the hotel, according to the report, and all three women claimed to have video footage of the alleged assault. The Herald Sun also detailed unconfirmed claims that a Sydney player allegedly threw a sex toy that hit a woman in the back of the head, causing her to fall forward.
Five Sydney Swans players were voluntarily interviewed by police in connection with the investigation. The club subsequently stood down Riley Bice, Nick Blakey, Isaac Heeney, James Jordon and Chad Warner for the remainder of the season.
