Fake Swans fan pages spread AI-generated disinformation after assault probe, AAP FactCheck finds
Fake Sydney Swans fan pages are exploiting a police investigation and club sanctions to flood social media with disinformation, including AI-generated images and fabricated statements, AAP FactCheck has found. The misinformation wave has emerged after an alleged sexual assault at the Pullman East Melbourne Hotel on August 17, following the Swans’ win over Essendon. Police are investigating the allegation, but at the time of writing no arrests have been made. Separately, the Swans hierarchy on August 19 imposed season-ending bans on five players—Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice—for breaching club standards. AAP FactCheck is not suggesting any criminal wrongdoing by the players; the bans are unrelated to the police investigation. The combination of a high-profile police matter and internal disciplinary action has created a fertile environment for fake news, with fraudulent accounts posing as fan pages publishing false claims designed to attract clicks, shares and engagement. These pages have targeted some of the club’s biggest names and even invoked the authority of a former club great, Adam Goodes. The posts have been boosted by accounts based in Vietnam, a known hub for coordinated inauthentic behaviour and content farms. These operations typically create pages that appear to be independent fan hubs, adopting team colours, logos and the language of passionate supporters. Their operators are not interested in the team’s success; their goal is to build large audiences quickly and redirect users to external websites, where advertising and other monetisation schemes generate revenue. The scale of the problem has prompted AAP FactCheck to identify the key false narratives and confirm that they are unsupported by any evidence. It is a stark reminder that in the digital age, even a beloved football club can become the target of a coordinated disinformation campaign. Readers should treat any so-called “bombshell” or “emotional announcement” with suspicion unless it is confirmed by an official source. The current situation has all the ingredients of a perfect misinformation storm: real legal developments, high-profile players, emotional fan bases and a fragmented media environment in which false stories can circulate before corrections are published.
One of the most glaring examples is a Facebook post from an account called “Bloods Forever” claiming that former Swans player Adam Goodes had spoken out about Isaac Heeney and Chad Warner. The post uses a screen grab of Goodes from a televised media conference in 2013, after he was famously racially abused at the MCG. That image has been stripped of its original context and repurposed to suggest Goodes had commented on the current controversy. However, there have been no public reports of Goodes commenting on Heeney or Warner. His last social media post was six days before the alleged incident in Melbourne. Goodes, one of the most respected figures in the AFL and a leading advocate against racism, would be a significant voice if he had spoken. Yet no reputable news outlet, club statement or independent interview has quoted him. Goodes was Australian of the Year in 2014 and has spoken powerfully about racism, mental health and the treatment of Indigenous players. His words carry enormous weight, which is exactly why content farms seek to put false words into his mouth. The fabricated nature of the claim is consistent with a wider pattern of content farming that recycles old imagery to create false authority. Bloods Forever has also posted images supposedly showing Heeney and Swans coach Dean Cox in tears during press conferences. Neither image is authentic. The images have been shared by other Swans disinformation pages, including “Red Wave Footy” and “Harborline Gazette,” amplifying the false impression that the players and coach have made emotional public statements. These posts often lead users to third-party websites, where further false or misleading news is presented. The repeated use of Goodes, a beloved former player, is particularly insidious because it exploits the trust fans place in familiar faces. It also demonstrates how modern disinformation campaigns do not always invent new people; they often borrow real identities and place them into imagined scenarios. Goodes has not given any such interview, and no credible evidence suggests he plans to do so.
To understand why the images are fake, it is useful to look under the hood. Both images contain invisible AI watermarks, known as SynthID, inserted by Google AI and OpenAI respectively. AAP FactCheck found the SynthID watermark in the image of Heeney and the OpenAI watermark in the image of Cox. These digital fingerprints are not visible to the naked eye but are embedded in the pixels of images generated by AI tools, allowing detection even after the images are shared, cropped or compressed. The presence of these watermarks is powerful evidence that the images were created by artificial intelligence, not captured at a real press conference. Further visual cues confirm the fakery. In the image of Cox, a microphone carries the word “SWANX” in one frame and “SWANS” in another—a telltale AI hallucination, where the model invents inconsistent text or combines elements in impossible ways. AI image generators frequently struggle with text, logos and repeated objects, producing garbled words or inconsistent spelling. In this case, the alteration of a single letter was enough to reveal the manipulation. The use of AI-generated imagery in disinformation is becoming increasingly common, as new tools make it simple and cheap to create convincing but false visuals. The Swans images appear to have been produced to manufacture evidence that no actual reporter or photographer obtained. By sharing the same fake images across multiple pages, the content farmers create a self-reinforcing narrative: users see the same picture on several accounts and assume it must be real. The presence of detectable watermarks, however, means the fabrication can be exposed with high confidence. This case demonstrates why platforms and newsrooms must invest in watermark detection and media literacy, because the next fake image may not be as easy to spot as a microphone labelled “SWANX.” Indeed, the rapid improvement of AI image generation means that even experts must rely on technical tools to separate reality from fiction. The fact that these particular fakes were identified so clearly is a warning to the creators that their products are not undetectable.
Beyond the fake tears, a separate false story has been pushed by “Red Wave Footy,” which funnels users to a website claiming Dean Cox has stepped down as Swans coach. There is no evidence that Cox has announced his resignation or has any intention to do so. The Swans have made no such announcement, and mainstream sports media has not reported it. Similarly, “Bloods Forever” claimed Nick Blakey “dropped a massive bombshell announcement” in another Facebook post. The post directs users to a website that does not detail any such announcement. At the time of writing, none of the five suspended players has spoken publicly. Only one public statement has been made on behalf of the suspended players since August 17, and no individual has given interviews, held press conferences or posted personal statements. Blakey, Heeney, Warner, Jordon and Bice have all remained silent, contrary to the emotional outpourings depicted in the fake posts. Another account, “Harbour City Legends,” posted a composite image of Warner in tears, claiming there is “an emotional message” about the star footballer. Google’s SynthID tool confirms that image was also AI-generated. Users who clicked through were directed to an article written entirely in Danish. A translation of the article shows it merely reprises details of the alleged Melbourne incident, without any mention of a fresh announcement from Warner or any new information. This is a classic disinformation technique: baiting users with an emotional image and headline, then funneling them to a page that either displays an error, a generic article, or a webpage filled with advertisements, generating revenue for the page operators. The use of a Danish-language article is particularly telling, as it suggests the content farms are not tailoring their payloads to the Australian audience but are relying on a volume-based model that repurposes content from any source. The websites used in these schemes are not affiliated with the Swans or the AFL, and they do not carry any of the hallmarks of legitimate news organisations, such as bylines, contact details or correction policies. The false claims about Cox, Blakey and Warner are not isolated mistakes; they are part of a coordinated effort to exploit a moment of genuine controversy for web traffic.
The accounts involved—”Bloods Forever,” “Harborline Gazette” and “Harbour City Legends”—are not legitimate fan groups. Facebook’s transparency data shows all three are managed by users in Vietnam, a country identified by researchers as a major hub for disinformation content farms. These farms typically run dozens or hundreds of pages on different topics, posting sensational or false material to build large audiences quickly. Once a page has a large following, its operators can sell it, use it for advertising revenue, or leverage it for political and commercial manipulation. Researchers and journalists have documented Vietnamese content farms producing fake pages for Australian audiences in areas ranging from politics to health and celebrity news, and sport is an increasingly common target. The AFL fan base is an attractive target because Australian rules football has a passionate, loyal and highly engaged following. The Sydney Swans, in particular, have been the subject of intense media attention since the alleged assault and the player bans. Fake pages often try to capitalise on such moments of crisis by manufacturing “exclusive” stories that tap into fans’ anxiety, loyalty and curiosity. This is not the first time AAP FactCheck has encountered this pattern. In the wake of the Swans allegations, AAP FactCheck has previously debunked similar disinformation about the club. The same networks have also targeted other AFL clubs, including the Melbourne Demons, Brisbane Lions, Richmond Tigers, Collingwood Magpies, Western Bulldogs, Hawthorn Hawks, Carlton Blues and Geelong Cats. This recurring activity suggests a coordinated or at least a highly imitated playbook: use AI-generated images, misleading headlines and fabricated quotes to generate clicks. The pages are often built around team colours, logos and names, making them difficult for ordinary fans to distinguish from genuine fan pages. The fact that the same Vietnamese accounts appear across multiple teams and leagues indicates a commercial disinformation industry rather than a simple case of overenthusiastic supporters. Social media platforms face an ongoing challenge in identifying and removing such pages, which often avoid detection by changing names or creating new accounts after being reported.
The cumulative weight of evidence shows that none of the central claims in these posts is supported by any trustworthy source. Adam Goodes has not spoken about Heeney or Warner. Dean Cox has not stepped down as coach. Nick Blakey has not made a bombshell announcement. Chad Warner has not issued an emotional message. The images purporting to show these events are AI-generated, carrying watermarks that confirm their synthetic origin. While the police investigation and the club-imposed bans are real and serious matters, the fabricated stories surrounding them are inventions designed to mislead. The line between genuine fan passion and organised disinformation can be difficult to spot, but there are warning signs: accounts that appear suddenly, use generic or excessive punctuation, post only sensational content, and redirect users to unfamiliar websites. Readers should check whether a story appears on an established news outlet, whether a quote can be traced to an original interview, and whether an image has been verified. They should also be wary of posts that use hugely emotional language or invoke beloved figures like Adam Goodes to lend false credibility. Fake news not only harms the individuals targeted but also erodes trust in legitimate media. When a fabricated quote is shared hundreds of times, it can take on a life of its own, leading to real-world consequences for the players, their families and the club. This is why fact-checking is not a niche activity; it is an essential safeguard for public understanding. AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network and has been monitoring these networks. The organisation has a track record of exposing such disinformation across multiple sports and clubs. For fans, the best defence is to treat sensational claims with scepticism, verify the source, and wait for official confirmation from the club, police or players themselves. The Sydney Swans, the AFL and Victoria Police remain the authoritative sources for updates on this matter. Until one of those sources provides the information, any post claiming an emotional announcement, resignation or bombshell should be treated as likely false. AAP FactCheck will continue to investigate and debunk false claims as they emerge, and encourages readers to report suspicious pages and content to the platform. Ultimately, the truth matters as much in sport as in any other area of public life, and fact-checking is an essential tool in protecting it.