Chloe Molloy backs Jasmine Garner after controversial Nick Blakey trade to North Melbourne

Triple All-Australian Chloe Molloy says she felt for Jasmine Garner after the North Melbourne superstar was asked to explain her club’s acquisition of Nick Blakey.

The Kangaroos last week pulled off a significant move late in the trade period, acquiring the All-Australian defender in a reported eight-year, $12 million deal after giving up two first-round picks and a future second-rounder.

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The recruitment comes amid ongoing fallout from the Pullman East Melbourne incident in August, with a Victoria Police investigation into allegations of sexual assault remaining ongoing. Blakey was also among five Swans players separately suspended for the remainder of the 2026 season by the club for breaching club behavioural standards following the men’s team’s Round 23 win over Essendon.

Senior North officials met with the AFLW playing group to inform them of the club’s decision to pursue Blakey in the trade period.

Garner and Kangaroos coach Darren Crocker spoke to reporters on Sunday, minutes after the AFLW team’s 52-point victory over Essendon at Windy Hill.

Garner, a dual premiership Kangaroo, said her teammates had “mixed emotions” about the club’s recruitment of Blakey.

“It’s obviously a decision has been made – and it’s probably a decision that’s probably brought on a bit of mixed emotions,” Garner told reporters.

“It’s something that we’re working through as a group. For us, we’re really backing in the leadership of Jen (Watt) and Sonja (Hood).”

Asked whether North’s AFLW players had been adequately consulted by senior club leaders about the decision, Garner said: “Yeah, look, it’s probably one that we’re still working through. But, yeah, we were spoken to.

“At the end of the day, I think we’re backing in Jen and Sonja and their leadership.”

Kangaroos teammate Eilish Sheerin, who won the best on ground medal in North’s grand final triumph last year, told CODE Sports post-game that club leaders had “to some degree explained their reasoning and their mindset behind it”.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s The W Debrief on Sunday night, CODE Sports reporter Lauren Wood said Garner was “very diplomatic in her response”, but added the “sentiment out of North Melbourne is that there is discontentment that continues to ripple through the group”.

“There’s still some feelings, I think you would say, at both ends of the spectrum from the women’s group about the club’s decision on Blakey,” Wood told The W Debrief.

Swans star Molloy sympathised with Garner, saying players could be left carrying the burden of major club decisions when asked to respond publicly.

“I was put in a position also – and to be fair everyone’s doing their job in those moments – and you get doorstopped and asked about something. You’ve kind of got to wear the brunt and the burden of a decision that you’re not entirely involved in,” Molloy told The W Debrief.

“Jazzy spoke exceptionally well. You do feel for her because you’ve just come off the park, won a game of football and you want to enjoy that moment to be asked one of those questions.

“The fact she came back to trusting the leadership – because that’s something I definitely feel, you have to trust the people around you – are fighting the battles for you that need to be fought, if there is even one.”

Molloy’s comments come as the Swans’ AFLW players continue to navigate the fallout from the incident that led to the suspensions of Blakey, Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Riley Bice and James Jordon.

The five players last month returned to Swans headquarters, with each addressing and personally apologising to the men’s and women’s playing lists, as well as club staff.

Asked whether the Swans’ AFLW players wanted to move on from the incident or believed the four returning players needed to earn back respect, Molloy said: “It’s something that obviously brought up a lot of emotions for people and there’s going to be so many moments still to unfold. But what I want versus something else, they’re never going to always align.

“My role in all of this is support for my teammates – and that’s what we keep coming back (to). This is not my burden to bear, I represent something bigger than me – which is female athletes and playing a sport. The way that I can keep showing up on the football field is going to be enough of my talking. That’s where I stand with it.

“I back in my leaders of the women’s program to do what they need to do for us and I back in the club, Andrew Pridham and Matthew Pavlich, to lead the club in the direction. I don’t think I’m any bigger than a football club to decide what can and can’t happen.”

Less than a week after the suspensions in August, Molloy and her Swans teammates produced a brilliant win over Essendon as part of an emotional AFLW-AFL double-header at the SCG.

While the occasion was an emotional one for Molloy and her teammates, she said the day still offered an opportunity “to celebrate women’s football and I loved that the club made sure of that”.

“One thing we were worried about was ‘oh no this was going to cover it’, but we also thought this was actually a time, if anything, to galvanise for the bigger picture of why we play the sport we get to play and use it in a way to go out and represent women,” she said. “We get to play a game of football and represent something bigger than just the red and white in that moment. I really felt that and took that on board.

“I was quite emotional after the game, the impact it has on your teammates and friends … But the way the club brought us together and the way we galvanised as a group to work through what was a really heightened, emotional week … there was uncertainty what was happening, but at the end of the day we came back to football.”

Molloy, who stepped down as co-captain ahead of the season, paid tribute to Swans skipper Lucy McEvoy and vice-captains Sophia Hurley and Cynthia Hamilton for their “phenomenal” leadership.

“The way they’ve been able to tap into the group and say: ‘What do we need as females here? How are we feeling?’ And we keep coming back to one another,” Molloy said.

“The weeks are still unfolding, obviously (men’s and women’s team) integration is going to be something that comes up. I don’t mean to be ignorant, but … we’re two weeks out from finals and I think the best kind of talking is playing football. That’s kind of what we’re narrowing our focus on.”