There were four AFL commissioners at the dinner - Sam Mostyn, Jason Ball, Chris Langford and Kim Williams - and each spoke with Pridham privately after his speech, which, according to Pridham, was done in a "factual way" and not in an "at war" way. Pridham declared on Saturday that "we are not going to let this rest and we are extremely aggrieved. We will be dealing with the AFL matter privately". The AFL did not wish to comment. Longmire said on Saturday that he had presented to the commission last year alongside Pridham, club chief executive Andrew Ireland and football department chief Tom Harley, detailing why the trade penalties were unfair. "I just stated the fact that, as we all know, a critical component of every team's list management is the ability to be able to trade and it was taken away from us. It is very difficult to be able to make that up in the draft. That's our challenge. They are the rules," Longmire said on SEN.

"I agree with what Andrew Pridham said but, as a football coach, I have to get on with it." The penalties meant the Swans were last year barred from trading, as part of the phasing out of the cost-of-living-allowance, while this year they cannot lure any player who is paid more than $350,000, which is about the average wage for a regular player. This could mean they are unable to secure an elite, established defender, which they require – should one be available. In his speech, Pridham said AFL general counsel Andrew Dillon wrote to the Swans and Greater Western Sydney on July 16 last year outlining why COLA would be phased out over two years but, less than fortnight later, a shock ban was imposed only on the Swans. "On multiple occasions the AFL chairman and some AFL commissioners have told me directly that the reason Sydney has a trade ban has nothing to do with COLA," Pridham said. "The explanation for the trade ban was that the commission, and I quote: 'Did not want to be embarrassed by the Swans, with another high-profile player signing following the signing in consecutive years of Kurt Tippett and Lance Franklin'.