COLLINGWOOD legend Dane Swan has broken his silence after being publicly identified as the AFL star at the centre of a leaked so-called sex tape.

A video featuring the naked Brownlow medallist with a woman is the subject of a Victoria Police investigation.

Swan went to police on Wednesday night and made a formal complaint — sparking an investigation from Victoria Police’s criminal investigation unit.

The footage, which has been shopped to various media outlets including news.com.au and is being circulated online, shows Swan kissing a woman in bed.

“Prahran police are investigating after a video was distributed electronically and online,” Victoria Police said in a statement provided to the Herald Sun.

“The video was posted without consent. As the investigation is ongoing it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

Swan on Thursday responded to the scandal by releasing a statement to Channel 9’s The Footy Show.

“I have recently become aware of a video of me being published and circulated on the internet,” he said. “Contrary to some media reports, the video is not a ‘sex tape’.

“Although the video was taken a long time ago, it has been posted and distributed only recently. It was taken and distributed without my consent. The distribution is a gross breach of my privacy.

“As it is illegal to distribute such material online without consent I have reported the matter to the police who are investigating the distribution.

“As the matter is under investigation, I have no further comment at this time and I ask that my privacy be respected.”

"It was taken and distributed without my consent. The distribution is a gross breach of my privacy." - Dane Swan #9AFLFootyShow pic.twitter.com/K2igko2ByF — The AFL Footy Show (@AFLFootyShow) May 3, 2018

The Footy Show host Eddie McGuire said he had spoken with Swan and said on Thursday the star was “devastated”.

Swan’s player agent Liam Pickering also released a statement through Channel 9, suggesting Swan had been treated unfairly because he was a high-profile male.

“In other incidents often with a female victim the media has been keen to protect the victim’s identity,” Pickering said.

“Although Dane understands he is a public figure, he is the victim in this case and is no less deserving of that protection.

“There is a double standard where the media feels free to name him and engage in a feeding frenzy of commentary and speculation about the circumstances, rather than allow him the privacy that any victim in such circumstances is entitled to have.

“The media do not know the circumstances and we will take action against anyone who speculates unfairly about them.”

Aussie basketball great Andrew Bogut on Thursday acknowledged the double standards in which Swan was publicly identified while similar victims have not.

Stop slut shaming Dane Swan! 🙃 — Andrew Bogut (@andrewbogut) May 3, 2018

Nathan Broad ... Dane Swan girl... let’s not have double standards now. — jamesmagner (@jamesmag23) May 3, 2018

The Footy Show co-host Sam Newman hit out at members of the public trying to take advantage of celebrities with private video footage.

He said he had also been targeted by people trying to take advantage of him.

“You may not believe this, but I get hit on, on a weekly basis by people wishing to get a free ride into the glittering lights of showbiz,” Newman said.

“I’m not arrogant enough to think that they are after me. They’re just after a free ride, just to try to exploit me to make heroes out of themselves.

“I am very interested to see how the people who do editorials on this sort of stuff spin this because there’s no other way to spin it.

“People who engage in this type of conduct are nothing more than the epitome of brazen opportunists, who are desperately trying to hoist themselves to be famous for 15 seconds in their miserable lives.

“The most egregious scam that you can perpetrate is that of exploitation and this is exactly what this is. It’s a disgrace. And the people responsible for distributing this video should face the full force of the legal system.

“It is not acceptable and it is disgraceful.”

It comes as Channel 7 commentator Basil Zempilas named Swan on Perth 6PR earlier on Thursday.

“I think he knew it was being taken,” Zempilas said.

“We’re talking about a former AFL superstar leaked — or perhaps distributed by them — a sex tape that’s going viral.

“There’s a man and a woman… he certainly is naked. Her you saw less of because of the angle she was on, it looks like she was filming it. It is everywhere.”

Swan, 34, was famously forced to retire in 2016 after suffering a gruesome ankle and foot injury early in the season.

He has since become a high-profile media commentator across the footy media landscape in Melbourne and was scheduled to appear on Channel 9’s The Footy Show on Thursday night.

The retired midfielder two weeks ago made his comeback to the game playing with Westmeadows Tigers in Melbourne after being granted special clearance by the AFL to return to playing the game without endangering his reported $400,000 payout for his career-ending injury.

Entertainment reporter Peter Ford discussed the video on Perth radio.

“People are entitled to do this, this is not a moral judgment, but it’s just to remind you that if you are, particularly, in any way famous, that if you do agree to be filmed in these situations, there’s a chance sometime, somehow it’ll get out,” Ford told 6PR.

“If there’s one 15-second clip around, there’s probably others out there waiting to be put out.”

Richmond player Nathan Broad was suspended for the opening three games of this season after he circulated images of a topless woman wearing a premiership medal last year.

Broad, 24, was visibly shaken as he offered an unqualified apology for sending out the image — without the victim’s consent — that ended up spreading like wildfire on social media.

“I sent a very private picture without this young woman’s consent. I am ashamed and embarrassed. I made a very bad drunken decision,” Broad said.