Swans chairman Richard Colless last night threw his support behind Barry Hall - even as he conceded he was unsure what the future held for the embattled star.

Colless stated that while the best interests of the club "must take precedence over anything", the Swans were not about "casting your own adrift".

He was also swift to quash suggestions the Swans' move to stand down Hall was part of manoeuvrings aimed at ousting the former captain and replacing him with Carlton forward Brendan Fevola. "I think there's as much chance of Brendan Fevola playing for Sydney as there is me," Colless declared.

The club took the radical step on Monday of standing down Hall indefinitely after an incident in the Swans' clash with Collingwood last Saturday which saw him charged with attempting to strike defender Shane Wakelin.

Asked if it could be the end for Hall at the club, Colless replied: "I honestly don't know. I haven't spoken to Barry. But the point I want to make is the philosophy, the ethos, the guidelines - call them what you will - that have underpinned our club, where the collective unit must take precedence over the individual, in no way conflicts with my personal view or the view of just about everyone who has an interest in the club, that the club has a duty of care to Barry and I don't think they are mutually exclusive.

"There is this balance between what's in the best interest of the club that takes precedence over anything, but at the same time not casting your own adrift. It might sound very goody-two-shoes but that's the way it is. It's like with your kids. There are rules of the house but if they are broken, it doesn't mean you stop loving your kids."

The incident came the day there was talk Fevola was headed to Sydney on a four-year, $3 million deal - a claim the Swans denied. It was also the day Fevola was in Sydney while his wife, Alex, had a work assignment.

"You can't rebuild a club the way it's been rebuilt, around trust, and then do something that is fundamentally undermining trust, and assume the status quo is going to be maintained," Colless said. "I really don't believe too many people would subscribe to the conspiracy theory …

"I think in the context of Brendan Fevola, if Brendan Fevola desperately wanted to come to Sydney, as with any great player, you'd be mad if you didn't at least have the conversation. But there's no evidence of that."

Yesterday Sydney coach Paul Roos was again asked about Fevola. He said he had not spoken to him during his weekend trip to Sydney, adding that the two matters were "mutually exclusive".

Hall earlier in the year blamed personal issues for his snap in April, when he hit West Coast's Brent Staker. Roos was quizzed as to whether the Fevola speculation might have played a role in the Wakelin incident. "Not that I know of, and it certainly wasn't around with the Brent Staker thing," Roos said. "I wouldn't have thought that would have had any bearing on the weekend."

He spoke about his affection for Hall, saying he was "a fantastic guy" whom he had "a lot of respect for", and that he would "rather have Barry Hall playing every weekend we go out to battle".

Roos added he hoped that the move to stand down Hall would prolong his career.

"I don't think any of us have done this to suggest Hally won't play again. Quite the contrary. He's suspended this week, and my concern would be perhaps playing the next week and perhaps his career ending on a really, really bad note, and we don't want that to happen.

"I think we're actually trying to prolong his career by doing what we are doing now, rather than put him in a position that the experts are telling me he can't cope with. Eventually he'll come around and understand, as he did last time with the Brent Staker thing, that we'll do what's best for him and what we think is best for the footy club.

"We'll do everything we possibly can to support Hally and get him back on the field as soon as we can, and we want to work with him to get him back on the field in a better frame of mind than he was on Saturday night."

Roos was also asked how many more chances the club would give Hall.

"Hopefully, I don't have to address that again and that's something I wouldn't want to think about in terms of moving forward. We don't want to see what we saw on Saturday night happen again, end of story, and that's why we can't put Hally, at the moment, in that position where he may do something like that again … But whatever Barry decides to do I'd support him."