{"id":152091,"date":"2025-09-18T12:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/152091\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T12:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:53:12","slug":"star-defender-steven-may-told-by-melbourne-to-look-for-another-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/152091\/","title":{"rendered":"Star defender Steven May told by Melbourne to look for another club"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\"><a class=\"css-1lg16vp-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/melbourne-demons\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Melbourne<\/a> have told All-Australian defender Steven May to look for another club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The 33-year-old started his career at <a class=\"css-1lg16vp-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/gold-coast-suns\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gold Coast<\/a> in 2011 and joined Melbourne ahead of the 2019 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">He is a two-time All-Australian and was obviously a key plank of the club\u2019s drought-breaking 2021 premiership campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-178igh4-StyledParagraph e1s06mna1\">Know the news with the 7NEWS app: <a class=\"css-cvgehw-StyledContextualLink e1s06mna0\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/app?utm_source=7NEWS&amp;utm_medium=contextual-link-app&amp;utm_campaign=7news-app\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Download today <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/static\/media\/right-red-arrow.92bca5db.svg\" alt=\"Download today\" height=\"14\" width=\"20\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">But May has a reputation for being combustible and has had some high-profile spats with teammates, including a headline-making exchange with captain Max Gawn this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">May has a year left on his existing contract but has been told that the Demons \u2014 with new coach Steven King in charge \u2014 are keen to play youth in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">May managed 16 games this season, missing multiple matches due to injury and suspension.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0cfcc9abd02668e073a0d499a77386aa834e87ed.jpg\" alt=\"Max Gawn and Steven May were involved in a fiery post-match confrontation after Melbourne lost to Collingwood. \" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>Max Gawn and Steven May were involved in a fiery post-match confrontation after Melbourne lost to Collingwood.  Credit: Channel 7<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">At the end of the season, he was criticised for poor body language in the aftermath of Melbourne\u2019s final game against Collingwood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The Demons lost that match by just six points, vision emerged of May chatting away while Gawn addressed the team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Gawn was sitting in the back row of the rooms speaking to his teammates, while May was appearing to chat to youngster Blake Howes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cIs that unusual for a captain who is addressing the team for the last time after a game to have one of your leaders just sitting there chatting away with (Blake Howes) as he is? To me, that was a really poor look,\u201d Caroline Wilson said on The Agenda Setters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI thought that was poor, speaking over Max Gawn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">In June this year, it emerged that <a class=\"css-1lg16vp-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/sport\/afl\/be-a-good-teammate-steven-may-s-unfiltered-feedback-is-wearing-thin-at-melbourne-20250626-p5maet.html\">players had voiced concern about May<\/a>, believing he wasn\u2019t held to the same account as others for his on-field actions and off-field behaviour.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/5de37a5c891bbfafd0385761da3d1f23c43b7ab8.jpg\" alt=\"Steven May appears to ignore Max Gawn\u2019s address to the players. \" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>Steven May appears to ignore Max Gawn\u2019s address to the players.  Credit: Channel 7<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">May was also involved in an infamous dust-up with teammate Jack Melksham during the 2022 season<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThis is after we know that players in June went to the coach and made the point that in a year where it was meant to be all about love and all about looking after each other, they felt that Steven May was not being held to account for some of his behavioural stuff with teammates that they were being held to,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cWe know that. It\u2019s been reported. We know that there was frustration there. We know that May got suspended a few weeks ago. Very frustrating for a lot of his teammates.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI don\u2019t want to go back into the past, but it was in 2022, after that incredible run of 10 wins following the flag, that it all fell apart. And it didn\u2019t all fall apart because of a punch-up outside Entrecote Restaurant in Prahran. But the timing was appalling, and the comments that were made that led to the punch-up were pretty unimpressive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">In July, May was banned for three games following a high-speed collision with Carlton\u2019s Francis Evans that left the Blues forward with concussion, a broken nose and a missing tooth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1n6q21n-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Melbourne appealed the decision, but failed.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/afl\/afl-superstar-christian-petracca-again-considering-move-away-from-melbourne-c-20033326\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>AFL superstar \u2018weighing up\u2019 move that could blow up Merrett call<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">2 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"css-6fiqrm-StyledLinkWrapper e1y7kr221\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/sport\/afl\/adelaide-delist-harry-schoenberg-and-kieran-strachan-as-post-season-changes-continue--c-20052552\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>Adelaide axe two more players after finals disaster<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-xp0jgm-StyledTimeToRead e1y7kr223\">4 min read<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne have told All-Australian defender Steven May to look for another club. The 33-year-old started his career at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[638,43,7804,44,588,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-152091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-melbourne-demons","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}