{"id":224092,"date":"2025-10-19T02:08:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T02:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/224092\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T02:08:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T02:08:05","slug":"former-nrl-premiership-winner-barred-from-going-near-his-wife-after-avo-application","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/224092\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NRL premiership winner barred from going near his wife after AVO application"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            Retired from the NRL in 2016 after suffering neck injuries\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/profile-144\/josh-alston.html\" class=\"author\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">JOSH ALSTON, SPORTS REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  01:11 BST, 19 October 2025   |  Updated:  01:11 BST, 19 October 2025   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Former Manly Sea Eagles and New Zealand international Steve Matai has been banned from approaching his wife after police applied for an apprehended violence order.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Matai, 41, agreed to interim orders in <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/byron-bay\/index.html\" id=\"mol-74879490-ac7c-11f0-a66f-e54f71a97321\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Byron Bay<\/a> Local Court, which prevent him from living at the same address or contacting his wife except through a lawyer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Police first lodged the AVO application on September 10, and the matter appeared in court on September 29 where interim conditions were imposed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">These orders were extended on October 7, with added restrictions stopping him from residing with his wife and family. Matai was not present in court on either occasion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He has not been charged with any offence and there is no suggestion of illegal behaviour.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">A reclusive figure since his 2016 retirement, Matai has avoided rugby league circles and declined reunion invitations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-cb5c8c853d5e9a60\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/103109285-15205467-image-a-1_1760828643427.jpg\" height=\"951\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Former Manly star Steve Matai pictured during his premiership days, now facing strict AVO orders in Byron Bay\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Former Manly star Steve Matai pictured during his premiership days, now facing strict AVO orders in Byron Bay<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-255c8ee8aa2eaa93\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/103109287-15205467-image-a-2_1760828647002.jpg\" height=\"849\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Former Manly centre Steve Matai has remained reclusive since retiring in 2016 after two premierships with the Sea Eagles\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Former Manly centre Steve Matai has remained reclusive since retiring in 2016 after two premierships with the Sea Eagles<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The matter is scheduled to return to court on November 3, when police will seek to make the AVO official.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Matai debuted for Manly in 2005 and played exclusively for the club until the end of his career in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He appeared in 230 <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/nrl\/index.html\" id=\"mol-f88a9c30-ac75-11f0-a66f-e54f71a97321\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NRL<\/a> games, scored 91 tries and kicked 21 goals for a total of 406 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He helped Manly to two Premiership titles in 2008 and 2011.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">At the international level he played for\u00a0<a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/new_zealand\/index.html\" id=\"mol-f8825ed0-ac75-11f0-a66f-e54f71a97321\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New Zealand<\/a> Kiwis between 2006 and 2010, earning 10 official test caps and scoring one try and four goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He was also part of New Zealand\u2019s 2008 Rugby League World Cup winning squad.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Known for his rugged defence he was voted the hardest hitter of the NRL in the past 30 years in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">His career was cut short by a neck injury which forced his retirement in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        Former NRL premiership winner barred from going near his wife after AVO application<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retired from the NRL in 2016 after suffering neck injuries\u00a0 By JOSH ALSTON, SPORTS REPORTER Published: 01:11 BST,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,100,4601,761,762,1736,158,588,85],"class_list":["post-224092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dailymail","tag-manly-sea-eagles","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-zealand","tag-nrl","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224092","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=224092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}