{"id":322056,"date":"2025-12-02T05:10:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T05:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322056\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T05:10:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T05:10:13","slug":"max-gawn-among-afl-stars-to-give-evidence-in-ricky-nixons-alleged-football-fraud-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322056\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Gawn among AFL stars to give evidence in Ricky Nixon\u2019s alleged football fraud case"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFL<\/a> premiership players are witnesses in a court case involving allegedly fraudulent signed footballs.<\/p>\n

Former player agent Ricky Nixon, 62, is representing himself as he fights four fraud charges over footballs he allegedly sold as signed by Melbourne<\/a> premiership players after their historic 2021 win.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s captain Max Gawn, and teammates Trent Rivers, Jake Lever, Steven May, Tom McDonald and Christian Salem were all called as witnesses while Nixon contests the charges at Melbourne Magistrates\u2019 Court at a hearing which began on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Nixon has been accused of selling footballs, purporting to be signed by the 2021 premiers with certificates of authenticity on Facebook, for $595 including $20 postage.<\/p>\n

Three victims of his alleged rort told the court they found Nixon advertising the footballs via Facebook advertising.<\/p>\n

Each of them messaged Nixon themselves to buy a football, which he arranged to be posted or delivered to them.<\/p>\n

\"MaxMax Gawn and other Melbourne players are expected to give evidence in Ricky Nixon’s fraud case. Credit: AAP<\/p>\n

Warwick Weir, a Melbourne fan for more than four decades, said he saw the Facebook post after a friend tagged him in it and Nixon had dropped the ball off himself on October 3 with a signed certificate of authenticity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just had a conversation about the Melbourne Football Club, them winning a grand final, how great it was,\u201d Weir told the court,<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted a piece of memorabilia from that grand final, something to cherish.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said they also discussed signed football jumpers Nixon might have coming up for sale and Weir told him he would be interested in buying one of those too.<\/p>\n

After Nixon left, Weir noticed Gawn had signed the football with 13, instead of 11 which was his player number.<\/p>\n

Weir sent a photo of the mistake to Nixon as he thought Gawn might have had a \u201cbrain fart\u201d after a big win and written the wrong number.<\/p>\n

Nixon replied to Weir and said he had \u201cjust spoken with Max\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMax had apologised, didn\u2019t realise that ball was going to make it into circulation,\u201d Weir said Nixon told him.<\/p>\n

Weir said Nixon arranged for a replacement ball to be delivered to him about a week later and he believed it to be genuinely signed by the Melbourne team.<\/p>\n

He was then tagged in a Facebook post claiming the signatures were fake and contacted Nixon for a refund.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor what? A legitimate ball you have?\u201d Weir said Nixon replied.<\/p>\n

Another victim of Nixon\u2019s alleged scam, Tim Holt, said he bought one of Nixon\u2019s $595 footballs as a wedding present for his best friend.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Melbourne player Charlie Spargo spoke about the signatures outside court. Credit: AAP<\/p>\n

When he saw a news article that the ball\u2019s signatures may have been fake, he asked Nixon for a refund.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers and club have confirmed they have signed the ball … If you want to believe media bullshit, go ahead,\u201d Nixon replied, Holt said.<\/p>\n

Three of the allegedly fraudulently signed yellow Sherrins were handed to the court and shown to former Melbourne player Charlie Spargo.<\/p>\n

Spargo, who now plays for North Melbourne, said the signature was not his handwriting on each of the balls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI use a cursive running writing style, it\u2019s in print … it\u2019s not the way I\u2019d write it,\u201d he told the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not my handwriting, I didn\u2019t write it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gawn also told the court the signature the balls did not look like his own handwriting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t look like how I normally do it, but it could be a rushed one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like none of my previous ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside court, Spargo told media he was disappointed for Melbourne fans who paid money for the signed merchandise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just frustrating for the fans and the football club,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The hearing continues.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

AFL premiership hero \u2018disappointed\u2019 in messy Lions exit<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Nathan Buckley eyes top job already after starting at Geelong<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL premiership players are witnesses in a court case involving allegedly fraudulent signed footballs. Former player agent Ricky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[638,64,63,23800,596,1625,7804,44,3863,588,85],"class_list":["post-322056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-courts-justice","tag-football","tag-lifestyle","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-news","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322056","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=322056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}