{"id":430871,"date":"2026-01-22T22:14:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/430871\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T22:14:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:14:23","slug":"afl-players-ask-for-fight-charges-to-be-withdrawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/430871\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL players ask for fight charges to be withdrawn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two veteran AFL players have asked police to withdraw criminal charges against them, claiming they were not present during a fight at a coastal town.<\/p>\n<p>Two AFL premiership players say they were not present during a brawl at a coastal town as they fight to have criminal charges withdrawn.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\" lazyload lazyload\" data-image-container=\".inline-photo\" height=\"320\" width=\"570\"\/>Dion Prestia strenuously denies charges that include recklessly causing serious injury and affray.\u00a0Photo by Janelle St Pierre\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Image<\/p>\n<p>Richmond&#8217;s Dion Prestia, 33, and Melbourne&#8217;s Steven May, 34, appeared at Dromana Magistrates Court on Thursday via videolink for a brief hearing.<\/p>\n<p>They were charged with criminal offences in October, about 10 months after a brawl on Point Nepean Road in Sorrento on Victoria&#8217;s Mornington Peninsula.<\/p>\n<p>Police allege two groups were involved in an altercation about 2am on December 27, 2024, with two men taken to hospital with injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/afl\/story\/_\/id\/47668136\/hawthorn-hawks-star-day-miss-half-afl-season\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769120063_923_r1527235_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Prestia has been charged on summons with recklessly causing serious injury, intentionally causing injury and affray.<\/p>\n<p>May has been charged on summons with affray.<\/p>\n<p>However, both players deny they were present during the brawl and proclaim their innocence.<\/p>\n<p>Their lawyer Tony Hargreaves told the court on Thursday he had provided detailed written submissions to police setting out why the charges ought to be withdrawn.<\/p>\n<p>This included a witness statement, which claims neither Prestia nor May were present during the fight, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Hargreaves said Victoria Police were considering their submission and asked for the case to be adjourned to February for a contest mention.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutor Alex Turner said the matter had just been referred to his unit and agreed to the adjournment.<\/p>\n<p>Prestia and May, who remain charged on summons, will face Frankston Magistrates Court on February 20.<\/p>\n<p>The pair, who started their AFL careers together at the Gold Coast Suns, previously released statements through their clubs proclaiming their innocence.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was not involved in the fight. I was not even physically present when it apparently took place,&#8221; Prestia said, in a statement issued by Richmond in October.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I deny that I am guilty of these offences and will strenuously defend these charges.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Melbourne said May had advised them he was not involved and he would &#8220;strongly defend&#8221; the charge in court.<\/p>\n<p>Both AFL clubs are supportive of the players.<\/p>\n<p>Prestia is a three-time premiership player with Richmond, and won the club&#8217;s best-and-fairest award in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>May played for Melbourne in the 2021 premiership and is a dual All-Australian player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two veteran AFL players have asked police to withdraw criminal charges against them, claiming they were not present&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-430871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430871","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=430871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}