{"id":458118,"date":"2026-02-04T15:52:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/458118\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T15:52:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:52:29","slug":"demons-defender-may-misses-afl-pre-season-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/458118\/","title":{"rendered":"Demons defender May misses AFL pre-season training"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Veteran Melbourne defender Steven May was a notable absentee from training, six weeks out from the start of the AFL season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The 2021 premiership defender will be a restricted free agent at the end of this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">May was a key figure in last year&#8217;s trade period, but failed to find a new home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Demons have been contacted for comment after May was not at Wednesday morning&#8217;s training session.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"(L-R) Steven May and Max Gawn.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/bddae214f8be4197d71cb23d1540358d.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Demons veterans Steven May and Max Gawn endured a frustrating 2025 season. (Joel Carrett\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Off the field, May and Richmond midfielder Dion Prestia are fighting criminal charges after a late-2024 brawl in Sorrento on Victoria&#8217;s Mornington Peninsula.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Last month, the pair asked for the charges to be withdrawn, saying they were not there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They are due to face Frankston Magistrates Court again on February 20.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">May, 34, played 16 senior games last year for a career total of 251. He endured a mixed season, serving a three-match ban for a high bump, and also had Hawthorn veteran Jack Gunston kick a bag of seven on him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He also had a much-scrutinised argument on the field with captain Max Gawn after the narrow King&#8217;s Birthday loss to Collingwood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">May has been a regular in the Demons&#8217; best 23 for several seasons, but that is now in question.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Demons are in major transition, with coach Simon Goodwin sacked last year and Steven King appointed for his first senior role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Star onballers Christian Petracca (Gold Coast) and Clayton Oliver (GWS) were traded after last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But Gawn is typically bullish, predicting Melbourne can make the finals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We&#8217;re confident we can go the whole way. Not one person has tipped us but that usually goes well for us,&#8221; he told Triple M.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Gawn noted he made a similar prediction before 2013, when coach Mark Neeld was sacked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran Melbourne defender Steven May was a notable absentee from training, six weeks out from the start of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,12097,7804,85,8018],"class_list":{"0":"post-458118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-max-gawn","14":"tag-melbourne-demons","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-steven-may"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458118","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=458118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}