{"id":350071,"date":"2026-03-27T05:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T05:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/350071\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T05:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T05:46:11","slug":"australian-sports-legend-gets-court-reprieve-over-drunken-incidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/350071\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian sports legend gets court reprieve over drunken incidents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-code legend Wendell Sailor has had criminal charges dismissed under mental health legislation with a warning to ensure his life stays on the right path. <\/p>\n

The 51-year-old had pleaded guilty to three charges spanning six months, including resisting arrest and intimidation<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But the dual international was given a reprieve in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Friday when the magistrate said his progress in turning around his alcohol addiction was promising. <\/p>\n

Sailor has been on medication for several months to treat both depression and alcoholism, magistrate Jennifer Atkinson found. <\/p>\n

The two drunken incidents that led to the charges had been a necessary wake-up call to prompt him to seek help.<\/p>\n

\"Wendell<\/p>\n

Wendell Sailor makes a run for the Wallabies in 2003. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

He represented Australia in both rugby codes, distinguishing himself as the top try-scorer when the national side won the Rugby League World Cup in 2000. <\/p>\n

Sailor also proved a prolific scorer during a four-year rugby union stint, crossing 13 times in 37 games for the Wallabies and earning a start in the 2003 World Cup final.<\/p>\n

He finished his 222-game NRL career in 2009 after nine seasons with the Brisbane Broncos and two seasons with St George Illawarra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cross-code legend Wendell Sailor has had criminal charges dismissed under mental health legislation with a warning to ensure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,111,139,577,69,213],"class_list":["post-350071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-australia","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nrl","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}