{"id":516962,"date":"2026-07-09T04:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/516962\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T04:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:01:15","slug":"australian-rugby-league-player-matt-neans-20-year-ban-overturned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/516962\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian rugby league player Matt Nean\u2019s 20-year ban overturned"},"content":{"rendered":"
Now, at 36, Nean can play his first match in nearly a decade after New South Wales rugby league and Group 4 overturned the decision. <\/p>\n
Matt Nean was banned from rugby league for 20 years for making contact with an official during a match in 2016.<\/p>\n
He told Nine he had mixed feelings about returning to a sport from which he had spent so long away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really can\u2019t believe it \u2013 I\u2019m free to play again. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long time in the making \u2013 I can\u2019t wait to get back onto the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kept getting blocked out, and finally, they listened to our appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of ups and downs \u2013 there is no anger \u2013 it\u2019s just one of those things that happen in life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forwards, not back.\u201d<\/p>\n
His return to the field won\u2019t come with the side for which he last played, with Nean having signed for the Dungowan Cowboys, the same club for which his son plays under-18 league.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t even allowed to attend junior games and see his son play or go to watch the Aboriginal knockout, so it is a great relief,\u201d a source close to Nean told Nine.<\/p>\n
\u201cVideo of the incident shows he just brushed the referee accidentally \u2013 but he wasn\u2019t allowed to use the video in his hearing or his appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a gross miscarriage of justice, and we are just grateful it has been rectified, albeit much too late.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now, at 36, Nean can play his first match in nearly a decade after New South Wales rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[34953,74,1135,1060,380,14731,30506,256709,11692,111,139,69,76379,9617,6327,2022,213],"class_list":["post-516962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-20year","tag-after","tag-australian","tag-ban","tag-decade","tag-league","tag-matt","tag-neans","tag-nearly","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-overturned","tag-player","tag-rugby","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516962","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=516962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}