List of Australian rules football incidents

From MedBib.com - Medicine & Nature

The List of Australian rules football incidents is a collection of both on and off-field incidents that have received media coverage involving footballers from the Australian Football League.

Incidents

1980s

1980

• Essendon Phil Carman was suspended for 20 games for head-butting boundary umpire Graham Carbery when he went to report him for striking St. Kilda captain Garry Sidebottom.

1982

• Angry at a change in the scheduling of the quarter finals of the Escort Cup national club competition, John Todd sent the Swan Districts reserves team to play Richmond. Swan Districts were banned from the competition until 1985.^[1]

• Streaking became popular at Australian rules football matches in the 1980s, particularly Victorian Football League Grand Finals, with a trend started by Adelaide stripper Helen D'Amico in the 1982 VFL Grand Final between Carlton and Richmond, wearing only a Carlton scarf.

1985

• Essendon are fined $500 for not informing players of the VFL's new time-wasting rule.
• Collingwood Reserves full-back John Bourke is suspended for 10 years plus 16 games and handed a $2000 fine for kicking Swans Reserves player Patrick Foy in the groin, pushing the field umpire, kicking the field umpire, striking the Collingwood runner and assaulting a Swans spectator in a televised Reserves match.
• Leigh Matthews is charged by Victoria Police with the on-field assault of Nevile Bruns of Geelong; he is convicted and fined $1000. He is also suspended by the VFL for four matches, both later dropped on appeal.

1988

• Rod Grinter of Melbourne is given a six week suspension for a punch that flattened Terry Wallace of Footscray.
• Stewart Loewe of St Kilda is fined $1000 for shaking a goal post while an opposition player shot for goal.

1989

• Tony Lockett is suspended for six matches for striking Guy McKenna in a controversial decision.
• The West Coast Eagles squad is fined $180,000 ($9,000 each) for betting on a match vs Brisbane at Carrara (that they won). ^[2]

1990s

1990

• Tony Francis is suspended for six matches for kicking on debut.
• Terry Daniher is suspended for 12 matches for flattening Gavin Brown in the Grand Final.

1991

• Greg Williams was fined a record $25,000 and suspended for six matches for bringing the game into disrepute after alleging that the Sydney Swans were violating the salary cap at a press conference.
• Robert Walls, the Brisbane Bears coach, ordered the punch-up of one his players, Shane Strempel at a training session. Walls said Strempel "needed to be taught a lesson". The bizarre training session only ended when another player said they should stop, or Strempel might be killed.^[3]
• Darren Millane was killed in a car crash after clipping a semi-trailer whilst drink driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.322. ^[4]

1993

• Darren Wheildon of Fitzroy is fined $750 for shaking a goalpost while an opposition player shot for goal.
• Nicky Winmar was abused by the crowd at Victoria Park, and showed his skin. This sparked a debate over on-field racism.

1994

• Swans recruit Dermott Brereton is suspended for 7 weeks for standing on Hawthorn player Rayden Tallis' head. He is later suspended for another 7 matches for elbowing Tony Free and breaking his jaw.
• Tony Lockett is suspended for 8 matches for striking Sydney's Peter Caven with a raised elbow and breaking his nose.
• After an investigation into a melee that broke out in the West Coast v Footscray match in Round 24, the AFL charges eight players with melee involvement. Seven players are severely reprimanded, and the instigator of the melee, Daniel Southern of Footscray, is fined $10,000.
• Another melee broke out in the Fitzroy v St Kilda match in Round 24. The instigator, James Manson of Fitzroy, is suspended for one match and fined $1,000, while Jason Baldwin of Fitzroy and Nathan Burke of St Kilda are severely reprimanded.

1995

• After a claim of racism against Damian Monkhurst by Michael Long, the AFL is given the power to punish on-field racial vilification.
• Tony Liberatore is fined $1,500 for saying that the goal umpire in the drawn Collingwood v Footscray match was a "disgrace".
• North Melbourne paid a young woman $15,000 to keep quiet about being sexually harassed by Wayne Carey and another player at a party.^[5]

1996

• Wayne Carey pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a female bouncer outside a nightclub after being refused entry and later settled out of court when the woman filed a civil suit against him.
• Jimmy Krakouer was sentenced to 16 years jail after being convicted of drug trafficking. He was released in August 2004. ^[6]
• Collingwood players Jonathon Ross, Trent Hotten and Aaron James were charged after an altercation in a Melbourne nightclub in November 1996. Ross was delisted immediately while Hotten and James were fined and put on notice.

1997

• Justin Charles is suspended for 16 matches for testing positive to an anabolic steroid.^[7]
• Greg Williams is suspended for 9 matches for pushing umpire Andrew Coates after an Easter Monday clash against Essendon. He appeals to the courts and has the suspension overturned and continues to play, until the AFL appeals to a higher court and has the suspension reinstated, ending Williams's career.^[8]
• Collingwood player Trent Hotten arrives at a pre-season training session intoxicated and is delisted on the spot. Hotten was later accused of leaking club secrets to the media, but the accusation was proven to be false.
• Peter Everitt racially abuses Essendon's Michael Long, calling Long "an endangered species". Aboriginal St. Kilda teammate Nicky Winmar overhears Everitt's remarks. ^[9]
• Essendon player Michael Pryor was cleared for racial taunts to Robbie Ahmat in the Anzac Day clash.

1998

• A Hawthorn player was investigated by Honolulu police and Australian Federal Police over an alleged sexual assault on Hawthorn's end of season trip to Hawaii.^[10]
• Alistair Lynch discovered that the drug he had been prescribed for his chronic fatigue syndrome, DHEA, was added to the IOC banned substance list and came forward for advice. His controversial fine was later overturned by the AFL on appeal.^[11]

1999

• Byron Pickett had his driver's licence revoked for 10 months after he crashed into a fire hydrant in Kensington.^[12]
• Four Brisbane Lions players including Adam Heuskes are accused of rape in England during an end of year trip. British police fly to Australia to interview the players, but charges are not laid, with the players claiming that the sex was consensual.^[13]
• AFL football operations manager Ian Collins hands down a $20,000 fine and a four-match suspension to Peter Everitt for racially abusing Melbourne's Scott Chisholm. Everitt called Chisholm a "black c---" after booting a goal.

2000s

2000

• Gary Ablett, two years after his retirement, was implicated in a hotel room death where a young woman dies after an apparent heroin overdose^[14]
• Peter Everitt was convicted for offensive behaviour and being drunk in a public place after his arrest at the 2000 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island.
• Byron Pickett was pulled over by police in Kalgoorlie for speeding and charged with drink driving. He had his licence suspended for six months. In a separate incident, he has his licence suspended for 10 months after he crashed his car in South Australia, hitting a power pole whilst drink driving with a .121 reading.^[12]
• Brad Ottens was arrested for being drunk in a public place. ^[15]
• Wayne Carey gave character evidence for high profile Melbourne gangster Jason Moran during his County Court trial.^[5]

2001

• Kris Barlow, Hawthorn player, is alleged to have punched Brett Viney, the brother of former Melbourne captain Todd Viney, at a Richmond pub in November 2001.^[16]
• Collingwood player Chris Tarrant was fined for careless and unlicensed driving. ^[17]

2002

• Wayne Carey was involved in an affair with Kelli Stevens, the wife of his teammate and club vice-captain Anthony Stevens.
• Melbourne's David Schwarz racially abuses Carlton's Justin Murphy while playing against Geelong in round three. Schwarz was said to have called him a "coconut". ^[18]
• It was reported that Wayne Carey had been quizzed by officials at his new football club - the Adelaide Crows - over an incident at a prominent Adelaide hotel. The star footballer and several mates had been accused of fighting with a group of drinkers in the front bar of the Stamford Grand Hotel.^[5]
• In a July match against Geelong, Collingwood captain Nathan Buckley sustained a cut on his forehead. He wiped the blood on Cameron Ling's guernsey, and suspension talks ensued.^[19]
• A crazed fan runs onto the MCG during a game and attempts to touch Greg Stafford. It was later revealed that the woman had been stalking him for five years and was quoted as saying "I am not guilty of stalking Greg ... I am guilty of loving Greg."^[20]
• Swans players on a post-season trip to Tasmania allegedly overturned a bench, unplugged machines and took a bag of potatoes (which they later paid for) from the Elizabeth Town Hotel.^[21]

2003

• Steven Lawrence was involved in a car accident whilst drink driving, and was subsequently sacked by his club.

2004

• Stephen Milne and Leigh Montagna had rape allegations laid by two women (charges were never laid due to insufficient evidence).^[22]
• Laurence Angwin and Karl Norman turned up to training under influence of ecstasy. Norman was suspended and Angwin fired, later making public allegations of widespread drug-use within the AFL.^[23]
• Former AFL player John McCarthy appeared in an Adelaide court accused of three counts of rape.^[24] He was acquitted.^[25]
• Peter Burgoyne and Adam Heuskes were charged with sexual assault but charges later dropped by the South Australian Director of Public Prosecutions after he did not consider a conviction likely. The pair, along with Michael O'Loughlin who was not alleged to be involved in the assault, were later alleged to have paid the woman $200,000 after she commenced a civil action against the players.^[26][27]
• Danny Jacobs was caught drink-driving and lied about teammate Lance Picioane being with him at the time, initially claiming that he wasn't driving, but just sitting in the car tuning the radio. Both players were fined $5000 by the club.^[28]
• Claims of some AFL players wanting to urinate and defecate on women at a strip club during an end of season celebration were leaked.^[29]
• Jeff Farmer pleaded guilty to assaulting his partner by hitting her several times in the head^[30] and was fined $2,000.^[31]
• Quinten Lynch was caught drink driving.^[32]
• A Hawthorn player was investigated by police for an alleged sexual assault.^[33]
• Cameron Cloke of Collingwood was caught doing 144 km/h in a 100km/h zone. ^[34]

2005

• Fremantle Dockers players of Victorian and South Australian origin go on a mid-week mid-season pub crawl, which involves alleged instances of players exposing themselves. ^[35]
• Steve Johnson and Andrew Mackie of Geelong were detained by police for being drunk in a public place. ^[36]
• Jay Schulz was involved in a drink driving incident where his actions led to a termination of sponsorship with the TAC.^[37]
• Ben Cousins and Michael Gardiner were questioned by police over telephone calls they allegedly received in Melbourne that were made following a brawl and shooting at a Perth nightclub. Police believed they had conversations with at least one of the two men charged with disposing of the gun after the brawl.^[38]
• Karl Norman left his rented house trashed and with outstanding rent owing. ^[39]
• Police admit that a rape investigation into Heath Culpitt was horribly botched after several years' delays and the disappearance of crucial evidence. Chief detective expresses lack of confidence and ombudsman recommends disciplinary action against investigators.^[40]
• Alan Didak was fined $1,500 for giving the Fremantle cheer squad the "double finger" at Subiaco in Round 7.
• Lance Whitnall, Nick Stevens and Heath Scotland were in a pub when they witnessed an acquaintance being beaten, kidnapped and tortured by suspected members of an outlaw motorcycle club.^[41].
• Saverio Rocca was whisked away from the imminent birth of his son to a football game in a police vehicle travelling at speed with lights and sirens. After initial denials, police concede that the incident occurred and that the police officer has been counselled.^[42]
• Various allegations are made about rapes,^[43] including drink-spiking^[44] and an attempted drink-spiking against a player's wife.^[44]
• Richmond forward Nathan Brown breaks his leg in horrific circumstances, ending his season. He has suffered leg-related injuries since.^[45]
• Justin Leppitsch, Craig Lambert, Jonathan Brown, Tim Notting, Fraser Gehrig and Steven Lawrence were refused entry at Bangkok airport due to undisclosed incidents^[46].

2006

• Tadhg Kennelly "dacked" Lewis Roberts-Thompson in front of female high school students during a visit to St Mary's Star of the Sea College in Wollongong.^[47]
• Lewis Roberts-Thomson charged with drink driving at the Central Coast on a football holiday. He was formally charged and his license disqualified for 6 months.
• Colin Sylvia allegedly assaulted his girlfriend and threatened to kill a passerby who intervened. It is believed he was intoxicated at the time. After going to court, a Melbourne magistrate ordered him not to harass, threaten or intimidate her and no charges were laid.^[48]
• Brad Ottens of Geelong fails a random breath test when pulled over in Doncaster in the early hours of September 9. Ottens was found to have a blood alcohol content of 0.116, more than twice the legal limit. ^[49]
• Ben Cousins, upon facing a random road-side alcohol breathalyser test, abandoned his car on a Perth highway and fled on foot before being chased by police. He was later fined $5,000 by the Eagles and $900 in court.^[50] In a separate incident, Cousins was arrested for public drunkenness outside Crown Casino in Southbank, Victoria.^[51]
• Ashley Sampi was charged after threatening his girlfriend and her sister with a knife. He pleaded guilty and was fined $750.^[52][53]
• Simon Goodwin assaulted a photographer before threatening to "fucking kill" him after running amok at an Adelaide pub at 11am.^[54]
• Heath Black was charged with assault, obstructing police and assaulting police after an incident at the Perth Cup.^[54]
• Brodie Holland was fined over various driving offences including driving without a license and driving recklessly. He received no conviction over the incident and was fined $560.^[55].
• Campbell Brown was charged with criminal damage and using indecent language offences stemming from his attack on an out of order 7-Eleven ATM. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was placed into a diversionary program for young offenders, receiving no conviction.^[56]
• Brodie Holland is charged with assaulting two women out the front of a Melbourne nightclub.^[57]
• Heath Scotland was charged with recklessly causing serious injury in a pub. The matter is still before the courts.^[58]
• Dane Swan, Aaron Ramsay and Kade Carey were found guilty of criminal damage and assault charges arising from a brawl at Federation Square where they attacked a cleaner and three security guards after Carey jumped on a parked car.^[59]
• The St Kilda vs Fremantle match played on 30 April 2006 at Aurora Stadium in Launceston ended in confusion when the final siren sounded but the umpires did not hear the siren and allowed play to continue for around twenty seconds. During this time St Kilda scored a point to tie the match. Four days after the match concluded, the AFL commission determined that the match should have been ended when the first siren sounded, stripped St Kilda of the final behind, and therefore the two competition points for a draw they prematurely received, and awarded the victory to Fremantle. It was only the second time in VFL/AFL history that the score and result of a game was changed on protest, with the first occurring 106 years previously.^[60]
• Chad Morrison was caught drink-driving and loses his licence.^[61] Collingwood is sponsored by the Transport Accident Commission which fined the club $200,000, and fined Morrison $20,000.^[62].
• Three players returned two positive tests to illicit drug use under the new code. The player's identities are now the subject of ongoing legal action between the AFL, AFLPA and media organisations. ^[63]
• Sam Newman, while at a German beer house in June 2006, was provoked by a member of the crowd, being spat upon. The footage was filmed by the Nine Network.
• Dean Brogan punched Adelaide Crows fan Dale Mortimer at Adelaide Airport after being insulted, breaking Mortimer's nose.^[64] He pleaded guilty and was fined $750.^[65]
• Michael Gardiner was caught drink driving after an incident where he destroyed his car and badly damaged three others. In light of his previous record in being involved in incidents, Gardiner was fined $5,000 by the Eagles, and $800 in court. He is suspended by the Eagles indefinitely, and is later traded to St. Kilda.^[66]
• Chris Tarrant and Ben Johnson, of Collingwood, were investigated over a brawl at a Port Melbourne nightclub carpark on July 30, where a 28 year-old man is rendered unconscious and brought to hospital with facial injuries.^[67] Both players are fined $5,000 by their club for breaking a 1am curfew. This brought the number of Collingwood footballers to be charged or questioned by police in 2006 to five.^[68] Club President Eddie McGuire condemned the players' behaviour^[69] but refused to suggest they would be suspended. Johnson appeared before a magistrate charged with recklessly causing injury and unlawful assault but avoided conviction.^[70]
• Alan Didak, of Collingwood, was arrested after a dispute with a taxi driver on October 6, 2006.^[71] It was reported that he disputed a $15 fare difference with taxi driver, and was taken to the Melbourne Custody Centre to sober up, before being released. The club confirmed this in an official statement.^[72]
• Eagles players Dean Cox and Quinten Lynch were severely reprimanded for saying "fuck" in their post-match interviews after the Grand Final.
• Brendan Fevola, on an overseas trip to Ireland as part of the International Rules Series, was involved in an incident where he applied a headlock to a barman and was said to be very drunk.^[73] Fevola was subsequently suspended for the second Test which was to take place the following week and immediately sent home by the AFL to avoid accusations of a junket.^[74]
• Sam Mitchell was assaulted in a Hawthorn hotel on December 4.^[75]
• Jeff Farmer and Steven Dodd were involved in an unspecified "altercation" at Club Bayview in Claremont on December 3.^[76]
• Ben Cousins was found drunk outside of Melbourne's Crown Casino early in the morning of December 3. He was arrested by police for public drunkenness, following his "heated reaction" to being asked to move on^[77]
• Andrew Krakouer, along with younger brother Tyrone and another man, were charged with recklessly causing serious injury following an incident outside the Harbourside nightclub in Fremantle on December 22. The alleged victim, Justin Robin Martin, sustained serious head injuries and remains in intensive care. The charges have since been upgraded to intentionally causing serious injury.^[78]
• Steve Johnson was arrested for public drunkenness in Wangaratta on December 24. This is his second such arrest in 18 months and he was banned from his club until May 2007 after failing to inform his club for 9 days after the arrest. ^[79]
• Heath Black pleaded guilty in the Fremantle Magistrates Court to a charge of disorderly behaviour and was fined $250. ^[80]
• Andrew Lovett faced court action after an alleged bashing of ex-girlfriend Kimberlie Watson in April 2006. He allegedly breached an intervention order against him in September 2006.^[81]
• Chad Fletcher was allegedly involved in a medical incident in Las Vegas, where he allegedly almost died.
• Collingwood players Chris Egan, Leon Davis and Shannon Cox were all suspended for breaking team rules.^[82]
• Jarryd Roughead has his licence suspended for a year after being caught speeding^[83]
• Peter Everitt family was being torn apart in a bitter feud over claims he swindled his sister out of her life savings. Everitt's younger sister, Linda, was threatening legal action against the Hawthorn star, accusing him of conning her into buying a failing juice-bar business.^[84]
• Former Sydney Swans player Daryn Creswell is investigated by Queensland police for alleged sexual assault. ^[85]

2007

• Several AFL players were questioned over a hotel scuffle in a St Kilda bar. Players allegedly involved included Fraser Gehrig, Craig McRae, Steven Lawrence, Simon Black and Michael Voss.^[86] Criminal charges were laid against the players in June, 2007.
• Heath Scotland was charged with assault and recklessly causing injury to a female outside a Ballarat night spot at 5am, on February 11. Police alleged that Scotland splashed his drink on her and that when she attempted to push him away, he struck her in the face.^[87][88] With him were Lance Whitnall, Shaun Grigg, Kade Simpson, Brad Fisher and Michael Jamison. All players were fined by the club for breaking curfew.
• Dean Brogan was charged with assaulting oral surgeon Dr Zahi Khouri after fight between their dogs whilst walking them in an Adelaide park. He pleaded guilty and was fined $1,000.
• Daniel Kerr pleaded guilty to criminal damage and assault for throwing a car aerial at a taxi driver's face outside a Perth hospital and was fined $1,800.^[89]
• Covert police recordings of Kerr discussing the effects of ketamine with a convicted drug dealer were later released through Lateline.^[90] Other sporting figures include footballer Aaron Edwards and basketballer James Harvey, and though not recorded, Ben Cousins is mentioned. Kerr is not sanctioned as he did not know of the conviction.
• As part of an ongoing investigation, four players are named for breaching the AFL's code of conduct forbidding gambling of any type on AFL matches. The players named are Simon Goodwin of the Adelaide Crows (fined a record $40,000), Daniel Ward of Melbourne Demons (fined $10,000), David Hale of the Kangaroos (fined $5,000) and Kieren Jack of the Sydney Swans (reprimanded).^[91]
• New Carlton captain Lance Whitnall is involved in a bizarre bitter public argument with his brother. Tammy Whitnall told 3AW the feud started over a no-show at a Whitnall child's birthday party, followed by a non-invitation to the zoo.^[92]
• Ben Cousins was suspended indefinitely from the West Coast Eagles for attending a training session under the influence of drugs.^[93] His father admitted that his son had a "substance abuse" problem. Ben Cousins underwent and completed drug rehabilitation in the US, returning to Perth on the 30th of April to continue treatment.^[94]
• Chad Fletcher was named as the player who collapsed during a Las Vegas end-of-season trip, allegedly having 'flatlined'. There are conflicting accounts as to whether or not illicit drugs were involved.^[95]
• Brodie Holland was fined $2,500 for his role in a fight with a young woman over a taxi cab. After Hollands fiancee was involved in a scuffle with the woman, Holland approached calling the woman a "stupid slut" before trying to tackle her, placing her in a headlock after which she bit him on the stomach, before striking her in the head with his fist. His court appearance was pushed back on two occasions so not to clash with his football commitments; once he faced court no conviction was recorded and no punishment handed out from his club, Collingwood.^[96][97].
• Des Headland of the Fremantle Dockers is cleared by the AFL Tribunal despite being found guilty of striking and wrestling. Headland had an on-field altercation with West Coast's Adam Selwood after Selwood allegedly made derogatory remarks about his daughter. Selwood is also cleared. ^[98]
• Michael Braun was fined $5,500 for concluding an acceptance speech for the Ross Glenndinning Medal on live television with "Let's have a fucking good year". ^[99]
• A series of articles in The Sunday Age by Andrew Rule made allegations of widespread drug abuse by AFL footballers.
• Serious allegations were made that a 'rat-pack' of high-profile current and former players have been targeted by police and the media for cocaine use.
• David Teague is acquitted of careless driving after an incident which left a woman a quadriplegic.^[100]
• The Australian Football League is criticised by much of the media for their drugs policy that is "soft" on illicit drugs. All AFL players will be drug-tested less than once a year on average whereas players from the National Rugby League are tested on average 7.5 times per year^[101].
• Fremantle Dockers player Jeff Farmer knocked out a bouncer in the suburb of Northbridge after being refused entry to a nightclub. He is suspended for six matches and fined $5,000 by the Dockers and $3,000 in court. ^[102]
• Mark McVeigh of Essendon was fined $900 for jokingly giving a mate the "finger" in the last quarter of the Essendon v St Kilda Round 4 match.
• Ray Hall from the Richmond Tigers was suspended for three weeks, fined $5,000 and ordered to do community service^[103] after he was allegedly involved in an altercation with a patron in a Melbourne bar; police are investigating the incident^[104].
• Des Headland was involved in a physical altercation on the streets of Northbridge.^[105]
• Chris Tarrant from Fremantle mooned a female patron in a Darwin nightclub and punched Labor Candidate for Solomon, Damian Hale, in the face. Tarrant was suspended for three matches (two suspended pending good behaviour) and fined $5,000 by the Dockers; police did not lay charges due to no complaint being made.^[106]
• Alan Didak was questioned by police in June over his acquaintance with Christopher Wayne Hudson, who Didak drank with at 4am in a strip club before a wild ride in the week before the CBD shootings.^[107][108]
• Jeff Farmer was charged with criminal damage for smashing a car's side mirror in a rage after being ejected from Burswood Casino. He admits to an alcohol problem, and is fined $750 in court after pleading guilty (with $458 costs), fined $10,000 by the Dockers and ordered to donate $45,000 to charity.
• The Age reported that former star Mick McGuane was set to be linked to Melbourne's gangland war when his unexplained relationships with major organised crime figures is made public in court.
• Daniel Kerr was fined $2,000 over an assault of a teenage Fremantle fan at a party in Perth on January 13, leaving the fan with a broken nose and two missing teeth. His father Roger was also charged, but has not yet faced court.
• Darren Milburn of Geelong was fined $600 for throwing his mouthguard at North Melbourne’s Shannon Grant as Grant went to kick for goal.
• Two high-profile Melbourne based footballers are revealed to be undergoing treatment for drug addiction at a clinic in Ivanhoe, after leaked records were 'found' in a gutter and sold to Channel 7. A court injunction prevents the name of the players or club involved to be named. Police later raid the Channel 7 offices and charge two people with theft. The AFLPA encourages players to boycott Channel 7 and not answer questions from their reporters in press conferences.^[109]
• Ben Hudson was suspended by the Adelaide Crows for breaking a curfew. ^[110]
• On the eve of Geelong's 2007 AFL Grand Final appearance, David Johnson was arrested in regards to an assault in Geelong at 4:15am. He was not selected to play in the grand final, but was a member of the Geelong VFL side's premiership the previous week.^[111]
• Richmond's Jake King swears on live television after winning the Grand Final sprint, stating that "I thought [Port Adelaide's Nathan] Krakouer would shit it in".
• Ivan Maric and John Meesen of the Adelaide Crows were caught posting hand-drawn pornographic pictures on a website accessible to children.^[112]
• Chris Mainwaring, a dual premiership player with the West Coast Eagles and Seven Network sports newsreader, is found dead in his Cottesloe home, aged 41.^[113]
• Ben Cousins from the West Coast Eagles is arrested in Northbridge and later charged with possession of an illegal substance and refusing a blood test.^[114] He is later sacked by the club. The possession charge made against Cousins is subsequently dropped, due to the drug being possessed actually being legal to possess. The charge of refusing a blood test is deferred for 90 days while Cousins attends a Malibu drug rehabilitation clinic. Instead, Cousins ends up in an LA hospital after reportedly going on a cocaine binge. The charge of refusing a blood test is later dropped on a technicality.^[115]
• Aaron Edwards, Shannon Grant and Hamish McIntosh of the North Melbourne Football Club were ejected from a Lionel Richie winery gig near Drysdale, Victoria after a violent clash with security and police. ^[116]

2008

• Sharrod Wellingham, a Collingwood rookie, was charged with drink-driving having recorded a blood alcohol content reading of 0.13, he lost his licence for a year. Collingwood announced they were cutting ties with the TAC sponsorship shortly after. It was the third serious traffic infringement for a Collingwood player during the period of the safe driving sponsorship. ^[17]
• Nathan Krakouer of Port Adelaide was suspended from driving following numerous repeated traffic offences. ^[117]
• Steve Johnson of Geelong is booked after caught doing 128km/h in a 50km/h zone on the way to a golf course. This is Johnson's third indiscretion involving police in two and a half years after incidents in 2005 and late 2006.^[118]
• Wayne Carey, ex-North Melbourne premiership captain, is capsicum sprayed and handcuffed after assaulting police offers answering a domestic disturbance complaint at his apartment in Port Melbourne.^[119] Following this incident it is found that he was arrested in Miami, Florida in October 2007 after allegedly striking his girlfriend Kate Neilson with a wine glass and is to face charges of assaulting police, resisting arrest and assault at Miami-Dade County Court on February 15.^[120] Following this and the previous incident, he was fired from several media positions.^[121] He sold his story to New Idea magazine, confessing that he has a cocaine abuse problem. ^[122] He has since been charged with assaulting police and resisting arrest by Victorian Police.
• Chris Masten, a West Coast draftee, is fined $2,000 by the club for public drunkenness and his role in an Australia Day brawl, and is later fined $750 in court. ^[123]
• Brendan Fevola, Carlton's full-forward, was arrested for urinating against the window of a bar that was trading at the time. Carlton fined him and stated that he was on his last chance, but didn't suspend him.
• Richmond captain Kane Johnson was arrested for urinating outside St Kilda Road police complex. He was suspended by his club for 1 match and fined $5,000.^[124]
• Sydney full-forward Barry Hall was handed a seven-match suspension for striking West Coast's Brent Staker in the jaw in an off-the-ball incident. Staker received bruising and a concussion, causing him to miss the remainder of the game and the next game. Hall later in the same game broke his wrist on a billboard.
• A match between the Sydney Swans and the Kangaroos ended in a draw after the Swans kicked a behind to level the scores in the dying seconds of the match. Sydney were later found to have had 19 players on the field during this period, Darren Jolly having remained on the field after his intended substitute Jesse White entered the field of play. Jolly was instrumental in setting up the play that resulted in the behind that tied the score, so there was media speculation that the result may be overturned in favour of the Kangaroos, but the AFL fined the Sydney Swans $55,000 for the breach.^[125]
• Lance Franklin allegedly made a crude request for sex and called the planned AFL women's competition "a total waste of time" while drunk in the presence of female patrons at a Melbourne nightclub. He later apologized for the incident.
• On June 25, 2008 it was announced that Farmer was suspended for a week by the Fremantle Football Club for not attending a compulsory recovery session after the weekend's loss to St Kilda in Melbourne.^[126]
• Melbourne's Aaron Davey was suspended by his club for 1 week. ^[127]
• Sydney full-forward Barry Hall was handed a one-match suspension for attempted striking of Collingwood's Shane Wakelin.^[128]Sydney later announced will not play Hall indefinitely. ^{[129] [130]}Sydney co-captain Brett Kirk later claimed that Hall's habit of hitting opposition players off the ball is a "bad habit". ^[131]
• North Melbourne's Shannon Grant was suspended by his club for 1 week. ^[132]
• On July 9, 2008 Adelaide's Scott Thompson pleaded guilty in an Adelaide court to seriously injuring a passenger whilst doing burnouts in his car and leaving the scene of the accident. ^[133]
• On August 3, 2008 Collingwood's Heath Shaw was arrested for drink driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.14 after crashing his car into two parked cars. The following day, Collingwood's President Eddie McGuire said that Collingwood wouldn't suspend Shaw from playing. ^[134] It later became known that Shaw, club captain Scott Burns and McGuire were incorrect in regards to insisting that Collingwood player Alan Didak wasn't in the car at the time of the accident.^[135][136] Collingwood suspended Heath Shaw indefintely and Didak for the remainder of the season for lying to the club; Rhyce Shaw was suspended for two matches for drinking whilst injured.
• Melbourne coach Dean Bailey had his microphone cut off during a radio show after he criticised the planned women's competition; he was fined $10,000, and the AFL have warned that the next person to criticise the planned women's competition will be fined and suspended immediately.

See also

• List of Rugby league incidents
• List of Rugby union incidents
• List of cricket incidents
• List of cricketers banned for match fixing
• List of violent spectator incidents in sports (worldwide list of spectator events)
• Violence in sports (Analysis and history of violence world sporting events)

Further reading

• Fair Game? - Investigative journalism of allegations of AFL rapes and attempts to silence the victims. From the ABC's Four Corners program.
• The AFL Player Spectator - Comprehensive resource scrutinising the negative off-field behaviour of AFL players.
• Football Fans Against Sexual Assault - An activist group lobbying for changes to attitudes to sexual assault within the AFL and National Rugby League.
• Mike Daube (March 31, 2007). "The time has come to end glamourising alcohol sponsorship". The Australian. Retrieved on 2007-04-21.
• Booze is where drug problem starts Article in The Australian about alcohol problems among AFL players

References