2022 is just more than a week old but already a handful of footballers are in contention for The Fronwlow Medal.
The Frownlow Medal is awarded to the player whose off-field demeanour epitomises the values of the modern-day footballer and draws attention to the status of footballers as role models to young Australians. It covers Australia’s four major football codes; the National Rugby League (NRL), Australian Football League (AFL), the A-League (Football) and Rugby Union’s Super Rugby competition. NRL player Shaun Kenny-Dowall won the inaugural medal in 2015, while NRL star Jarryd Hayne is the most recent recipient.
Tristan Sailor leads a group of fellow NRL players who have been nominated for various offences which occurred in 2021 or earlier. Sailor was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2020 and is still waiting for the courts to determine his guilt or innocence.
During the time Sailor spent with the woman at the Beach Road Hotel in Bondi and at her home, he is accused of giving the alleged victim a sedative. He then allegedly assaulted the woman before discarding her in a state that was described as ‘extremely vulnerable’. The woman was reportedly found unconscious by her friend.
Interestingly, a number of former NRL players provided affidavits to police in support of the rising star, including his former coach Paul McGregor and rugby league immortal Darren Lockyer, both of whom have been nominated for The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame for offences related to alcohol abuse. The same Darren Lockyer who earned one of his Frownlow nominations for joking about the Canterbury Bulldogs gang rape scandal in 2004.
The talented half was left without a club for 2021 after the St George-Illawarra Dragons decided not to renew his contract, and the outcome of his court case may determine whether he plays professional football ever gain. He qualifies for The Frownlow Medal because he was playing in the NRL at the time of the alleged incident.
Sailor’s fellow nominees are all rugby league players.
Anthony Milford also allegedly can’t keep his hands off women. Just after signing with the South Sydney Rabbitohs for the 2022 season, he was charged with three counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and one count of wilful damage.
Milford is alleged to have become involved in an argument with his wife, and mother of his young child, as well as other people. He is said to have fled the scene. Police then hunted him though the streets of Fortitude Valley and arrested him, before making him spend the night in a police cell.
Milford was previously nominated for ‘liking’ Israel Folau’s famous homophobic social media post, and in previous years was nominated for a drunken incidents at the Canberra Raiders, and for breaking team curfew with the Queensland State of Origin team.
The alleged incident occurred near a nightclub called Ella Sabe, Spanish for She Knows. What does she know?
Tui Kamikamica has been stood down by the Melbourne Storm after being charged with assault occasioning bodily harm following the alleged incident in Fortitude Valley, and is accused of assaulting a 30-year-old woman.
Thus, three rugby league players currently under investigation for allegedly assaulting women.
Manase Fainu is still in contention for The Frownlow Medal as he awaits the outcome of the court case surrounding an alleged stabbing outside a Mormon church dance in 2019.
Fainu has been charged with various offences, including affray and intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and the matter is still under investigation. The promising young hooker was also nominated for Frownlow honours in 2018, after filming himself and a young woman having sex and posting the film to social media without the girl’s permission.
Zane Musgrove has collected yet another Frownlow nomination in 2022, and yet another last chance in the NRL. This time he was nominated for allegedly driving on a suspended license.
Will one of these players win The Frownlow Medal in 2022?
Image: NuNa
The Frownlow Medal 