Former AFL player Brennan Stack is the latest footballer to join The Fronwlow Medal Wife Beaters Club after pleading guilty to violently assaulting women.
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.
The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame honours former players and players who received media attention in previous seasons, for similarly scandalous behaviour, and its inductees include Ben Cousins and Julian O’Neill.
Horrific CCTV footage shows Stack and another man, Shai Martin, attacking two young women in a Perth carpark in March 2022. The women were left with serious injuries and were taken to hospital, while a third woman was also assaulted during the incident.
According to the CCTV footage, Stack is shown punching and hitting one of the women until she passes out. Martin then appears to drag one of the women along the ground by her hair, while both men are seen kicking a woman in the head. One of the women attempts to escape by crawling along the ground, but is seen and prevented from escaping. Reports also indicate that the players stomped on the victims’ heads and threw a bottle at one – at times while the women were unconscious.
Footage indicates that the incident ends when the police arrive.
What started the assault?
Apparently an argument over car doors slamming into one another.
Stack had been a mentor in the AFL community and took up the head coaching role at Nollamara Football Club in 2022, but was removed from the role once news broke of this incident.
The former Western Bulldogs player joins the following professional footballers in The Frownlow Medal Wife Beaters Club:
NRL
Kenny Edwards
Zane Tetevano
Ben Barba
Jake Friend
Anthony Watts
Isaac Gordon
Richie Fa’aoso
Anthony Cherrington
Addin Fonua-Blake
Kirisome Auva’a
Jarryd Hayne
Jamil Hopoate
Joel Romelo
AFL
Elijah Taylor
Nick Stevens
Liam Jurrah
Andrew Lovett
Wayne Carey
Albert Proud
Brennan Stack
Rugby Union
Craig Wells
Image: NuNa
The Frownlow Medal 