Former AFL player Michael Braun has reinforced the stereotype that professional footballers are no brain and all brawn after being charged with assault for the second time.
Braun joins the long list of players to have earned a nomination for The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame after being charged with assault.
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 men’s and women’s 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 Ezra Mam 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.
The former West Coast Eagles player was recently charged with aggravated assault in Western Australia. Braun won a premiership with the Eagles in 2006, alongside fellow Frownlow favourites Cousins and Daniel Kerr.
Strengthening his chances of being inducted into the hall of fame are two previous incidents.
In 2022, he was charged with three counts of breaching a family violence restraining order on three occasions. The charges were laid just months after he split from his wife. Braun pleaded not guilty and charges were eventually dropped.
Braun boasts of a carnivore diet on his Instagram page. Has all that red meat made him volatile?
Even winning the prestigious Ross Glendinning Medal landed him in controversy. He ended his acceptance speech with “Let’s have a fucking good year” on live television and in front of a crowd of 42,000 people. The Eagles originally fined him $500, but the AFL severely reprimanded the Eagles and fined him a further $5,000.
Maybe he is all braun.
Image: NuNa
The Frownlow Medal 