Former AFL player Shannon Cox joins a band of badly behaving footballers in The Frownlow Medal Hall of Fame in 2025.
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 AFL player Noah Balta 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.
Cox was driving with his daughter when he killed two women and has been given a sentence of eight-and-a-half years. The former Collingwood player fell asleep at the wheel and crossed into the path of oncoming traffic north of Perth on June 7, 2024. The women, in their 80s and on their way to a Country Women’s Association event, died at the scene.
The West Australian was initially charged with two counts of dangerous driving causing death, but the charges were later upgraded to manslaughter. Further complicating matters for Cox was the fact that his lawyer did not show up for the court hearing. Cox then faced a charge of breaching bail after he produced a positive drug test. During court proceedings, it was also revealed that Cox had a history of drug use and had served two years and six months behind bars for drug-related offences.
Fellow AFL alumni Ryan Crowley was inducted for alleged domestic violence. The former Fremantle and Essendon player allegedly choked and threatened his ex-partner in Perth and faced nine charges including impeding the woman’s breathing by applying pressure to her neck, making threats, unlawfully using a computer and deprivation of liberty in circumstances of aggravation.
Crowley was also accused of throwing the 34-year-old to the floor, shaking her, slamming her head on the ground multiple times and smothering her with a pillow, forcing her to lose consciousness.
At one stage the court was told the woman cried out for help before she was assaulted again. Crowley allegedly stayed the night at the woman’s apartment and prevented her from leaving the following morning, before she was finally able to escape and call for help.
Also inducted for domestic violence is Former NRL player Wes Patten. He was sentenced to almost two years in jail for a domestic violence incident that occurred in Sydney in 2019. He was arrested and charged with assault causing actual bodily harm and common assault.
The former Balmain, Gold Coast, Souths and St George player was released, but was arrested again a year later for acting with intent to influence a witness after trying to get the woman to provide false evidence in court. As a result, his original jail term was doubled.
Michael Braun was inducted after numeroud off-field incidents. In 2025, he was charged with assault, while in 2022, he was charged with three counts of breaching a family violence restraining order. The charges were laid just months after he split from his wife. Braun pleaded not guilty and charges were eventually dropped.
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.
Former NRL player Brett Dallas is a classic fall from grace.
He spent 10 months in custody after being caught with 29 grams of meth to feed his addiction.
He broke up with his wife, with whom he has two children.
He was charged with 10 stealing offences, mainly of clothes, furniture and electronic equipment including board shorts, a coffee table and mobile phone charger.
At the same time his online behaviour became more irrational, with a number of bizarre social media rants and worrying photographic posts alienating him from many in the rugby league community.
At one point, police allegedly found more than 29 grams of ice hidden inside an oven, as well as $7670 in cash, a packaging machine and two marijuana plants growing in his backyard. The bust came just months after Dallas appeared in court for his 10th stealing offence.
In 2021, he was charged with aggravated possession of ice, supplying ice, producing marijuana, possessing ketamine as well as weapons charges. He’d already been in police custody for six months.
A fellow NRL player, Chris Nahi, was also inducted. A police raid uncovered more than 1000 ecstasy tablets at his property and the former New Zealand Maori rep fled and remained on the run for eight days before handing himself into police. He was charged with deprivation of liberty, the unlawful use of a motor vehicle, obstructing police, firearm and drug related offences. As a result, he was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail for possessing a commercial quantity of ecstasy tablets in 2006 and convicted of the “deprivation of liberty” charge.
Then, in 2017, he was deported from Australia.
Brent Todd played for the Canberra Raiders, Gold Coast Seagulls and New Zealand but achieved fame for fraud after retiring. He did the rounds of reality TV shows before committing fraud involving poker machines.
The prop pleaded guilty to a fake invoicing scheme that cheated the North Harbour Rugby Football Union and Touch New Zealand of $2 million. A judge described the acts as a “calculated and systematic” fraud that involved “essentially facilitating grants” for the bodies in return for kickbacks during the early 2000s.
Originally Todd could have been sentenced to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the charges, but he took responsibility for his part in the fraud and provided evidence against five co-accused. He also was expected to repay more than $600,000 and was ordered to complete community work and serve a 12-month home detention.
After essentially ratting on his former colleagues, Todd might be unpopular at the awards night for The Frownlow Medal and hall of fame later this year, but could win favour if they find out that he was also fined $500 in 2006 for procuring cocaine.
Cox won’t be driving himself to the Frownlow awards, and he certainly won’t be driving home after a night of no-holds-barred drunken debauchery alongside some of the best sporting role models in the country.
Image: NuNa
The Frownlow Medal 