Prestia, May Facing Civil Suit Long After Charges Dropped

Footy and the courts again, eh? This time it’s Dion Prestia and Steven May copping a civil lawsuit over that Boxing Day stoush in Sorrento, months after the criminal charges against them were dropped entirely.

Not a great summer for either bloke, and definately not a great look for the game, even if neither of them has been found to have done anything wrong.

What’s actually being alleged here?

Let’s be careful, because this matters. A man is reportedly suing the two former AFL players over an alleged streetside altercation that happened on Boxing Day 2024 in Sorrento, that popular holiday strip where half of Melbourne seems to end up every Christmas.

The criminal charges that were laid against Prestia and May were dropped about eighteen months later. Dropped. Not proven, not admitted, dropped.

Now it’s shifted into the civil courts, which is a different beast entirely. Lower bar of proof, different process, and it can drag on for yonks. We’re talking about allegations here, nothing more at this stage, and it’s on the bloke bringing the case to make it stack up.

Why this one stings a bit extra

Prestia’s a Richmond great, premiership midfielder, the sort of bloke who never really rubbed people up the wrong way in his career. Steven May’s a gun key defender who’s had his own injury dramas and fought hard to get back to his best footy.

Neither of these blokes is walking around with a reputation as a troublemaker. That’s exactly why this story cuts through — it’s not what footy fans expect to read about two respected senior players.

Should we assume anything happened the way it’s being alleged? Nah, course not. That’s not how it works, and it shouldn’t be how it works. The charges were dropped, remember. That’s a fact that can’t just get glossed over every time this story gets written up.

The civil system is a whole different kettle of fish

Plenty of footy fans get confused about why someone can sue over something that police or prosecutors decided not to pursue criminally. But it happens all the time, in footy and outside it.

Criminal charges need proof beyond reasonable doubt. Civil claims only need the balance of probabilities, which is a much lower bar to clear. So just because the criminal matter fell over doesn’t mean a civil case can’t still run its course.

It could take months, could take years. These things crawl along at a snail’s pace through the courts, and until there’s a finding one way or the other, nobody should be out there calling either player guilty of anything.

What it means for Prestia and May going forward

Both players are watching their footy careers from a different vantage point these days, but this sort of legal cloud doesn’t just disappear because you’re not playing every weekend anymore.

It’s the kind of stuff that follows blokes around. Every interview, every club appearance, every time their name comes up, this’ll get a mention until it’s resolved. That’s rough, whether you’re the AFL’s best midfielder or a bloke flipping snags in Sorrento.

I feel for both of them having to deal with this hanging over their heads, genuinely. Nobody wants their Boxing Day barbecue turning into a multi-year legal saga that follows them into retirement.

The AFL’s awkward relationship with off-field dramas

The AFL will no doubt be watching this closely from a distance, even though it’s a private legal matter between individuals and has nothing to do with the competition itself.

Every time a current or former player ends up in the courts, whether it’s resolved in their favour or not, it becomes a headline that drags the competition’s name through it as well. Fair or not, that’s the reality of being an AFL footballer, past or present.

We’ve seen this pattern before with other incidents over the years — streetside dramas, nightclub dramas, holiday season dramas. Boxing Day and New Year’s seem to be peak season for this stuff, probably because half the country’s out celebrating and tempers run that bit hotter after a few too many.

Carn the Pies, but fair’s fair here

Look, I’m a Collingwood man through and through, always have been, always will be. I’ll barrack for my Pies till the day I die and I reckon the umpires have had it in for us plenty of seasons running, that’s just how I see it.

But this isn’t a Collingwood story, and it’s not really even a footy story in the traditional sense. It’s two blokes who happen to be well known from their footy careers getting dragged into the legal system, and the rest of us reading about it from the sidelines.

The only sensible thing anyone can do right now is wait. Wait for the actual facts to come out in court, wait for a judgment, and not go jumping to conclusions based on headlines alone. We’ve all seen how quickly reputations get trashed online before the full story’s even out.

Where this leaves the broader footy world

Every time something like this pops up it reminds you that footy players, even the champions, the premiership heroes, the All-Australians, are just blokes at the end of the day. They go on holidays, they have a few beers, sometimes things go sideways that have got nothing to do with what happens between the white lines.

Should clubs be doing more to educate players around these risky situations, especially around Christmas and New Year’s when everyone’s letting their hair down? Maybe. It’s a fair question to ask, even if there’s no guarantee it would of changed anything in this particular case.

For now, this one plays out in the civil courts, well away from the footy itself. Prestia and May deserve the same presumption of fairness anyone else would get, and so does the bloke bringing the claim. Let the process run, and we’ll see where it lands.

Until then, it’s just another reminder that the line between footy news and real life gets blurrier every single year. Carn the Pies regardless — round’s coming up quick and there’s always next contest to worry about.