{"id":899639,"date":"2026-04-16T15:15:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/footy-legend-wendell-sailor-gets-court-reprieve-over-drunken-incidents\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:15:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:15:03","slug":"footy-legend-wendell-sailor-gets-court-reprieve-over-drunken-incidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/footy-legend-wendell-sailor-gets-court-reprieve-over-drunken-incidents\/","title":{"rendered":"Footy legend Wendell Sailor gets court reprieve over drunken incidents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Music <\/p>\n

\n

Cross-code legend Wendell Sailor has had criminal charges dismissed under mental health legislation with a warning to ensure his life stays on the right path.<\/p>\n

The 51-year-old had pleaded guilty to three charges spanning six months<\/a>, including resisting arrest and intimidation.<\/p>\n

But the dual international was given a reprieve in Sydney\u2019s Downing Centre Local Court on Friday when the magistrate said his progress in turning around his alcohol addiction was promising.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/title><\/svg><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Sailor has been on medication for several months to treat both depression and alcoholism, magistrate Jennifer Atkinson found.<\/p>\n

The two drunken incidents that led to the charges had been a necessary wake-up call to prompt him to seek help.<\/p>\n

Court documents said it took nine police officers to get Sailor into custody during an incident in Wollongong, and also stated that he acted \u201caggressively\u201d and \u201cabused police repeatedly\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sailor seemingly mocked that claim on social media, when he posted a picture of himself from 2017 with Hollywood star Amber Heard and the captions \u201cfake news\u201d and \u201cthey sent 9 (with laughing emojis)\u201c.<\/p>\n

The court documents also described Sailor as \u201chostile\u201d in both incidents.<\/p>\n

Sailor represented Australia in both rugby codes, distinguishing himself as the top try-scorer when the national side won the Rugby League World Cup in 2000.<\/p>\n

Sailor also proved a prolific scorer during a four-year rugby union stint, crossing 13 times in 37 games for the Wallabies and earning a start in the 2003 World Cup final.<\/p>\n

He finished his 222-game NRL career in 2009 after nine seasons with the Brisbane Broncos and two seasons with St George Illawarra.<\/p>\n

– With 7NEWS.com.au<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Music Cross-code legend Wendell Sailor has had criminal charges dismissed under mental health legislation with a warning to ensure his life stays on the right path. The 51-year-old had pleaded guilty to three charges spanning six months, including resisting arrest and intimidation. But the dual international was given a reprieve in Sydney\u2019s Downing Centre Local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":899640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[131522],"class_list":{"0":"post-899639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business-news","8":"tag-podcast-music"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}