Premiership-winning Melbourne Demons defender Steven May has often courted controversy during his AFL career, and has now revealed how his coach hung up on him after a drinking session when he moved to the club in 2019.
May was a high-profile recruit for the Demons during the 2018 offseason, but failed to fulfill his potential in his freshman year as a groin injury robbed him of half the season.
Melbourne would crash to 17th on the ladder that year and May was slammed for being spotted in public during a highly controversial drinking session while rehabbing her groin injury.
Now he has revealed the reasons he went to that infamous pub session – and the severe reaction he received from coach Simon Goodwin.
‘It was an injury of twelve to thirteen weeks. During that time I tried and tried to get back, I started doing well, and then my girlfriend and I broke up,” May told the newspaper. Australian Aces podcast.
‘It was a pretty tough break. I went to the pub and had a few beers by myself and was photographed drinking a beer.
May found his career at a crossroads after he was photographed drinking a beer while injured following his high-profile move from the Gold Coast Suns to the Melbourne Demons
May was accused of not concentrating on his football because he drank while injured
Coach Simon Goodwin was very blunt with his prize recruit and eventually hung up on him
‘Goody’ called me and he was very angry. I said, ‘Mate, calm down, I’ve just had a few beers, my wife was waiting to go to the airport and we’d just broken up,’ May continued.
‘I didn’t want to be at her house.
“He said, ‘You’re in rehab, you can’t drink.’ I said, “I know, but I just had a breakup,” but he said, “No, you can’t drink” and just hung up.
“I was like, far away, stop this. It didn’t really matter to me, no problem.
‘I didn’t know it would be in the paper tomorrow, on all those talk shows, and I got completely carried away. It was very tough.’
May then revealed the reaction he received from teammates after the very public flogging he received for drinking while injured, and the advice he received that helped him bounce back.
‘I didn’t know what to do. I had to stand up and apologize to my teammates. I told them what happened and they said, ‘What are you apologizing for?’ he said.
‘They all said: ‘Next time don’t go to the pub’. I didn’t really have any friends yet because I wasn’t playing games, I was injured.
‘That was very difficult and I sought advice. “This is really hard, what have I done? I should have stayed on the Gold Coast, I made a blunder here”.
‘On the Goldy I could have had ten beers in the pub and that would have gone fine.
‘I got some good advice: “No one cares what you have to say, just get fit again, show them how good you are, I tell you they will be on your side again.”
May received some sage advice from a teammate, which helped him transform his form after his rough start to life as a demon
AFL legend Paul Roos was one of many who joined the pile when May was slammed for being injured
May ultimately had the last laugh, winning a premiership and being named a two-time All Australian
It comes after premiership-winning coach Paul Roos previously hit out at May, saying his focus was not on his football career.
“What I do know is that footy is not a priority for him. Clearly not a priority,” Roos said after May moved to the Demons in 2019.
‘I’m not 100 percent sure what that is at the moment, but it’s not football. That’s not his first priority. Let’s be very clear about that.
“If football was his top priority, I don’t know what he goes through when he has problems off the field. What I’m saying is that football is not his priority.’
Melbourne finished 17th in 2019 before improving to ninth in 2020 and then winning the premiership and minor premiership in 2021.
May was named All-Australian in 2021 and 2022.