Former AFL premiership players Steven May and Dion Prestia are being sued over an alleged fight outside a Sorrento hotel.

Charges were dropped against the pair in May earlier this year after being laid in October 2025 over an incident outside the Continental Hotel on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula on Boxing Day 2024.

May and Prestia have both denied any involvement, but according to the Herald Sun, a civil suit has been launched by the alleged victim.

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The Supreme Court heard in a directions hearing on Friday that two other men are also being sued over the fight, which saw two men taken to hospital and one with a reported detached retina and fractured eye socket.

The man suing has not been named.

34-year old Prestia, who has recently joined Hawthorn as a development coach after the triple-premiership Richmond star retired at the end of the 2026 season, was cleared of affray and recklessly causing serious injury charges, having been alleged to have punched a man during the brawl.

He issued a statement after charges were laid in October last year denying the allegations.

Dion Prestia is being sued over an alleged fight in Sorrento in December 2024. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)Source: AAP
Steven May is also part of the civil suit. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

“I was not even physically present when it (the fight) apparently took place,” the statement read.

“I deny that I am guilty of these offences and will strenuously defend these charges.”

May, 34, who retired just days out from the start of the season after negotiating a settlement with the Demons to finish his contract one year early, had also been charged with affray.

Melbourne also put out a statement on the 2021 premiership player and dual All-Australian’s behalf claiming he “was not involved in the alleged incident and will strongly defend the charge in court”.

The pair both began their careers as inaugural players at the Gold Coast Suns, with Prestia taken with pick 9 in the 2010 national draft, while May was one of two zone selections from the Northern Territory.

Steven May (centre) and Dion Prestia (right), alongside former teammate Rory Thompson (left), began their careers on the Gold Coast. (Picture by Scott Fletcher)Source: News Corp Australia

Prestia was traded to the Tigers at the end of the 2016 season, winning three premierships in his first four years at the club and winning the Jack Dyer Medal as the club’s best and fairest in 2019; while May followed suit at the end of 2017 and played a key role in the Dees’ drought-breaking 2021 flag.

It was reported in May 2025 that May and Prestia had been questioned by police over the incident

After charges were dropped in May 2026, the prosecution were ordered to pay legal costs for the duo



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