Richmond star Dion Prestia denies breaking COVID-19 lockdown rules

Kieran Francis

Richmond star Dion Prestia denies breaking COVID-19 lockdown rules image

Richmond star Dion Prestia has denied breaking Victoria's lockdown rules after being pictured with alcohol on the streets of Melbourne as the Tigers commence an investigation into the incident.

The 28-year-old was featured in an Instagram story which appears to show the three-time Premiership player out-and-about on the streets of Richmond with friends and a picture caption saying, 'crawling from pub-to-pub'.

However, when contacted by 7 News, Prestia's manager Marty Pask said there was no breach of lockdown rules, insisting the midfielder was within 5km of his home, picked up takeaway alcohol and then posed for photos with his housemates.

According to Fox Footy, Richmond have commenced an investigation into whether Prestia broke any regulations, while the AFL has declined to comment at this stage.

Victoria Police chief commissioner Shane Patton was quoted on Monday criticising a group of people for being involved in a 'pub crawl' through the streets of Richmond over the weekend.

There is no suggestion Prestia was a part of this particular pub crawl, which involved pubs and bars selling alcohol and patrons moving from venue-to-venue while drinking with others.

"We’ve seen some really disappointing behaviour, we’ve seen some selfish behaviour, and some absolutely outrageous behaviour," Patton said.

"Every one of these things is just totally unacceptable and everybody knows they’re doing the wrong thing.

"We’ve seen so many different breaches, it’s just ridiculous and it has to stop."

Victoria - which recorded 22 new COVID cases on Monday - has been in lockdown for the past two weeks and has now added a 9pm-5am curfew to its rules, after several breaches to its current regulations, such as the 'pub crawl', occurred over the weekend.

Kieran Francis

Kieran Francis Photo

Kieran Francis is a senior editor at The Sporting News based in Melbourne, Australia. He started at Sportal.com.au before being a part of the transition to Sporting News in 2015. Just prior to the 2018 World Cup, he was appointed chief editor of Goal.com in Australia. He has now returned to The Sporting News where his passions lay in football, AFL, poker and cricket - when he is not on holiday.