NRL player Junior Amone’s football career hangs in the balance but he has been spared jail over an “appalling” altercation outside the family home that sent his father into custody.
The 21-year-old left court with an order to behave and complete hundreds of hours of community service, but his father Talatau Amone, 47, was jailed for at least 12 months.
Junior Amone’s “appalling conduct” could still jeopardise his future, Magistrate Gabriel Fleming said.
“That is a tragedy clearly, but it’s your tragedy not mine,” she told Amone in Wollongong Local Court today.
Amone stayed silent as he left court, not responding when asked if he hoped to play with the St George Illawarra Dragons next year.
The club acknowledged the outcome in a statement and said it would work with the NRL integrity unit on “the appropriate next steps”.
Lawyer Elias Tabchouri said Amone’s career was up to the league to determine.
“We’re clearly happy that we’ve avoided a full-time jail sentence,” he told reporters.
The Amones were found guilty over an altercation at Warrawong, in Wollongong’s south, where tradesmen on a neighbouring property were confronted in November 2022.
Junior Amone climbed on the roof and armed himself with a hammer as his father egged him on following a dispute over where a vehicle was parked.
“This is appalling conduct,” Fleming said.
One tradie fell from the roof and sustained serious injuries to his hands, arms and hips.
A vehicle was damaged and the pair both received $1000 in fines with an order to pay compensation of more than $13,000.
Both were charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, intimidation and damaging property.
The older man faced an extra count of entering a building or land to commit an indictable offence and was jailed for two years and six months with a non-parole period of 12 months.
His lengthy criminal record did him no favours and a report prepared before sentencing said he had a “complete lack of insight” into his aggressive and violent behaviour.
He had “a long-held belief that instrumental violence is an appropriate response to perceived threats to his family”, the report said.
The court heard the victim denied any threat was made in the lead-up to the attack.
The magistrate backdated Talatau Amone’s sentence to account for time spent in custody and shortened his non-parole period so he could receive treatment for anger management issues in the community when eligible for parole in September.
He was taken into the dock but watched on as his son was spared jail.
The younger Amone was stood down from all Dragons activities following the guilty verdicts in October.
He received a two-year intensive corrections order including 300 hours of community service.
Amone’s barrister, John Korn, earlier told the court the NRL player went to “fairly high levels of activity” to give back to the community as he tried to persuade the magistrate to spare his client jail time.
The five-eighth earlier became subject to the NRL’s “no-fault stand down” policy, suspending players facing charges that carry maximum terms of 11 years or more in prison.
But when his case moved from the district to local court, reducing his maximum possible sentence, the NRL cleared him to return in March.
He played 19 games, scoring one try and assisting seven others as the Dragons narrowly avoided the wooden spoon after only five wins from the 2023 campaign.
