A Melbourne Storm star has been spared an assault conviction over a restaurant scuffle in which another man mouthed off at a woman and then threatened to kill the NRL forward.
Second-rower Shawn Blore, 25, pleaded guilty to common assault stemming from a melee in July 2024 involving his brother and a third man in Sydney's city centre.
In agreed facts before a Sydney magistrate on Friday, the other man - Naaman Mikhael - had been asked to leave Lebanese restaurant Zaffi for being aggressive and making threats about 2am.
A physical altercation involving about 15 people started outside the restaurant's door, which spilled onto the street.
Blore, his older brother Dean and Dean's partner left the restaurant about the same time, having arrived only a short time before.
As the melee died down, a restaurant employee heard Mikhael "mouthing off" at Dean's partner.
That triggered a heated exchange between Mikhael and Dean, resulting in a physical confrontation in which Blore's brother pinned the 31-year-old's back against a wall.
The Storm forward attempted to break up the scuffle, while another man tried to grab him around the neck from behind, the facts sheet show.
Blore managed to roll the man off, who fell to the ground.
As he walked past him, Blore pushed or punched the man laying on the ground, which he agreed amounted to common assault.
As the brothers walked away, Mikhael called out, "You don't know who I am, I'm going to kill you".
The threat was heard by the same restaurant employee.
Mikhael continued behaving in an aggressive manner, at one point picking up a metal bollard and brandishing it in the air, the facts read.
Dean told police he and his brother did not instigate the scuffles and he was trying to protect his friends.
The Storm second-rower and his brother were initially charged with affray, which they denied, before pleading guilty to the lesser charge of assault.
Sparing each brother a conviction, magistrate Christine Haskett said she was confident the incident was unlikely to happen again.
"And if it does, hopefully you can disassociate yourselves," she told the brothers.
The Blores were both placed on six-month, good behaviour bonds, a sentence used for first-time and less serious offences.
Prosecutors in the Blores' case accepted Mikhael was the instigator - conflicting with prosecutors in Mikhael's case.
An affray charge against Mikhael was dismissed on mental health grounds after a magistrate heard he might have been acting in self-defence initially.
The sentence comes weeks after Blore suffered a grand final loss with the Storm.
The former Samoa representative has played 81 NRL games and scored five tries.
His trip to this year's decider proved a rocky road after he suffered a fractured larynx on the eve of the finals.
Blore avoided being put into an induced coma or needing surgery but was told by doctors he would be sidelined for the rest of the year.
The former Penrith junior star's voice remains raspy and he will have speech therapy, but he has been given no guarantees of a full recovery.
In a statement on Friday, Melbourne Storm confirmed the club notified the NRL Integrity Unit at the time of the incident and Blore co-operated with police.
