Truganina AFL talent Cassius White pleads guilty to affray following horror Swanston St brawl

A Melbourne football talent went in swinging during a wild city brawl which erupted in front of horrified onlookers.

Cassius White pleaded guilty to affray. Facebook.

A prodigious western suburbs footballer punched and kicked rivals during a wild city brawl that left a man laid out unconscious on tram tracks.

Cassius White, 21, avoided a conviction after pleading guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday to affray.

White and several others fought like animals during a daylight rumpus on Swanston St outside Melbourne Central just after 7.30pm on November 1, 2020.

Footage of the vicious display revealed horrified onlookers standing by in absolute shock as the warring parties punched on.

The court heard the brawl ignited after a group approached the Melbourne Central tram stop and demanded their opponents throw down and fight.

The key antagonist called out for “one on ones” while he and his cronies abused their enemies, the court was told.

Fights then erupted and spilt out onto the tram tracks.

White’s cousin James Harder was the first major casualty after he was coward hit in the side of the head by the main thug antagonist.

The blow knocked out Harder who fell and “smashed his head” on the pavement.

White avoided a conviction.

CCTV captured Harder lying unconscious on the tram tracks as the unabated fighting carried on around him.

The antagonist thug then chased and knocked another man into the tram tracks.

The thug punched his victim three times while a crony kicked the man four times while he was “scrambling” to get up.

In the meantime, several members of Harder’s group moved to protect their unconscious mate while he remained laid out on the tram tracks.

Other thugs move in to attack the group but multiple onlookers mobilised and attempted to defuse the nightmare scene.

However, hostilities flared up again after a menace spat on Harder while another thug – who had been recording the brawl while hurtling abuse from the sidelines – threw a crate at Harder’s head.

The thug threw another crate before running away.

Another man then spat on Harder.

White, who had been in the toilet when the brawl erupted, moved into the action after spotting his cousin lying on the tracks.

White kicked and punched a man who was on the ground.

White attacked rivals during the brawl.

The court heard White was also among a group of brawlers engaged in combat when a rival fighter was knocked out.

White chased two men away before police arrived at the scene.

The court heard several shocked witnesses confronted by the “violence and spot fires” called triple-0

Harder was rushed to hospital where he spent two nights after undergoing surgery for a fractured jaw.

White told police he punched someone, kicked another and chased a man who had thrown a crate.

The defence submitted White was “simply seeking to defend his friend (cousin)”.

The court heard White, a church goer, grew up in a “good family background” in Melbourne’s West.

White, of Truganina, is also a talented footy player who had finished a training a session on the day of the brawl.

White, a former Western Jets draft prospect, currently plays for the Samoan AFL representative team, the court was told.

According to a Facebook post, White joined Essendon Districts Football League club Hillside Sharks last year.

Magistrate Rob Stary said the brawl “aroused fear”.

“Anyone one who saw that in public would be horrified …,” Magistrate Stary said.

“(The conduct is) unacceptable, walk away from violence, don’t engage in it.”

White, who has no priors nor subsequent offending, was fined $750 without conviction.

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