Gifted footballer Billy Nicholls now a fallen star Mark Buttler
Herald Sun
May 03, 2013 5:59PMTHERE are those who would tell you Billy Nicholls should be in the twilight of a successful AFL career.
A gifted junior footballer, he starred on debut, aged 15, against hardened men in a tough Geelong competition. Five years later, in 2001, Nicholls kicked three goals on debut for Hawthorn, and played a final that year.
But fast-forward 12 years, and Nicholls, 32, is in a cell on remand, looking at the possibility of serious jail time over two separate shootings in his home city in the past 11 months.
Those who knew the young Nicholls say he was always a bit of a scallywag, but what made him different was a tremendous footballing talent that, if harnessed, might have set him up for life.
The Geelong Football League is a high-standard competition played in a highly physical fashion at senior level. Nicholls was a major factor in a successful era for the North Shore club.
He had seven scoring shots in booting two of his team's nine goals in just his second game, the 1996 grand final.
"He was dominant. He mixed it really well with the big boys," an observer told the Herald Sun.
"He could have been anything in footy. It's a bit of a shame."
Nicholls was invited to the elite Geelong Falcons TAC Cup team. He was drafted to Hawthorn, but after 16 games with the Hawks and Richmond between 2001 and 2004, he headed back to Geelong and played with Corio.
"He's a likable larrikin and very loyal bloke. Part of where he's at today might be because of that," one former associate said.
Nicholls's fondness for a big night out was well known around Geelong and that, combined with injuries, is seen as a factor in his truncated career in top-level footy.
By 2010 Nicholls was badly out of shape when he resumed his career with South Warrnambool in the Hampden Football League. The father of three got a job at a local power station, lost 15kg and booted six goals in a semi-final.
"When it came to footy, he was absolutely switched on . . . dedicated to the cause," one ex-player said. "If he commits himself to something, he's great at it."
Early this year Nicholls was still toying with the idea of getting back into football. The Geelong Advertiser reported he was considering running out with Corio.
But about this time, police were putting in their own hard yards on the two shootings.
The first was in June last year, when a 25-year-old Coburg man was shot in the leg after arriving at the Springfield Court home Nicholls was sharing with his partner.
There were rumours the victim had been reluctant to help police, but it became clear in March that this had not deterred investigators when they raided the home looking for more evidence.
It was then announced that a special police taskforce called Griffin, headed by Detective Inspector Adrian Dalzotto, had been investigating the shootings for months.
The second shooting, at North Shore on January 8, left a 46-year-old man in hospital with a leg injury.
CCTV footage released to the media showed two men, one of whom appeared to be holding a handgun, entering the Myrtle Grove property.
Officers from the Special Operations Group - which specialises in high-risk arrests - pounced near the Corio shopping centre on April 26.
Amateur footage shows the former footballer and a mate walking along a street before the SOG officers pile from a white van, guns trained on the pair.
The mate is shoved aside and Nicholls calmly complies with an order to lie face down on the footpath. It is all over in seconds.
The courts will now decide the next chapter of the Billy Nicholls story.
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