Australian football champion Carl Ditterich has been charged with historic offenses of child sexual abuse.
The former ruckman, who played 285 games for St Kilda and Melbourne from 1963 to 1980, has been charged with three counts of indecent assault and one count of gross indecency.
The Bayside Child Abuse and Sexual Crimes Investigation Team has laid charges against the 78-year-old Moama man following an investigation into alleged historical child sex crimes.
The alleged incidents relate to one victim and took place in Heatherton, a suburb in Melbourne’s southeast, in 1985, police said.
The matter was heard in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday and is due back in court at the end of June.
Ditterich was renowned as a tough man and one of the most reported players in AFL/VFL history, appearing in court on 19 occasions and being suspended for 30 matches throughout his brilliant career.
He missed out on St Kilda’s only premiership in 1966 while serving a six-match ban.
Ditterich is a member of St Kilda’s team of the century after playing 203 games for the Saints over two spells.
He also served as captain-coach of Melbourne in 1979 and 1980, and was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
The AFL Commission has stripped disgraced legend Barry Cable of his Australian Football Hall of Fame honors in 2023 after a judge found he had sexually abused a Perth girl at the peak of his playing career.
St Kilda and the AFL have been contacted for comment.