A former football teammate of AFL player Marley Williams says he saw three men attack the Collingwood young gun, which is claimed to have prompted a one-punch reprisal.
Williams is accused of putting 30-year-old Matthew Robertson in hospital after a confrontation outside an Albany nightspot in December 2012. Mr Robertson needed a permanent plate inserted in his jaw after the punch.
The 20-year-old has pleaded not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm, which carries a possible jail term of 10 years.
Williams is claiming self-defence, saying moments earlier Mr Robertson and his two friends had assaulted him in the nightclub's toilets.
On day two of the trial at Albany District Court, Jordan Willox, who had known Williams since they were teenage football hopefuls, stumbled in on the three-on-one attack in the toilets.
"He had his hands above his head, in a defence from himself stopping to get hit," Mr Willox said.
"They were swinging their fists on top of Marley. All three of them."
Williams' brother Codee (Codee) described seeing his brother "stirred up" in the moments before the punch was thrown outside Studio 146.
Marley Williams later told his brother a trio of men had targeted him in the toilets because of his AFL profile.
"He was tearing up when I first talked to him, and then said, 'These guys tried mobbing me in the toilets. They were hitting me in the ribs. They cheap-shotted me'," Codee Williams said.
Nightclub owner Malcolm Pages said he had come across the confrontation in the toilet, and had asked Mr Robertson and his friends to leave.
But he said he saw no punches thrown.
Defence counsel Tom Percy SC said the assault in the toilets had occurred because of Williams' profile, after the three men had drunk themselves "senseless" at a race meeting.
"He was attacked in the toilets for no reason whatsoever, other than he was a prominent sportsman and they were big noting themselves," Mr Percy said.
The trial continues.
