him to an investigation by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, which cleared him of wrongdoing. Braun was ultimately awarded defamation damages against Seven and Fairfax, and received an apology from Akermanis, who conceded that he had been referring to Braun, and admitted that he had been wrong. In a May 2010 column, he wrote about homosexuality in sports, and expressed an opinion that he believed homosexual players should stay in the closet, as he did not believe football culture was at that time ready to fully accept them. Numerous people spoke out against his column, and the Western Bulldogs, who were worried about the negative publicity, suspended him for two matches for not having the column approved by the club before having it published. Akermanis would later be dismissed by the Western Bulldogs two months later, partly related to leaking confidential team information to the media as part of a media career which the Bulldogs believed was taking an undue amount of his focus. In a radio interview shortly after the death of former Melbourne Football Club player and president Jim Stynes in 2012, Akermanis commented that Stynes was "a nasty man in his day", was treated as a "demi-god", and questioned his deservedness to receive a state funeral just two days after Stynes' death. In October 2014, Akermanis was suspended for four matches as head coach of the North Albury Football Club after being found guilty of breaching the AFL Victoria cyber-bullying policy in regards to several umpires' decisions during the 2014 Ovens & Murray Football League season. By 2019, Akermanis had reportedly been banned by three golf clubs for alleged cheating incidents. Akermanis denied the clubs’ claims. Personal life Akermanis is married to Megan Legge, a speech pathologist. They have three daughters. Akermanis learned Auslan to communicate with his wife's hearing-impaired parents. He also speaks Spanish. Statistics |- style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1995 |style="text-align:center;"| | 35 || 17 || 12 || 8 || 101 || 65 || 166 || 30 || 15 || 0.7 || 0.5 || 5.9 || 3.8 || 9.8 || 1.8 || 0.9 |- ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1996 |style="text-align:center;"| | 20 || 21 || 32 || 14 || 240 || 88 || 328 || 76 || 26 || 1.5 || 0.7 || 11.4 || 4.2 || 15.6 || 3.6 || 1.2 |- style="background:#eaeaea;" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1997 |style="text-align:center;"|Brisbane Lions | 12