Father of NRL stars Nat and Egan Butcher relives the moment he flattened an armed man who was on the run after escaping jail

The fearless father of NRL stars Nat and Egan Butcher has recalled the moment he used a shoulder charge in a bid to detain a man on the run from Sydney’s Long Bay Jail.

Blake Butcher was in Malabar chatting with a relative on August 13, 2023, when he crossed paths with Jason Melbon, who was armed with a knife.

Melbon – who only had 18 months left to serve of a nine-year prison sentence at the time – had earlier jumped the Long Bay fence before going on a rampage in Sydney’s east.

Despite breaking his ankle once fleeing the correctional facility, Melbon, 43, broke into numerous homes starting at Little Bay, stole a car and tied up another terrified mother in her house.

He then ran into Butcher on the street, who didn’t hesitate to use the move that’s now banned in the NRL.

‘I knocked him to the ground,’ Butcher – a former first grader player himself with the Rabbitohs – told News Corp.

‘(He) looked straight at me. ‘He (then) ran off around the corner and broke into another person’s house.

‘We followed him in my car… I spotted him taking off in another car. I got the number plate and we called the police.

‘He was caught shortly after.’

Melbon, 43, is due to appear in court on June 20 after pleading guilty to a number of offences, including attempting to escape from lawful custody at Sydney’s Downing Centre Court on May 22.

The charges include two counts of aggravated break and enter and committing a serious indictable offence, taking and driving a conveyance without the owner’s consent and two counts of taking and detaining a person with intent to obtain advantage.

Melbon was due for parole on December 11 last year – but is now facing a longer stint behind bars. 

Nat Butcher make his NRL debut with the Roosters in 2016, and won a premiership three years later.

Younger brother Egan has been on the books of the Tricolours since 2021.