Ex-AFL footballer Billy Nicholls charged over shootings A FORMER AFL footballer is behind bars over two shootings in Geelong. Billy Nicholls, 32, has been charged with two counts of intentionally causing serious injury and related offences. He appeared in Geelong Magistrates' Court where he was remanded in custody until May 2. One of the charges related to an incident in Myrtle Grove, North Shore, in which a man aged in his 40s suffered serious injuries on January 8 this year. The other was in connection with a shooting in which a Coburg man, aged in his 20s, was injured. He received gunshot injuries to the legs after a confrontation in Springfield Court, Corio, on June 18 last year. Those offences and others were the target of a special police taskforce called Griffin. It is made up of detectives from the armed crime taskforce and investigators from Geelong. Nicholls played 16 games with the Hawks and Tigers in an injury-plagued career between 2001-04.