AFL legend Wayne Carey has broken his silence on the reported verbal stoush he had with former teammate Anthony Stevens during North Melbourne’s premiership reunion.
More than 20 years after Carey’s cheating scandal with Stevens’ then-wife forced him out of the Kangaroos, SEN journalist Sam Edmund reported the pair clashed at a gathering of former North players on Saturday night.
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According to Edmund, there was an “ugly altercation” between Carey and Stevens at North Melbourne’s 1996 premiership gathering at the Railway Hotel in Yarraville.
“It’s a pretty sad sequel,” Edmund said on SEN’s Dwayne’s World.
“Witnesses said, Dwayne, that Carey went at Stevens, accusing him of talking behind his back, telling people not to bother trying to catch up with him but then being fine in-person.
“Witnesses said Carey went at Stevens, accusing him of talking behind his back and telling people he couldn’t be contacted and to not bother trying to catch up with him, but then being fine in-person.”
On Wednesday, Carey broke his silence on the reports and explained what really went down on Saturday night.
“The first story said came to blows and that’s factually incorrect. There were no blows,” Carey said on Triple M.
“There was a firm conversation – altercation I think is even too firm to say that occurred.
“I wanted to have a conversation about Stevo, I was worried about him. I said ‘I’m worried about you’ and he obviously took a little bit of umbrage to say I was worried about him.
“I said I’m worried about, I want him to look after himself like people want me to look after myself.
“To say that it was a massive altercation and it came to blows and then we left there and everyone was upset with everyone and it was a big thing is totally incorrect – that’s the disappointing thing about it.
“It wasn’t a story and still isn’t a story.
“I hope I’ve just cleared up that once again this has been blown into something it wasn’t.
“I’m not sure why it should always be talked about – it doesn’t make sense.
“(Sam’s) let himself down with this.
“You know what Sam? We all have bad days. You’ve had a shocker.”
Carey admitted it was well known he and Stevens “aren’t best mates”, but felt Edmund only reported half the story on Monday.
“What he did leave out was at the end of the night or the evening or late afternoon or whatever it was, Stevo and I actually had a couple of beers together and left together,” he said.
“We were standing out the front both waiting for our respective Ubers to leave the particular venue. I have left that out.
“It sounds like we’ve had this massive blow up and an altercation and as he said we came to blows which was clearly factually incorrect.”
Stevens didn’t appear on Sunday when the North Melbourne premiership players held a motorcade celebration for fans. Carey doesn’t believe that decision had anything to do with the conversation the two had.
“I don’t know whether Stevo was upset the next day or not, and that’s why he didn’t come to the motorcade,” Carey said.
“What I do know about that, and my understanding and I’ve spoken to Arch (Glenn Archer) and I’ve spoken to Kingy (David King) and I’ve spoken to heaps of other players that are close with Stevo and some of those players I’m close with and Stevo wasn’t well.
“He’d had a reasonable night. It would be fair to say. We all had a reasonable day. Stevo maybe bigger than others so he didn’t attend the Sunday.
“If there was a big issue and this big thing happened and it had upset all these ex-teammates of mine and everyone else, on Sunday I sat there with Darren Crocker, I sat there with Danielle Laidley, sat with Glenn Archer, sat there with Sholly (Craig Sholl), all and some of them really mutual friends of both of ours – if I’d upset the apple cart or they were really disappointed with what occurred that day then that next day would not be happening.”
Carey admitted the report didn’t frustrate him, he felt more for the families every time the scandal, since 2002, gets brought up.
“This is what really hurts every single time. So when dills like Sam overexaggerate something that’s happened, who affects it,” he said.
“What he doesn’t realize is it affects Stevo’s daughters, my daughters – not my son because he’s really young. It affects family members and everyone else. That’s what these types of things do.
“Who cares if Stevo and I had a firm conversation together? How is that an actual story?”
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