Kangaroos premiership star Wayne Carey has broken his silence over reports he had a heated altercation with Anthony Stevens outside a Melbourne pub on Saturday, 20 years after the pair fell out over Carey’s infamous affair with his teammate’s wife.
Carey’s fling with Stevens’ ex Kelli became the biggest sex scandal in Australian sports history when they were caught together in a toilet at a house party, leading to the two-time premiership captain leaving the club in disgrace.
The pair were at Yarraville’s Railway Hotel on Saturday night for a 1996 premiership reunion when Carey ‘went at’ Stevens, according to SEN’s Sam Edmunds.
They allegedly needed to be separated after Carey ‘went at’ Stevens after 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’ , the report said.
Carey (left) and Stevens went from celebrating the 1996 grand final win as great mates to a vicious falling-out just six years later
Kangaroos legend Carey was caught red-handed having an affair with Stevens’ then-wife Kelli (pictured together) during a party attended by other North Melbourne players
While Carey joined his teammates as they were paraded around the ground during the Kangaroos’ clash with the Swans at Marvel Stadium on Sunday, Stevens was nowhere to be seen.
It was reported he didn’t attend because he was too ‘shattered by the heated exchange’, but other ex-North Melbourne stars later said he was ill and didn’t boycott the event.
Now Carey has told his colleague at Channel Seven, Tom Browne, that there wasn’t an intense altercation and they didn’t have to be kept apart.
Carey (second from right) is pictured at the Kangaroos reunion on Sunday to mark their grand final win. Stevens was nowhere to be seen after their alleged clash the day before
Carey added that Stevens stayed with the group of North Melbourne ex-players as they went to St Kilda, and the Herald Sun reported that the pair ‘shared a beer afterwards’.
Stevens is now a Kangaroos board member and president of the club’s past player association, and was a key driver behind organizing the event.
It included an informal catch-up at the pub on Saturday night, before the premiership players took part in a motorcade and photo opportunity before the Kangaroos game on Sunday.
Carey’s affair with Kelli emerged in 2002, after an encounter at a party hosted by club champion Glenn Archer attended by Kangaroos players.
Kelli followed Carey into a bathroom to discuss their sordid relationship, which started weeks earlier.
Kelli Stevens (pictured) found herself at the center of the biggest sex scandal in Australian sport when her affair with Carey was exposed
Stevens and Carey played together for North Melbourne from 1989 to 2001 before the betrayal was uncovered.
After leaving the club in disgrace, Carey joined the Adelaide Crows in 2003, and took the field against his former teammates in a fiery clash that saw him come face-to-face with Stevens.
In a twist, Stevens was named captain of the club following Carey’s departure.
In an interview with veteran journalist Mike Sheahan on Fox Footy in 2015, Stevens said he told his ex-teammate to ‘stick it’ at the time, but was also disappointed in Carey’s behavior following the betrayal.
‘It’s the one thing he has never done,’ Stevens said, when asked by Sheahan if Carey has apologized.
Stevens (left) had a fiery on-field clash with Carey in 2002 after he joined the Adelaide Crows. in 2015 he called his former mate out for not apologizing for the affair
‘He has never actually gone out of his way to say sorry – for whatever reason.’
Carey did eventually apologize the following year – a full 14 years on from the sordid event.
Carey rehashed the while appearing on SAS Australia earlier this year, telling Chief Instructor Ant Middleton that the affair was a huge moment in his life.
‘It’s haunted me for over 20 years. I was in self-destruction mode. You know, I guess my life started to unravel,’ he said under interrogation.
At the time Carey was also married, to his first wife Sally McMahon. Stevens was even the groomsman at the wedding.
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