Wayne Carey Biography

John Longmire, Gavin Wanganeen, Wayne Carey and The West Australian journalist Bridget Lacey will make up the four judges who will decide the winner of the 2018 Grand Final Norm Smith medalist.

North Melbourne greats Brent Harvey and Wayne Carey have resolved their spat that threatened to mar Saturday's major milestone.

Harvey will play his 427th match this Saturday night, breaking the all-time record that Hawthorn legend Michael Tuck has held since 1991.

Extracts from Harvey's new book 'Boomer' were published on the weekend and he was highly critical of Carey.

Harvey said on Monday he had apologised to his former captain.

In the book, Harvey described Carey's extra-marital affair with the wife of their then teammate Anthony Stevens as despicable.

The book also alleged North paid hush money to protect Carey's reputation.

Carey duly hit back on radio, saying it was terribly sad that Harvey had sensationalised allegations that had never happened.

He flatly denied North paid any hush money to protect him.

Carey said he called Harvey on Sunday night to resolve their differences, describing the start of the phone conversation as "robust".

"The fact that he's come out and apologised and says he's made a mistake, I'm more than prepared to move on. I'm not one that holds a grudge," Carey told Channel Seven on Monday night.

"It'd be fair to say it [the phone call] started out a little robust, but finished in a way that he was genuine in his apology and I felt that over the phone, and (I) spoke to him again this morning before his press conference."

Earlier on Monday, Harvey said he had cleared the air with his former teammate and was keen to move on.

"For me, a lot of it was rumour ... it wasn't fact," Harvey said.

"In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have put it in the book, but unfortunately I have.

"He has a lot of rumours in his life and you probably could write a whole book on the (rumours) and Wayne Carey.

"For me, I just want to put it on the table right now, that was rumour and innuendo and I apologised to him, he accepted that, which is fantastic."

Wayne Carey and Anthony Stevens have finally buried the hatchet, 14 years after the affair that shocked the AFL.

The pair met for 15 minutes on Thursday to break the tension, which had lingered since Carey admitted to having an affair with his teammate's wife in 2002.

The meeting was set up by board member and former teammate Glenn Archer at Stevens' request.

"It's all positive and that's the great thing," Carey told Melbourne radio station Triple M.

"Stevo said openly on Open Mike a little while ago that he thought I hadn't properly apologised, so that's where it started.

"It was a heartfelt apology, that's where it started."

Carey said the pair could now be amicable at events.

"What will happen now is we'll be able to all be in a room together and be in a conversation altogether and be able to laugh and smile and enjoy the company and the special people that helped create one of the most special days in our lives."

Wayne Carey says a conversation he had with Glenn Archer in Bali was fantastic and is glad it happened ahead of North Melbourne's premiership reunion.

"I've said it openly before, it's an ongoing process for me, but it felt really good afterwards," Carey told Channel Seven's Talking Footy.

"I'm glad I did it and I'm looking forward to the reunion on Saturday afternoon. It was a really positive thing, which was great."

Wayne Carey has called Nathan Buckley to clarify comments made about the Magpies' playing group being divided over his tenure as head coach of the club.

"I'm really disappointed that stuff like that is discussed and brought in to the public arena," Buckley said.

"As most people have said, there's going to be times where the players aren't necessarily 100 per cent happy with the environment at the time."

Wayne Carey is found with traces of cocaine that was detected on a prison scanner while visiting the maximum security jail near Geelong to give a talk to inmates but says he has no idea how it got there.

"I can guarantee you I certainly haven't taken drugs and I was more than willing to have any strip search and … wee in a cup to prove that there were no drugs," Carey told Triple M.

"I would wee in a cup now, I would've weed in a cup yesterday. I was never offered to wee in a cup and was never offered to do a strip search."

Wayne Carey is nominated by a panel of 21 AFL stars as being best player of the modern era in a poll conducted by the Herald Sun.

"It's a huge honour," Carey said.

"I'm proud and humbled by it. The fact is they're your peers and the very guys you looked up to and admired as players."

Champion centre half-forward Wayne Carey has revealed he is keen to return to the AFL as a forward coach and says he can help Cats forward Tom Hawkins, in particular, improve his game.

"I went and watched Geelong and Carlton at Etihad Stadium [in round 9] and watched Hawkins play and straight away picked up two or three things he should be doing that he's not doing," Carey said.

"I don't think they're things he's not capable of, and I think they'd improve his game immensely."

Wayne Carey has says Collingwood midfielder Dane Swan could well be a superior player to Nathan Buckley.

"A couple of Collingwood players are now saying he's the best player they have ever played with and seen, and they are pretty big wraps for a club that's had the ilk of Nathan Buckley," Carey said.

"He's been in awesome form for three years now and is the favourite to win the Brownlow. You would have to say Dane Swan is on a par with Gary Ablett and (Chris) Judd. I think he's a superstar."

North Melbourne champion Wayne Carey says he is thrilled with his induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

"A few people have [talked] to me about this two-year wait, but I met [dual Brownlow Medallist] Peter Moore for the first time about three weeks ago at a function and he only got inducted [a few] years ago," Carey said.

"Looking around this room it's just a huge honour to be inducted and I would have been more than happy to wait five years. I'm thrilled to be standing here now."

Wayne Carey admits to threatening umpire Darren Goldspink with violence in his new autobiography after being frustrated with negating tactics by Port Adelaide's Stephen Paxman.

"I called him a mongrel and a weak prick and everything in between. I totally lost my cool. 'Can't you see what's going on? He's not here to play football, he's trying to wrestle me to the ground. Is there any chance of a bit of protection just once today?''' Carey wrote in his book.

"In fact, he came back at me by saying, 'Get a kick, Carey. What are you f------- whingeing to me about'.

"That made me see red. It was bad enough that I wasn't being paid a free kick. But to have Goldspink start sledging me on top of that, well that was too much to bear. It was deadset on. I said to him: 'I'd bash you're f------- head in if I wasn't on this ground, you f----- weed.'"

Wayne Carey is closer to returning to North Melbourne on a regular basis than any time since the start of the 2002 season.

"I am good mates with Darren Crocker and Rocky (assistant coach Anthony Rock) and get along well with (football manager) Donald McDonald and all the guys that are involved there," Carey told Adelaide radio station 5AA.

"I'm more than willing to have a chat to some of the key forwards down at the club and that may happen later on in the year."

Darren Crocker says former premiership teammate Wayne Carey could 'fulfil a role' if the caretaker coach earned the senior position for 2010 .

"If he was keen to come back and I was the senior coach going forward, I would entertain that he might come in and fulfil a role," he said.

"But to what extent that would be, whether it was just as a specialist coach or part of our new elite training facility with the learning and cultural centre, he might want to have a role to play there.

"He's definitely got something to offer the footy club, any footy club. That's not out of the question, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Wayne Carey is continuing his quest to raise money for charities.

Just a week after Carey donated his comeback game match fee to the Whitelion charity, we can reveal Carey will tackle the Kokoda Track to help former teammate Jason McCartney raise money for a children's charity.

Wayne Carey has pulled a calf muscle in the first five minutes of a comeback match on the Gold Coast today.

Carey hobbled off the ground after his brief stint at full-forward in the Queensland Amateur Football League division two match.

"I just went bang," Carey said outside the change rooms. "For anyone thinking about making a comeback at 38, think again.

"I think I'd better quit while I'm ahead, not that I'm ahead, but I'll quit now."

North Melbourne champion Wayne Carey, 38, has agreed to play with Palm Beach-Currumbin in a QAFL Pineapple Hotel Cup Division Two match at Palm Beach, on Saturday.

Carey is not being paid and will see how he pulls up before deciding whether he wants to play the rest of the season.

"I've been having a kick through the year, not necessarily with Palmy but with my brother and my nephews at Coolangatta," Carey told the AFLQ website.

"This charity thing and having a kick was raised and it intrigued me a bit and I thought why not. I've had some physio on a calf and now I'm looking forward to it.

"I'm not too concerned about my fitness or anything like that, but I suppose not having played for four-and-a-half years is a worry.

"It'll be good fun. It'll be good to be at a footy club again and having a kick with a few of the blokes."

Wayne Carey has been snubbed by the AFL Hall of Fame for the second year running.

Dean Laidley has thrown his support behind the push to induct Wayne Carey into the AFL Hall of Fame.

"He's been the best player at our football club but if that warrants him being selected this year or next year ... I think he deserves to be in there,� Laidley said.

North Melbourne great Wayne Carey will tonight be inducted into the club's Hall of Fame.

Wayne Carey was welcomed back into the North Melbourne fold and offered an apology after seven years ago leaving the club in disgrace.

Wayne Carey will be an ideal promotional weapon for North Melbourne according to former skipper Adam Simpson.

Wayne Carey has embarked on a challenging, confronting journey of discovery.

The Gold Coast-based AFL great is seeing emotional fitness specialists as he tries to build a new life and win respect.

Wayne Carey is "excited" about the prospect of working with anti-violence advocate Phil Cleary.

North Melbourne chairman James Brayshaw wants Wayne Carey in the AFL Hall Of Fame this year, calling the character provision 'ridiculously ambiguous'.

Wayne Carey will begin his return home by way of his induction into the Kangaroos Hall of Fame.

NORTH Melbourne legend Wayne Carey is to be inducted into the club's Hall of Fame.

North Melbourne will honour premiership captains Wayne Carey and David Dench at the club's Hall of Fame event next month.

Wayne Carey and North Melbourne are engaged in talks aimed at ending his exile from Arden St.

Wayne Carey has pleaded guilty to assault and resisting police over an incident at his home last year.

Wayne Carey is charged in Melbourne with three counts of assaulting police and three counts of resisting arrest.

If the charges are pursued as indictable, each charge will carry a maximum five years' jail.

Wayne Carey reveals that he binge-drinked weekly during his playing days during an interview with Andrew Denton.

"If alcoholism is drinking every weekend of every year to an extent where, you know, you can't drink any more, then I'm definitely, I'd definitely be, in the category of an alcoholic, no doubt about that," Carey said.

"I thought that what worked for you in the home-and-away season you continue through to the grand final, and so yeah I drank every single weekend, I don't think there was a weekend that I didn't drink during my football career."

Wayne Carey admits that he and girlfriend Kate Neilsen have a drug problem.

In a joint interview with News Limited papers and New Idea magazine, Carey said he used cocaine and was now ready to seek help.

"I really think I had to hit rock bottom, which now I have, before I was forced to make these changes," Carey said.

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou expressed sadness over Carey's confession.

"I have seen this morning's paper and if it is true, I feel very sad about that," Demetriou said.

"One of the most encouraging things I've read out of that article was that Wayne has actually acknowledged he has a problem.

"In many instances, that's the first step ... he needs to get some help about it and I wish him well."

Carey's lucrative deal with New Idea has provoked outrage amongst campaigners against domestic violence.

"If they're paying for a story based on someone beating up somebody else it's sleazy and it goes back to the fact that most people think that it's not criminal," Women's Domestic Violence Crisis Service board member Jane Ashton said.

"It undermines all these people who work in family violence who are trying to reassure women that it's not normal and it is criminal."

Wayne Carey is arrested after allegedly assaulting police officers.

Carey was handcuffed by police, who resorted to the use of capsicum spray, at his home in Port Melbourne where Carey was said to be partying prior to their arrival.

Reports indicate that Carey initially called police to his apartment requesting that his girlfriend Kate Neilson be removed from the premises.

Five police cars then arrived but police officers were refused entry by Carey who subsequently assaulted the officers before resisting arrest.

Carey was led to the St Kilda police station before being released at about 10:30pm.

Following the incident, Carey is sacked by the Nine Network where he was employed as a football commentator.

Additional reports surface later that Carey may also face jail charges in the United States following an incident during a holiday in Miami where Carey is alleged to have broken a wine glass on Neilson's face.

Reports indicate that Miami police officers came to blows with Carey with one being kicked in the mouth and another elbowed in the face.

This had led to Carey being restrained with leather straps around his hands and legs before being placed into a police car.

Further revelations follow that Carey has also ceased working for 3AW as a commentator although the radio station denies that his departure is related to the recent police incidents.

"Wayne Carey had an agreement for one year with 3AW, which was to cover the 2007 AFLseason," 3AW general manager, Graham Mott, said. "Wayne's obligations finished at the end of the 2007 season."