WAYNE CAREY

'Wayne Carey' (born May 27, 1971), is regarded as one of the greatest Australian rules football players of all time. His nicknames include "The King", or "Duck" due to his walking style, caused by one leg being longer than the other.
Carey grew up in Wagga Wagga, a city in southern New South Wales regarded as the frontier dividing "Aussie rules" territory with that of rugby league.^[1] Carey played for North Adelaide in the SANFL, before joining North Melbourne in 1989 and quickly rising to prominence, winning his club's best and fairest award in 1992 and being awarded the club captaincy by coach Denis Pagan in 1993. Playing in the centre half-forward position, Carey was renowned for his strength, height and fitness. He repeated his best and fairest win four times, was selected in the All-Australian team eight times (four times as captain), was his club's leading goalkicker five times, and most importantly, led his club to two premierships in 1996 and 1999.

Contents

Early career

Captaincy

Memorable performances

Leaving the Kangaroos

Football Comeback

Post-playing career

Private Life

References

See also

External links

Early career

Carey was picked up after a series of events which would have left the Sydney Swans' recruiting staff slightly red-faced over the course of the late 1980s . North Melbourne club CEO Greg Miller met with the Sydney's football department to discuss the transfer to North Melbourne Football Club of John Longmire, already an established key position player. Once that deal concluded, Miller then enquired about Carey. He made a token offer of $10,000 as transfer fee, to which the Swans surprisingly agreed.
Carey's first few seasons had promised a lot, with commentators earmarking him as a future champion. Yet it wasn't until his first State of Origin match for South Australia in 1992 that Carey really came of age. Playing at centre half forward alongside and against some of the game's greatest, Carey took the game apart in the last quarter taking some big marks and kicking long goals from outside 50 metres.

Captaincy

In 1993, one of the first things new coach Denis Pagan did was to appoint Carey as the club's captain - the second youngest captain in VFL/AFL history at 21 years of age. Carey took this great responsibility of leading a young team with aplomb, taking them to finals for the first time in many years. Pagan designed the team's offence around Carey, instructing other forwards to make space and draw their direct opponents well away from the goals to make space for Carey, a tactic which became known as "Pagan's Paddock". He consistently won games off his own boot, including a game against reigning premiers West Coast at the WACA where he cut Glen Jakovich (the one player who often matched him for most of his career) to shreds and also against the year's premiers in Essendon, playing a dominant final quarter that marked him as an out-and-out champion that belied his relatively youthful age. A testament to his brilliant first year as North Melbourne's captain, Carey was named captain of the All-Australian team - the youngest All-Australian captain ever.

Memorable performances

Carey was well known for his performances in big games, particularly finals. In 1994, after tearing a calf muscle in the final game of the home-and-away season, he faced up to play perennial finalists Hawthorn. A tight contest all day, Hawthorn stepped up to kick a couple of goals with little time remaining. Enter Carey, who marked strongly over Hawthorn captain Chris Langford to kick a goal and then another to tie the scores. The match went into extra time, with Carey again kicking the sealer. Still struggling with the calf but with a week's break, Carey limped into the preliminary final against Geelong. Carey immediately stamped his authority on the game with a couple of strong marks and goals in the first quarter. Geelong then took complete control in the 2nd quarter. It was left to Carey again to lift his team out of despair and that he did, in one quarter, playing one of the most inspirational finals performances in recent memory, kicking 4 goals and seeing off Tim McGrath and Leigh Colbert. With scores level deep in the final quarter, Gary Ablett would mark and kick the winning goal after the siren, but Carey's performance that day would be remembered by all for many years to come.
Other dominating performances include his 11 goals 2 behinds (both hitting the post) against Melbourne in 1996. Carey was irrepressible under lights at the MCG this Friday night, seeing off Shaun Smith early, then David Neitz and Anthony Ingerson. Melbourne simply had no answer to his brilliance as Carey took contested marks at will, including a one-hander as Neitz pulled him to the ground.
Another memorable day for Carey was his 10 goals in a losing team against Essendon in 1999. Carey made a complete mockery of Kevin Sheedy's decision to start Paul Barnard on him, after which Sheedy quickly moved the more conventional match up of Dustin Fletcher to face the might of Carey. But the damage was already done. Carey was on fire again and there was little Essendon could do - except exert their dominance in every other area of the ground. With the ball almost going over the boundary line deep in the pocket at the Punt Rd end of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Carey, under pressure, picked it up, and with a checkside kick on his non-preferred left foot from 25 metres, bent it back through the the big sticks for one of the most freakish of his 727 goals, and one of the best ever.
Despite his widely recognised skill, he was not well-liked by fans of opposing teams, who regarded him as arrogant -- particularly because of his unique and extraordinary habit of turning towards the television camera that was recording the play and gesturing towards that particular camera whenever he had scored a goal -- yet most could not deny that he might have made their respective teams stronger on the field, as he tore opposition defences apart and left mental scars with some that would last entire careers. Many defenders would confess to having sleepless nights the night before they matched up with Wayne Carey.
Despite his superlative skills, Carey never won a Brownlow medal. The fact that he did not do so is sometimes held up as an example of the flaws in the voting process (conducted by the games' umpires). Carey was a "key position" forward rather than the midfield players who are statistically over-represented amongst the medal winners. It is also sometimes asserted that Carey's testy relationship with the umpires, notably him pointing at the replay of any decision they had gotten wrong, was also responsible for him losing votes on occasion.

Leaving the Kangaroos

In March 2002 Carey's extramarital affair with then-best-friend and North Melbourne Vice Captain Anthony Stevens's wife, Kelli became known. Carey and Stevens were attending a party at team mate Glenn Archer's house. Carey is quoted as saying Kelli followed him into the toilets, in front of a large crowd including her husband Stevens^[2]. An argument ensued between Carey and Stevens^[3] and both subsequently failed to attend football training. In the face of his team united against him, and nationwide condemnation, Carey resigned from his football club. To avoid the media attention Carey travelled to the U.S., rumoured to be given a chance punting for an NFL team. Carey's management later denied the media speculation that he had trained with the Cowboys.

Football Comeback

For some time, it was unclear whether Carey would continue playing AFL football again, but by the end of the 2002 season, following a bidding war between several clubs, it was announced Carey would play for the Adelaide Crows in 2003. Carey played 28 games in two seasons with the Crows, but was limited by injuries, in particular to his shoulders, hamstrings and neck. Highlights included kicking a dramatic winning goal in the Crows 4 point win against Sydney in Round 18, 2003 and a freak soccer goal from a 90 degree angle in heavy rain against his former side in Round 21 2003. He had several infamous on-field run-ins with former team mates including Stevens and Archer during these years.
In June 2004 Carey retired with a disc-related neck injury, marking the end of a career that spanned 16 seasons, 272 games and included 727 goals.

Post-playing career

In early 2005, he agreed to assist former coach and mentor Denis Pagan at the Carlton Football Club, acting voluntarily as a part-time skills coach and in 2006 he was an assistant coach at Collingwood Football Club. He also worked as a commentator and host of shows on the Fox Footy Channel throughout the 2006 season. Current media commitments include the Nine Network football analysis program ''Footy Classified'' alongside Garry Lyon, Craig Hutchinson and Caroline Wilson, as well as special comments for radio station 3AW's football coverage. He was snubbed from selection in the Indigenous Team of the Century in 2004 despite allegedly having Aboriginal heritage. [1]
In June 2007, Carey coached the All Star side in the AFL Legends Match to a decisive victory.
On 12 August of 2007, Carey sparked more controversy while, as a member of the Nine Network's Sunday morning Footy Show, he responded to criticisms from Nathan Thompson by mocking Thompson's well-publicised bout with depression. In addition, on returning from a commercial break, he was heard to make references to 'necking himself', to the apparent delight of other members of the Footy Show panel. Carey and the Nine Network were quick to issue an apology over the incident, although no mention was officially made of the 'necking himself' comment.

Private Life

In 1996 Carey pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a woman outside a nightclub^[4]. Carey later settled out of court when the woman filed a civil suit against him^[3].
His private life again became the subject of public comment in February 2006 when Carey announced he was separating from his pregnant wife Sally[2].

References

1. Carey, Wayne
2. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/27/1040511178534.html?oneclick=true
3. http://www.afana.com/netpaper/mar13-01730.html
4. http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2002/s504838.htm
5. http://www.afana.com/netpaper/mar13-01730.html

See also

★ List of Australian rules football incidents

External links

★ The Searching Kangaroo - Unofficial Fan Forum and sponsors of Joel Perry in Season 2006

★ Video - Wayne Carey the King