Todd Carney opens up on his new life on the Gold Coast and his concreting business
Todd Carney should be a 300-game footballer, living the life of a $1m-a-year NRL player. Instead the Dally M winner is pouring concrete. And while he has no regrets, his perfect world would look a little different.
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From a Dally M Medal winner to pouring concrete, former rugby league bad boy Todd Carney refuses to have regrets over his unsavoury off-field behaviour that destroyed a once glamorous football career.
At 34, Carney should be a 300-game footballer, living the life of a $1 million-a-year one-club NRL player with the Canberra Raiders.
“In a perfect world I … would still be at Canberra,” he reveals.
Instead, due to a rap sheet that stretches from Sydney to the Gold Coast, where he now lives, Carney is now on the tools each day.
But he is adamant he is “living the life.”
LISTEN TO AN EXCERPT OF DEAN RITCHIE’S INTERVIEW WITH TODD CARNEY IN THE PLAYER ABOVE
He has started his company, Carney’s Concrete and Construction, and remains in a committed relationship with Married At First Sight star Susie Bradley.
Like the concrete he lays daily, Carney cannot be broken.
“I’m not ashamed of who I am — I don’t have regrets,” Carney said, speaking from a job site in Loganholme, 47km north of the Gold Coast.
“I know I’m a good person. I’ve got no-one else to blame other than myself. I have moved on.”
Carney has indeed moved on, to a solid real estate portfolio and business ventures on the Gold Coast and in Bali.
Perhaps, more importantly, he has his drinking — which a number of times threatened to land him in jail — under control.
Carney says it helps his mindset to openly discuss his chequered past, which included being kicked out of three NRL clubs – Canberra, Sydney Roosters and finally Cronulla.
“I accepted to do this interview to shed some light on what happened,” Carney said.
THE BUSINESSMAN
Hard work, Carney says, doesn’t faze him.
“I’ve got a concrete company with a mate,” he said. “I started working with him when COVID hit. It’s a new adventure to me. It’s something I enjoy doing, I love being outdoors.
“A few of the boys I work with play footy – all knockabouts who enjoy a beer on a Friday afternoon, similar to footballers who get in, get the job done and then have a few beers.
“The boys don’t give a rat’s arse who I am. It’s amusing on the job site when people recognise me and wonder what the hell I am doing there.”
Carney’s business interests also stretch overseas.
“I have a few little ventures in Bali,” Carney said.
“I have a tattoo shop over there called Island of the Gods Ink.
“I also have a villa over there, Lavilla Pony — that’s my mum’s nickname, Pony. I’m hoping Bali will open up soon.
“I am finding where I want to be and what I want to do. At the end of the day, you’ve got to pay your bills.
“Prior to this, I had Todd Carney Elite Training, coaching kids from northern NSW right up to Sunshine Coast, but was put on hold with COVID.”
THE SPOTLIGHT
“Anything my name was linked to was a headline,” said Carney, who burst onto the scene as a 17-year-old.
“Even when I played a good game I’d be back page. If another player had a similar game they wouldn’t be on the back page. I don’t know why.
“To be fair, it probably helped me along the way with better contracts and marketing deals.
“Now post-football, if I get a girlfriend it’s back page news. I always seem to get coverage and it’s something I have learned to deal with. It was always the way.”
During his playing career, Carney spent plenty of time on the front page of the paper as well as the back.
“I didn’t hate it but I didn’t enjoy it,” he said.
“I was thrust in front of the media at a young age because I was the new kid on the block at Canberra. Everyone had high hopes for me and I had high hopes for myself.
“I just lived with it and got on with it. It’s easy to do when you’re riding the highway but when you’re getting dumped, it’s not so great.
I rode the highs and lows with the media.
“I don’t hate any media outlets, they are doing their job. It was difficult but it wasn’t something I couldn’t handle.”
THE GIRLFRIEND
It’s little wonder his private life has followed a similar path with his relationship with former reality TV star Bradley.
Carney has been dating Bradley, 27, for almost two years. Like everything in his life, there have been ups and downs.
The pair separated last October after eight months together, but quickly reconciled. Bradley was also escorted from one of Carney’s football games in 2019 following an altercation with other spectators.
Carney talks passionately about his high-profile relationship with Bradley, a registered nurse who runs her own cosmetics injection business.
“It’s not that I didn’t have anyone to care about – I’ve got my mum (Leanne) and sisters and myself,” he said.
“But it’s good to have someone who isn’t family that you get a love for and you support along the way.
“Obviously I’m a difficult task sometimes but she is really good. We’re both in a happy place. I’ve got more to care about now other than myself. I’m living the life.”
THE DRAMAS
Where do you start? Multiple instances of drink-driving, a drunken rampage, several alcohol-related indiscretions including burning another man’s buttock, scrotum and thighs, and being photographed performing ‘The Bubbler’ at a urinal that ultimately ended his NRL career.
“It couldn’t be the wrong people I hung around, you have to look at the person in the mirror,” Carney said.
“That was the villain I looked at day in day out … not a villain but the character that I am.
“I did silly things — no-one else did them, no-one made me do them. I’ve got no-one else to blame other than myself. I didn’t physically hurt anyone.”
Carney burst onto the scene in 2004, debuting as a 17-year-old from nearby Goulburn. A young five-eighth from the bush, comparisons to Raiders great Laurie Daley great came immediately, as did the pressure.
In December 2007, drink driving offences in Goulburn resulted in Carney being disqualified from driving for five years.
Five months later Carney was involved in a police pursuit through the streets of Canberra’s northern suburbs while driving teammate Steve Irwin’s ute. After going down a dead-end street, Carney stopped the car and fled on foot, before handing himself into police the next day.
He only narrowly avoided jail.
“Early on at the Raiders, the drink-driving thing, I’m not proud of but I was young and going through a tough time in my life,” he said.
“The minor, stupid things I did, after that, they were the disappointing ones. It glorified and overshadowed what I did on the field – little shitty things.”
THE BOOZE
“I’m not a saint still. I still enjoy a beer and enjoy having a good time,” Carney admits.
“It’s just that no-one is bothered about me anymore. It doesn’t make headlines.”
When Carney drank during his career, it would often be to excess.
But now?
“The devil drink can sometimes come into play,” he admits.
“I have learnt to limit that now as I’ve got older.
“I just turned into a scallywag but I definitely don’t need alcohol all the time. I obviously know how to handle myself a little bit better now.”
The issue for Carney was that he approached alcohol the same way he did his football.
“It was the way I lived my life,” he said.
“I didn’t dip my toe in – I jumped in headfirst and had a crack — similar to how I played and trained.
“When I was off having a beer, I used to get excited and enjoy the company of my mates and things got out of hand.”
BUBBLES OVER
The end of Carney’s NRL career came at Cronulla in 2014 after a photo was leaked onto social media showing him urinating into his own mouth.
“It was the most notorious,” Carney says of the indiscretion known as The Bubbler.
“It was just stupidity. I think it was glorified and made a lot worse.
“There have been a lot of videos and photos shopped around. Obviously I’m not proud of it.
“I laugh about it now – If I couldn’t I wouldn’t be human.
“Yes, I would change some things but since I have finished footy I talk more openly about it.
“It made me who I am now and made me a more resilient person and comfortable with who I am.”
THE CAREER
Carney retired in 2018 after an overseas stint that lasted 56 games.
At his best, Carney played in the 2010 grand final with the Roosters and claimed the Dally M Medal. He also went on to represent NSW and Australia.
“I wouldn’t change the things I did in rugby league. I set out to achieve things as a young kid and I did those. I’m quite happy with what I did and the time I had in my career rugby league-wise,” he said.
“That is probably why I was so content when I retired when playing overseas (in England). I probably could have stayed overseas and played a lot more footy but it was time for me to come home.
Carney’s off-field antics meant he only played 166 NRL games.
“I would have loved to have played another 150 games – I wanted to play over 300 — a goal I set myself when I was a kid,” he said.
“If I didn’t stuff up and hinder that by doing the wrong thing then I would have got my potential.”
THE CHARACTER
The real Todd Carney, according to the man himself, is a good person.
“To be fair, I reckon 98 per cent of people think that. That’s why I’m not ashamed of who I am or what I got up to,” he said.
“That’s why I’ve got so many close mates in rugby league and they cherish my friendship. I believe I’m a good person and most people that know me say the same thing. I’m quite happy with that.
“If I didn’t think I was a good person then I would change my ways to become a good person.
“Yes I hurt fans, organisations and the businesses I was playing for but, deep down, the person I hurt most was myself.”
AT PEACE
Why and how did one man find so much trouble?
“I’ve got a tattoo that says: ‘Everything happens for a reason’. I believe it does,” he said. “I wouldn’t have played for the Roosters if I didn’t get in trouble at the Raiders. I wouldn’t have played at Cronulla if I didn’t get in trouble at the Roosters.
“In a perfect world I’d probably still be playing at Canberra but then I wouldn’t have got to experience what I experienced and the guys I got to play with, some who are my closest mates.
“Boyd Cordner is one of my best mates, if things didn’t happen in my life then we wouldn’t be such close mates. Mitchell Pearce is another close friend. Anthony Minichiello, Braith Anasta, Paul Gallen, Wade Graham., all close mates.
“In a perfect world I wouldn’t have experienced that because I would still be at Canberra. I would never have left there because I loved the club that much – and still do. But it’s not a perfect world, is it?”
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