‘Over the top’: Wayne Carey rips Kangaroos for cocky post-game act

Wayne Carey has put North Melbourne on blast, pointing to a post-game act suggesting the Roos got way too cocky before a huge loss.

Wayne Carey took aim at the Kangaroos.

AFL legend Wayne Carey believes North Melbourne got carried away after beating an under-strength West Coast in Round 2, taking aim at his former club following a crushing defeat to Brisbane on the weekend.

The Lions thrashed the Kangaroos 23.18 (156) to 7.6 (48) on Saturday night and Carey says David Noble’s troops got ahead of themselves after their victory over the Eagles the week before.

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The WA-based side was missing a stack of first-choice players because of Covid and was forced to field a second-string team filled with top-up players, who went down to the Roos by 15 points last month.

Carey said North Melbourne rated itself too highly after that victory, which was evident in the way the players sung the team song.

“Let’s be honest, they beat a WAFL team by 15 points last week, they sung the song like it was a Grand Final,” Carey told Triple M.

“Don’t get me wrong — in the position they are in, it was the first win for a long time and they wanted to sing the song but they sung it like they had won a Grand Final.

“Under the circumstances and what West Coast had been put through, that was over the top and it carried through to the weekend. They are that far off it, it’s not funny.

“I said last year they wouldn’t win a game and they finished off last year fairly strongly.

“I thought they were competitive, they never got flogged in the last 10 games apart from one game.

“Where have they gone? A whole summer, number one draft pick, other kids into the club, strength and fitness that’s built over five or six years. You should be on the improve and unfortunately that’s an absolute shellacking.”

The Roos were in high spirits after beating West Coast. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

But they came crashing back down to earth. (Photo by Russell Freeman/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

North Melbourne finished dead last in 2021 and Noble was filthy with the effort his players displayed on Saturday night in Brisbane.

“Pretty embarrassing. It was pretty poor on our standards we’re trying to create,” he said in his post-match press conference.

“There’s got to be consequences around training, there’s got to be consequences around skill errors. Close to 80 points on turnovers is just unacceptable … so no, I’m not happy.

“Today we got out-worked. It’s pretty simple. The midfield got out-worked, the defenders were poor, they let their man lead them to the ball and our forwards didn’t play in front.

“It was a really simple, basic game today that we let ourselves down enormously and yeah, we should be embarrassed.’

“We’ve got to train hard, we’ve got to get our standards right. The players have got to drive accountability for that. I think the coaches are putting a high demand on what we require and we need the players to toe the line.

“We need them to get on board with the level of intent we want to train at and want to play at. If you don’t bring your energy, you get that result.”

Originally published as ‘Over the top’: Wayne Carey rips Kangaroos for cocky post-game act