Rex Hunt’s feud with Mike Sheahan may finally be over
After a six-year grudge, it took an out-of-the-blue call during the taping of Sam Newman’s podcast to finally see Rex Hunt and Mike Sheahan bury the hatchet.
Confidential
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Rex Hunt and Mike Sheahan have buried the hatchet on a feud based on a six-year grudge harboured by Hunt.
But after the olive branch was extended and accepted, Hunt said: “Having buried the hatchet today, Michael will be at Tobin Brothers making sure I go into the furnace”.
The bizarre peace talks came during an unexpected phone call from Hunt to broadcaster Sam Newman as he taped his podcast, You Can’t Be Serious, with Sheahan and Don Scott.
Hunt’s feud with respected AFL journalist Sheahan exploded last November when he unpacked a six-year-old grudge with Sheahan and unleashed.
On Tuesday, Hunt, a two-time premiership player and footy calling legend, called Newman out-of-the-blue.
“Are you and Michael speaking?” Scott asked Hunt, who was suddenly on speaker phone.
“Tell Mike not to say this is unbalanced,” Hunt replied. “You know exactly what it means … that’s what set me off.”
Alluding to their showdown late last year, Hunt continued: “Don, I thought Michael was just emanating you from the days when you belted me up when the 6.59 to Ferntree Gully was going out of Glenferrie station.
“Michael took it the wrong way, and I sincerely and publicly apologised. He obviously doesn’t understand me, he doesn’t like me, and I accept that.
“Tomorrow when the sun comes up and I put the hat on, and I fire the Evinrude into the salt air … and go past the mussel reef … and the mollusc piscatorial kingdom …
In other words I’ve just had my medication and I’m feeling all right.”
Newman chimed in: “Mick has accepted your apology and he’s at one with you.”
“Good,” Hunt said. “Life’s too short.”
In the November podcast, an agitated Hunt confronted Sheahan about an interview they did on a Foxtel show, Open Mike, in 2013.
He said Sheahan focused too much on Hunt’s personal controversies.
“I’ve got to ask you one question,” Hunt said. “With the Foxtel interview I did, after you asked me for six months, and I said yes … How much pressure did you get from the top office because this will rate … and people will love people getting in trouble?”
“No pressure,” Sheahan answered.
“I set the agenda for that interview program.”
Newman asked Hunt: “Do I take it, Rex, that you’ve taken umbrage at Mick’s line of questioning?”
“I’m pissed off!” Hunt said, citing Jack Dyer’s description of him as “a good, ordinary footballer,” his 200 games and two premierships.
“Look at me! Look at me!” he told Sheahan, sternly.
Hunt also pointed to his AFL life membership, “which I believe that some of my critics, and I won’t give you the initials, who believe they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel because I was inducted as a life member.”
Hunt continued: “I still, at 70 years of age, feel as if I don’t belong. You took me into the Foxtel studios, and you spoke about all the crap for 20 minutes, then you got on to football.”
Sheahan shot back: “It’s not a story about how many goals a bloke’s kicked, and how many marks he took. It’s a story about their life”.
Hunt: “If you Google my life, it’s a great life.”
Sheahan said he was one of three people on a selection subcommittee that nominated Hunt for AFL life membership in 2018.
“If I say so myself, I probably drove it, so stick that up your fisherman’s bum,” Sheahan said.
Hunt then offered to leave the podcast because “I don’t want to say something I might regret.”
Sheahan said: “Well, you’ve been sitting on this (issue) for a while”.
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“Yeah,” Hunt replied, “and it’s cost me, it’s cost me dearly.”
Hunt said his wife Lynne urged him to play nice around Sheahan.
“When you talk to Lynne at the football, I don’t come anywhere near you,” Hunt said.
Later, Sheahan asked Hunt: “Why are you so aggressive?”
“I don’t like you,” Hunt answered.
“Are you serious?” Sheahan responded.
Hunt replied: “No I’m not”.