Wayne Carey urges media to move on from his controversial past

Wayne Carey has told the media and footy world to move on from covering his controversial past, saying “I don’t know what you get for murder, but you don’t get this”.

Wayne Carey has declared “enough is enough” and called on the media to move on from his controversial past, saying he’s served a sentence for his past sins which was more than you “get for murder”.

Carey said when it comes to his chequered past he’s been forced to live with “toxic shame”.

Despite saying he doesn’t want to “make excuses and play the victim” the dual North Melbourne premiership captain said the constant coverage was unfair and it was time to move on.

“I don’t know what you get for murder, but you don’t get this,’’ Carey said.

He added his history had been brought up again following the decision of North Melbourne to leave him out of the club’s 100-year promotional video.

“I spoke to Sonja Hood and I said ‘Sonja, I just want you to know this (video) has caused a kerfuffle and people are talking about it,’’ he said.

“I don’t sit there saying why didn’t you include me, but I just have to address this constant talk about these things I’ve (supposedly) done in my life, that I haven’t’.

Carey admitted it was “unusual” to see he hadn’t been included in the club video, but also noted the absence of Wayne Schimmelbusch, Denis Pagan, Sam Kekovich and Malcolm Blight.

Speaking on Sam Newman’s You Cannot be Serious podcast, Newman labelled it a “sham” and a “disgrace”.

Carey was left out of the club’s 100-year anniversary video.

Carey said he shouldn’t have to keep reliving incidents from 30 and 20 years ago.

“This is me finally saying, ‘come on, enough is enough’,’’ Carey said.

“Surely I don’t have to live … I’ve probably only got nine good summers left, Sam. Surely I don’t have to live the last years of my life living things that occurred 30-plus, 20-plus years ago.

“Surely I’m not that interesting to keep bringing up things that happened that long ago. It’s astounding.

“They’re driving my kids, their friends … the talk about violence. They are driving the mothers of my children into their graves, that’s what they’re doing.

“The vindictive nature of what continues to happen is just wrong.”

Carey’s former teammate, Corey McKernan, hit out at North Melbourne on social media, calling it insulting to leave out arguably the club and the league’s greatest player ever.

Carey, whose partner, Jessica Paulke, is 31 weeks pregnant with their second child, urged people to “stop the rot”.

He said the video situation had triggered more angst.

Wayne Carey will join Sam Newman as a permanent panellist on his podcast series

He added: “I guess it’s for my health to get it off my chest, to actually say how I’m feeling and to be a voice for others and say how they’re feeling. If that’s what makes me feel a bit better then I’m going to do it.

“I’ve got to a point in my life where I can live with myself and don’t feel guilt about these things anymore. I decided through help and it’s only through help … that I’m not going to live with that toxic shame and that guilt anymore about these things that are written and are untrue.

“I guess the constant story telling and the constant headlines that get brought up after something as simple about a few people tweeting about me not being in a video and my whole history of things that haven’t happened, that continually get written about that is no fault of my own … it’s just got too far.

“You look at what Alastair Clarkson has gone through over the last few years. Chris Fagan. Guilty before any presumption of innocence is afforded to them. It’s wrong.

“I’ve got to a point where I’ve learnt to forgive myself.”

Carey said he pleaded guilty to a 1996 charged on the advice of North Melbourne. Picture: Getty Images

Carey said he pleaded guilty in 1996 to indecently assaulting a woman by grabbing her breast on a Melbourne street, because the football club urged him to.

“I don’t have and never been charged with domestic violence,’’ he said.

“There have been two major incidents in my life, one was over 30 years ago. It was in King St and I got the advice 30-odd years ago from the North Melbourne footy club.

“I don’t remember what happened that night. It was in the middle of the street, it wasn’t cloke and dagger stuff, I pleaded guilty on the advice of North Melbourne because we were halfway through a year where we thought we were a premiership chance.

“The charge was that I had … grabbed a girl on the boob and said ‘get a bigger set of tits’. I pleaded guilty on the advice of the North Melbourne Football Club.

“I categorically don’t remember what happened that night. If I’d known that I had to live with that for the rest of my life, which I have had to do, I would be fighting that today.”

Carey also said the incident in 2007 where he was alleged to have glassed Kate Neilson, was incorrect and “ludicrous”.

“An incident with a girl that I was seeing on and off, I wouldn’t call her a girlfriend … we were overseas in a restaurant and everyone says you glassed someone,’’ he said.

Wayne Carey and Kate Neilson in 2008.

“You literally glassed your girlfriend. That is ludicrous, that is not accurate. Yes the glass did touch her because I was trying to throw wine, I’ve said this before publicly, I was trying to throw a mouthful of wine on her in a packed restaurant. I leant over and touched her lip. I then threw the glass on the ground and it smashed.

“There was one incident in Port Melbourne that I have got a criminal record for … I called the police to my apartment. When they got there I answered the door and said you’re no longer required. The police pushed their way into my apartment and then I defended myself inside my own apartment. I then didn’t fight those charges either. They came in and they grabbed me in my apartment. So I resisted arrest, that is my conviction. I didn’t even throw a punch. These are factual things that have occurred.”

Carey was also announced as a permanent co-panellist on Sam Newman’s You Cannot Be Serious podcast and will appear weekly on his show.