Counting down the AFL’s biggest 21st century feuds

FROM Carey v Archer to Demetriou v Hird to Malthouse v Buckley, the AFL has never been short of drama when giants collide. Here are 10 of the best. VOTE

FROM Carey v Archer to Demetriou to Malthouse v Buckley, the AFL has never been short of drama when giants collide. Here are 10 of the best

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The Hird-Demetriou relationship wasn’t always rocky.

1. ANDREW DEMETRIOU v JAMES HIRD

Hatred is a term that doesn’t come close to quantifying the toxic level of anger between these two.

So many relationships were rived in two by the ASADA saga, but this was a three-year running battle from which neither escaped.

After Essendon “self-reported” in February 2013 Hird had reason to believe the AFL was leaking extensively about the Essendon investigation.

After holding his tongue for several months Hird decided to hit back, as the AFL’s dealings on the “night of crisis” became a parallel scandal.

“I’ve told the truth to ASADA and I know other people have as well. That will come out over time,” Hird said of the inference Demetriou had tipped Essendon off.

Eventually the AFL banned Essendon from the finals, with Hird believing he was railroaded into a year-long suspension.

The sting in the tail came when Demetriou was adamant on radio that Hird had not been paid for his suspension,

He was forced into an embarrassing backflip, damaging his credibility further in a scandal with no winners.

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Walls and Sheedy went at each other on Talking Footy.

2. KEVIN SHEEDY v ROBERT WALLS

This feud goes back four decades but in 2001, as outspoken commentator Walls criticised Steve Alessio as a perennial poor performer, Sheedy hit back hard again.

“Not all the snipers were in Vietnam,’’ he said in pointed reference to Walls.

Later that week Walls asked if the comment referred to him.

“Well, Robert, if the hat fits wear it,’’ he replied.

It culminated in an explosive Talking Footy appearance between the two, with points shared after several withering exchanges.

But as Sheedy’s Bombers were wobbling in 2007, he again grew tired of Walls’ constant attacks on him and his senior coaching counterparts.

In an open letter to Walls, he said two of the clubs he had coached had gone “out of existence” and said his tenure at Richmond was a waste of time.

“Robert has become a big negative and I think people are getting sick of it,’’ he wrote in the Sunday Herald Sun.

Richard Colless pulled off the coup that landed Buddy.

AFL Chairman Mike Fitzpatrick was not happy when the Swans swooped on Lance Franklin.

3. RICHARD COLLESS v MIKE FITZPATRICK

Don’t ever mess with the AFL’s $100 million baby. Sydney chairman Richard Colless heard that message loud and clear.

Or at least once his ears had stopped ringing from AFL Commission boss Mike Fitzpatrick’s furious 2015 spray.

The Swans had hoodwinked the competition — and the AFL — by securing Lance Franklin on a $10m, nine-year deal, stealing him away from the AFL’s expansion club GWS.

And Fitzpatrick’s expletive-laden spray came with a kicker — the AFL quickly cut the club’s remaining cost of living allowance.

“There was no warm up, no introduction — the opening pleasantries were the ‘F’ bomb and the ‘C’ bomb,” Colless told the Herald Sun of the Fitzpatrick phone call.

“I must admit I was taken aback. It went on for about 10 minutes and it was basically just a torrent of abuse.”

Wayne Carey and Glenn Archer lit up Telstra Dome in their first meeting since Carey left for Adelaide. Picture: Colin Murty

4. WAYNE CAREY v GLENN ARCHER

The biggest club-based rift of the 21st century was ripped apart at Glenn Archer’s Warrandyte house, as Wayne Carey’s affair with Kelli Stevens became public.

Carey was forced from North Melbourne and while Stevens was the one directly affected, good mate Archer took over as a protector of sorts.

The drama flared when the trio met on the field the next year, both pulling their punches when it looked likely to explode.

But since that moment it has been Archer so often forced to comment on the drama, the Shinboner of the Century standing up for his mate.

At Kangaroo functions since then it has been those in the Carey camp or those in the Archer-Stevens camp turning up, rarely both of them.

Best mates no longer: Mick Malthouse and Nathan Buckley, during their days leading Collingwood together.

5. NATHAN BUCKLEY v MICK MALTHOUSE

This one is one-sided, but the rivalry between these two men has been one of the great talking points of the past decade.

It was July 2009 that Eddie McGuire set in place a transition arrangement that would see Mick Malthouse hand over power to Nathan Buckley by the end of 2011.

McGuire believed Malthouse was tiring in the role and had a short shelf-life, only securing the arrangement when both men agreed.

As Buckley said later, he only accepted with Malthouse’s blessing.

“The reason that the transition came to fruition was because Mick and I sat down in a room (off McGuire’s office), looked each other in the eye (and) I asked him whether he felt this was what he wanted to do and whether he felt this was the best thing for the football club,” he said.

“The answers were ‘Yes’ and ‘Yes’ and it was only then that this was ever a legitimate option.”

But insiders believed during that transition Buckley was marginalised by Malthouse until his former star finally took over in 2012.

Within weeks of Buckley starting as senior coach Malthouse criticised his game plan, leading to McGuire saying Malthouse would be friendless at the Pies.

Thankfully the feud has settled down, although Malthouse might have the last laugh if Buckley moves on this year.

Richard Colless and Eddie McGuire share a moment — they’re not usually this friendly.

6. RICHARD COLLESS v EDDIE MCGUIRE

“For me, it’s a bit like a title fight where you really don’t care who wins, you just find it entertaining to watch.”

So said one AFL boss last year about the bickering between these two AFL heavyweights that spanned more than a decade.

As the guardian of the Melbourne heartland clubs, Eddie took it up to Sydney on everything.

Their cost of living allowance, the poaching of Kurt Tippett and Lance Franklin, fixturing advantages, perceived favouritism of the Swans in a tough NSW market.

Some of it was played up for the cameras, some of it playing for keeps.

As McGuire said of the bickering: “We might be blueing and fighting, but there is a great feeling of empathy and support between the organisations. We fight for the double bed rather than the single bed.”

Colless gives the one-figer salute on Four Corners in 2002.

The defining image of the relationship was Colless’ middle finger raised to McGuire during an out-take of a Four Corners program, subsequently broadcast.

A bloodied Matthew Knights battled Tony Liberatore on the MCG in 2001.

7. TONY LIBERATORE v MATTHEW KNIGHTS

The dramatic on-field stoush between these two opponents lit the powder keg for a feud that lasted most of the 2000s.

In April 2001 pesky Bulldogs tagger Liberatore crunched his opponent Matthew Knights in a collision that opened up the Richmond star.

He would need seven stitches to stop the gushing blood, with coach Danny Frawley so enraged he marched Knights to the umpires to complain at quarter time.

After a melee broke out Frawley later warned Liberatore’s team: “Every dog has its day”.

At the tribunal Tigers captain Wayne Campbell said Liberatore had deliberately hit Knights, with the Dogs onballer handed a five-match ban.

President Clinton Casey accused Liberatore of king-hitting Knights at the next week’s pre-match lunch, saying the Dogs had condoned those tactics.

It took threats of legal action for him to back down, with the feud between the clubs simmering for the rest of the decade.

In 2007 Tigers president Gary March said of the Dogs: “They haven’t won a premiership for over 50 years and haven’t made a profit in about the same time.”

It took 16 years for Kevin Bartlett to returns to Richmond after being sacked, but his vendetta against the interchange has never abated.

8. KEVIN BARTLETT v INTERCHANGE

The Richmond great never forgets and never relents once he has a target in his sights.

After all, it took him 16 years to return to Richmond after left bitterly disappointed by the way he was sacked as Richmond coach by executive Cameron Schwab.

For a decade now he has been railing against the AFL’s explosion of interchange, believing it is the scourge of the modern game.

He was once friendless on the argument but as the ruck-and-maul style of football increased he began to win over the fans.

Then when interchange numbers spiralled to over 150 at some teams he knew he was on a winner.

The AFL capped its interchange at 120, then reduced it to 90 two years ago, with KB now calling on the AFL to eradicate interchange altogether.

9. SEVEN v NINE

The ratings rivalry between the two powerhouse Melbourne stations also represents every media feud that has spilt over on the airwaves this century.

Back in 2001 it was Craig Hutchison and Anthony Mithen representing their stations, doing everything possible to break the big one.

The media rivalry across all platforms saw the explosion of chequebook journalism, the doorstop interview came into vogue, the rise of conflict of interest

Friendships were made and broken — Hutchison and Gerard Whateley blew up over a missed airport doorstop — while sometimes the rivalries were in-house.

Tim Lane famously refused to commentate with Pies president Eddie McGuire, while The Footy Show was blown apart last year by infidelities and accusations.

Mick Malthouse was notoriously prickly with the media after matches. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

10. MICK MALTHOUSE v THE MEDIA

Mick Malthouse says he hated his post-match press conferences, which is why they ended up as such great fodder for the presser.

By the 21st century those confrontations weren’t physical any more but his response to Jay Clark’s question — “why didn’t you come to play” is memorable.

At his first press conference at Carlton he notable bristled at Mark Robinson and Tony Jones — two old sparring partners — in a sign of things to come at the Blues.

Then as his years at Carlton came to a close his fiery press conferences with Seven’s Mark Stevens became must-watch TV.