‘Disappointed’ AFL legend Wayne Carey calls out Nick Kyrgios lie

Australian football icon Wayne Carey says he has always known Nick Kyrgios has been living a lie and now it is there for everyone to see.

AFL legend Wayne Carey sensationally suggested Nick Kyrgios has lived his career hiding behind a lie just hours before Sunday night’s final.

The North Melbourne icon said he has noticed a change in Kyrgios, watching the Canberran show more emotional bravery and vulnerability on and off the court before his defeat to Novak Djokovic.

It is something many commentators have noticed.

“The opposite is starting to come out,” Carey said on Triple M Footy.

“He’s always said, ‘I don’t love tennis. I just do it because I can and I make money’. There’s the excuses. That’s what’s always disappointed me because he has the talent, but the excuse has always lied there.

“But it’s creeping through now. He’s always cared. It’s coming through now that he really does care. This is why it’s going to be must watch. Now we know he cares. He’s in a final. So will he be able to handle that pressure?”

He spoke after former AFL coach Ross Lyon accused Kyrgios of playing his whole career trying to stay in his comfort zone.

Wayne Carey has called out Nick Kyrgios.

“I felt he needed the alibi, the excuse,” Lyon said.

“If you see his genetic God-given talent — he hasn’t in my view been prepared to give everything and dedicate himself and let himself be emotionally vulnerable. That’s the piece I don’t like about him.

“I don’t think he lets himself be emotionally brave to be devastated.”

The change in Kyrgios has been noticed by tennis pundits keeping a keen eye on him at Wimbledon.

Broadcaster Catherine Whitaker said while the Canberran has been “quite unpleasant” and “disagreeable” at times in London — whether that be with opponents, officials or journalists — it’s impossible not to appreciate the new light with which he viewed his charge at the All England Club.

“One thing I have enjoyed from Nick Kyrgios was admitting how much he cares,” Whitaker told The Tennis Podcast, which she co-hosts.

“And we’ve always known all along that he cares, and all this ‘not caring’ or performatively ‘not caring’ is one big defence mechanism.

“I know I’m doing armchair psychology again but I feel pretty confident in this one.

“I do like that he’s just saying it (that he cares). He says, ‘I’m already nervous, I’m already cripplingly nervous. I don’t usually get nervous but I am’.

“He wants this one and he’s happy to say he wants it.”