AFL great Peter ‘Spida’ Everitt laughs off death hoax

AFL great Peter ‘Spida’ Everitt has revealed he was left receiving messages from friends after news spread he was dead.

AFL great Peter “Spida” Everitt has laughed off a social media post which appeared to suggest the 48-year-old had died.

The former 291-gamer with St Kilda, Hawthorn and Sydney has been a staple of Triple M on the Gold Coast for the past 12 years.

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But Everitt, who was a three-time All-Australian during his AFL career, saw the funny side of a post on the The Carlton Draft Facebook page.

Speaking Triple M Breakfast with Flan, Ali and Spida, the AFL great revealed the post to his co-hosts Sean “Flan” Flanagan and Ali Plath.

“Yesterday, there was one going around and it said ‘Today’s kids will never known what it was like growing up with this man in the world’. And then above it was a montage of pictures … of me,” Everitt said.

The post had nearly 1000 likes and 243 comments at time of writing with many of the comments alerting the page to the face Everitt is still very much alive.

His co-hosts were stunned but Everitt ploughed on.

“It was on The Carlton Draft Facebook page. And then everyone thought I’d died.”

After sharing a few laughs, Everitt said: “And I saw it and I thought ‘geez, I don’t want to go out without saying what I want to say …

“To the bosses here at Triple M, to my co-workers, to my family … You’d unleash wouldn’t you, it’d be fantastic,” Everitt joked.

Flanagan added: “This is what you do every day, what are you talking about?”

Everitt continued: “At least if it was true, I have the chance to go to my own wake. Because you’ve always wanted to go to your own wake.

“I’ve never understood why people have waited until they died and then had a wake — have it a couple of weeks beforehand so you can enjoy it and hear what people really think of you.”

Flanagan commented: “I’m glad you’re not dead but I reckon your feet died about 20 years ago.”

Everitt has become a Triple M staple.

But it was an incident that brought back memories for Flanagan, who was messaged by worried friends after the death of The Sopranos actor James Gandolfini in 2013.

“Oh geez I was wrapped to find out that’s what people thought I looked like!” he laughed.

Plath asked: “So people were messaging you asking if you were okay?”

Flanagan: “Yeah, ‘is Flan okay, is Flan okay’. Yes I am, I’m not James Gandolfini.”

Turning back to Everitt, he was asked if he corrected the record, Everitt said he doesn’t use social media

Everitt retired from AFL footy after the 2008 season and it’s good to see he’s still going strong!

Originally published as AFL great Peter ‘Spida’ Everitt laughs off death hoax