Wayne Carey officially boycotting the AFL after Peter Wright suspension

AFL legend Wayne Carey is following through on his threat to the league after an Essendon star copped a lengthy ban at the Tribunal.

Wayne Carey is now an NRL fan

Wayne Carey is following through on his threat to the AFL.

The dual premiership captain threatened he would stop watching games if Essendon’s Peter Wright was suspended for his bump on Sydney’s Harry Cunningham.

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The Essendon forward knocked Cunningham out cold in a brutal marking contest and was sent directly to the AFL Tribunal.

On Tuesday night he was slapped with a four-week suspension, which will see him out of action until round seven.

News of the suspension didn’t sit well with the AFL legend who alluded to the fact he will now be switching codes and tuning in to the NRL.

“No footy 4 weeks but let’s be honest not a great loss given how it’s being played #NRL,” Carey posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Carey is done with the AFL. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Wright copped four weeks. (Photo by Matt King/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )

Carey’s initial threat to boycott the AFL came when he spoke on his podcast The Truth Hurts when he slammed the decision to send the incident to the Tribunal and said he wouldn’t watch footy for as long as Wright is suspended for.

“So this has been sent to the tribunal? Weak as piss straight away to the AFL,” Carey said.

“Whoever determined that goes straight to the tribunal, that is just crap and wrong.

“I’m prepared to say, if Peter Wright gets suspended for whatever weeks he gets, I will not watch a game of AFL footy. I’m done. I’m jumping ship.

“I would actually say to anyone out there, if we want this game to look like anything like it should look — you’re allowed to attack that footy, he’s allowed to protect himself.

“They got to the footy simultaneously. He turned his body to protect himself. If he doesn’t turn his body, they’re both hurt. This is what our game’s about. You’re allowed to attack the footy like he did.”

The AFL has cracked down on head high contact in the wake of Angus Brayshaw’s early retirement at the age of 28 due to ongoing concussion issues.

The Melbourne premiership player was knocked out by Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard in last year’s qualifying final, but Maynard escaped suspension.

Port Adelaide’s Sam Powell-Pepper was banned for four games for a bump that concussed Adelaide’s Mark Keane in the pre-season.

The Maynard-Brayshaw incident was similar to Wright’s bump on Cunningham, and Carey argued players should still be allowed to “attack the footy”.

“It’s just gone too far for me,” said Carey, who won two premierships with North Melbourne in the 1990s.

“I will not watch footy... if he gets weeks. I’m not going to watch it for as long as he’s out of the game.

“A waste of his time, a waste of money. Just could not be more disappointed. And the fact they’re not strong enough to make a call on it, so they have to send it to the tribunal.

“Players are going to be petrified to even go at the footy hard. Players are going to be tiptoeing around the footy and not wanting to attack the footy. Is that what we want to turn this game into?”

The incident that cost Wright four weeks. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )

Carey is done. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Wright’s bump on Cunningham was the flashpoint in a fiery contest between the Bombers and Swans at the SCG on Saturday night.

Swans livewire Tom Papley said Wright could get ready for a “holiday” and called Essendon’s new approach of playing on the edge under coach Brad Scott a “facade”.

“They really gave it to us. Brad Scott came out and said they want to have that Essendon edge and Peter Wright took it a bit too far,” Papley told 3AW.

“They were still getting into us. You can be tough and do all that stuff, but you’ve still got to be able to play four quarters.

“They were hitting us behind the play and things like that. They’re trying to do that stuff and I don’t know if it’s them or not.

“Brad Scott came out and said it’s the Essendon way, but … anyway I won’t go into it.

“You can pretend to be tough, but you’ve still got to win the ball and win the game.

“It’s all a facade I think, but anyway.”

Originally published as Wayne Carey officially boycotting the AFL after Peter Wright suspension