Fallen crown: The troubled life of The King Wayne Carey

They called him The King but Wayne Carey’s crown slips a little lower with every new controversy. We take a look at the many highs and lows of the AFL champion.

Without question one of the greatest ever to play the game, Wayne Carey’s legendary exploits on the field have brought him fame, fortune and the highest accolades of the competition.

But the two-time premiership captain’s troubled life away from the AFL has been defined by a long list of scandals and controversies, the latest involving a bag of white powder and a Perth casino. We take a look back at the many highs and lows of Wayne Carey.

TURBULENT EARLY YEARS

Carey was born on May 27, 1971 in Wagga Wagga, in the Riverina district of NSW.

One of five children, his parents, Kevin and Lynn, separated when he was seven years old and he and two siblings stayed in Wagga with their father.

When Kevin was sent to prison for his second stretch behind bars, eight-year-old Wayne and his siblings were sent to live with an aunt and uncle in North Wagga.

It was there, just 50m from Wagga’s McPherson Oval, that a young Wayne, who grew up playing rugby and barracking for Parramatta, got his first taste of Aussie Rules.

Wayne Carey (back row, second from left) in an undated team photo when he was playing for North Wagga Saints.

As Carey told former footballer and journalist Neil Cordy in an interview published on aflnswact.com.au, “They were my happiest childhood memories there at McPherson Oval.

“They were really good times for me. I started playing at 8am in the under 10s. The fog would set in sometimes and you couldn’t see the other end of the ground.

“I would be there all day. I’d run the boundary in the reserves and sometimes, the seniors. I got a pie and a can of coke for doing it”.

“My footy boots were hand-me-downs from a cousin. The first proper footy I got, a Sherrin, was one I won at a carnival when I was 10.

“I treated it like a baby, I polished it and never kicked it on the road.

“I didn’t trust my brother (Sam) to mark it. If Sam was kicking with me it had to be on the grass.”

Carey began honing his natural abilities with the North Wagga Saints in 1979 and in 1983 was picked to play in the NSW State Primary Schools team.

The family subsequently moved to Adelaide.

In 2008, Wayne Carey spoke about the dysfunction he says defined his childhood and in 2009, in his autobiography, accused his father of being an alcoholic who beat his mother and was so violent his brother Dick and a terrified Lynn hatched a plan to wait by the front door and shoot him to death as he arrived home.

Kevin Carey denied claims in Wayne’s autobiography that he was a violent alcoholic.

Kevin Carey, father of Wayne Carey in 2008.

His father’s life was only spared because he decided not to come home that night, the book claimed.

But in 2009, Kevin Carey furiously denied the claims and said he planned to write his own book that would expose his son as a liar.

“I don’t care what he says,” Mr Carey said.

“I’ll be coming back against all that. I’m writing a book of me own. So f*** off.

FOOTY CAREER BLOSSOMS

As Charles Happell wrote in The Age in 2010, football became Carey’s refuge from his troubled home life.
In Adelaide, a 14-year-old Carey played in the Under 18s for Mallala before getting a run with North Adelaide in the SANFL Under-15s.

He played his first game in the SANFL reserves against Central District - a match that helped to galvanise a fearlessness, at least outwardly, that would become a hallmark of his professional career in the AFL.

As Carey writes about the experience in his autobiography The Truth Hurts: “(My brother) Dick told me what to expect; how they’d probably try to target a 15-year-old in his first game.

“Although I had teammates, and senior players among them, sticking up for me, I was still scared. But it didn’t stop me wanting to get the ball.

“Even though I had this lunatic (Central Districts player Jed Lawton) running around trying to belt me, I got a few kicks and don’t remember shirking an issue, despite being petrified.”

THE AFL BECKONS

Recruited as part of the same deal in 1987, Carey and Longmire both became champions for North Melbourne. Carey and Longmire are pictured here after the Kangaroo’s flag win in 1996. Longmire missed the Grand Final due to injury. Photo: Brett Faulkner.

In 1987, North Melbourne recruiting manager Greg Miller watched Carey play in a representative school game in Adelaide and set about trying to figure out how to recruit him into the national competition.

As Rob Burton writes on the North Melbourne Football club website, despite living in Adelaide for two years, Carey was still tied to Sydney under a 36-month zoning rule.

But, Miller, who was“hellbent” on luring Carey to the Kangaroos, found a way to get Carey to Melbourne, negotiating for the exciting young prospect to be transferred from Sydney for $10,000, along with fellow Roos champion John Longmire who was transferred for $60,000.

“I was just the set of steak knives thrown in (in the deal),” Carey joked.

“I was now a North Melbourne player,” he said.

AFL CAREER

Carey, affectionately known throughout his career as “The King” and “Duck”, was just 16 when he moved to Melbourne, beginning his career at Arden Street in the back line for the Under-19s.

He graduated to the senior side in 1989 and made his debut that year against Fitzroy.

As the Museum of the Riverina, in Carey’s home town of Wagga Wagga writes, “from the outset, it was clear the Kangaroos had signed somebody special.”

“As a player, Wayne quickly built a reputation as an aggressive, big-marking and goalkicking forward. He was fast on his feet and his kicking precision was exceptional, even under the most extreme pressure.”

Carey with football coach Denis Pagan and team holding the AFL Premiership Cup after North Melbourne defeated Carlton in the Grand Final in 1999.

In 1993, just shy of 22, Carey became the second youngest captain in the history of the VFL/AFL.

Carey played 244 games for the Roos and captained the side through two premierships, in 1996 and 1999.

He kicked 671 goals for North Melbourne, was named Best & Fairest four times.

In 2019, as part of North Melbourne’s 150th anniversary, Carey was named the greatest player in the history of the club.

CAREY BECOMES A CROW

Carey sat out the 2002 season after leaving North Melbourne before returning to the city where his journey to the AFL began, Adelaide, where he signed on with the Crows.

Carey played 28 games for Adelaide between 2003-2004.

He kicked four goals in his debut for the Crows in 2003 and finished the year with 29 goals in 16 games but a serious neck injury ended his playing career in 2004.

The Adelaide Football Club said that, while he was in the “twilight” of his career, “Carey still managed to have an impact and played an important role with Adelaide’s younger players”.

Carey in action for the Crows in 2003. Photo: AAP Image/Tom Miletic

Carey with Stuart Bown during an AFL-SANFL charity match between the Crows and Norwood on The Parade, February 2003.

CONTROVERSIES

Despite his undeniable talents and extraordinary achievements on the football field, Carey’s private life has been defined by a series of extraordinary scandals. Here are just a few.

INDECENT ASSAULT CHARGE
In 1996, Carey was charged with indecent assault after he allegedly grabbed a woman’s breast outside a Sydney nightclub and told her “why don’t you go and get a bigger set of t***s?”. The case was settled out of court.

THAT AFFAIR
In 2002, Carey was busted in a bathroom at a house party with the wife of North Melbourne vice-captain and friend Anthony Stevens, by Stevens himself.

The pair had been conducting a secret affair and news of their betrayal sent shockwaves throughout the football world and Carey subsequently left the club in disgrace.

Former Roos champion Anthony Stevens with his then- wife Kelli. In 2002, details of a secret affair between Kelli and Carey came to light, sending shockwaves through the football world and culminating in Carey leaving the club.

As Carey wrote in his 2009 book The Truth Hurts, “I knew I had to leave the club. It seemed the only reasonable thing to do, but I’ve never, ever coped with that loss.

“For a long time, my state of mind was shot. I destroyed my relationship with my wife, I lost my career, I lost most of my friends and I lost my dignity. I also lost my family at North Melbourne, which had become the family I never had as a child”.

Carey and his then-wife Sally reconciled in the wake of the affair and had a daughter, Ella, but separated shortly after her birth.

ARRESTED IN THE US
In 2007, he was arrested in Miami for breaking a wine glass in his then-fiance Kate Neilson’s face on a holiday in the US, leaving her with a cut lip.

In February, Carey appeared on the Channel 7 show SAS Australia and admitted that he intended to throw wine on Neilson but denied claims he had glassed her.

Carey and Neilson in 2007

Carey in a police mug shot after his arrest in Miami in 2007. Photo: Channel 9.

“I got accused of glassing my girlfriend - I leant over to throw wine on her in a restaurant… which is really wrong,” he said.

“Yes the glass touched her lip, but it didn’t break, I wasn’t trying to glass her.”

He described his actions as “the biggest regret of my life”.

Carey on Channel 7's SAS Australia Picture: Channel 7

Neilson told News Corp the incident was a “dark period” of the couple’s relationship but she wanted to move on.

“The incident was so long ago now and it was a dark period of our relationship, but I can say with certainty the glass of wine was intentionally thrown into my face and smashed my mouth pretty bad,” she said.

Miami Police Leiutenant Bill Schwartz described Carey as a drunken thug who used his head as a “battering ram” and kicked and elbowed police as they tried to arrest him.

“When officers went and spoke to him, he immediately was belligerent, starting striking out at the officers, in fact, kicked one of the officers in the face with his foot, elbowed another one in the side of the face,” Lt Schwartz said.

Carey on fire during filming of Channel 7's SAS Australia. Picture: Channel 7

“When he was in the police car he used his head as a battering ram and tried to smash a hole between the front compartment of the police car and the prisoner compartment”.

He said that at the time, officers had no idea about Carey’s fame in Australia.

“To us, he was just another thug,” Lt Schwartz said.

Carey was put on two years’ probation but escaped a conviction in return for his guilty pleas.

ARRESTED... AGAIN
In 2008, Carey was charged with assaulting police after calling authorities to his Port Melbourne apartment.

Carey was accused of trying to headbutt one officer, elbow another in the head and push a third officer against a wall, forcibly enough for the officer’s elbow to go through the wall.

In 2009, he was convicted over the assault and fined $2000.

Later that year, Carey was refused entry into the US, reportedly as a result of him being found guilty of assaulting Miami police the year before.

The decision by US Immigration authorities was said to have devastated Carey who often went to Las Vegas to escape his private problems in Australia.

HEATED STOUSH WITH ANTHONY STEVENS
In August, 2022, reports emerged that Carey had been involved in an “ugly altercation” with former friend and teammate Anthony Stevens at a 1996 North Melbourne premiership reunion and that the pair had to be “separated” as a result of the run-in.

But addressing the incident on Triple M, Carey confirmed while he had approached Stevens for a conversation, the pair never came to blows and denied there was an “altercation”.

Stevens and Carey at training for North Melbourne before Carey left the club in disgrace in 2002.

“I wanted to have a conversation with Stevo, I was worried about him,” Carey said.

“I said I want him to look after himself like people want me to look after myself.

“Now, he took a little bit of umbrage to that, but to say that it was a massive altercation or came to blows, and then we left there and everyone was upset with everyone and it was a big thing, is totally incorrect.”

In fact, Carey said, after the pair had exchanged words, they ended up having “a couple of beers together” and left the function together before going their separate ways.

Carey and Stevens clash during North Melbourne Kangaroos v Adelaide Crows at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne, May, 2003. Photo: George Salpigtidis.

BANNED FROM CROWN, FORCED OFF AIR
In September, 2022, Carey, 51, was barred from all Crown casino properties, including its hotels, after a zip-lock bag, containing a white powder, fell from his pocket onto a gaming room table at Crown Burswood in Perth.

Carey was questioned by security guards and confirmed the bag containing the powder was his but insisted it contained “crushed up anti-inflammatory drugs”, not illegal drugs.

“It was not an illegal substance,” Carey said.

“It was offered to security. Security didn’t take it. They just said it’s not a great look, I understood that, and we left without incident.”

Channel 7 AFL commentators Wayne Carey and Brian Taylor before the round 14 AFL match between the West Coast Eagles and Essendon at Optus Stadium on June 20, 2019 in Perth, Australia. Photo Paul Kane/Getty Images.

Sources told The Herald Sun Carey was issued a “withdrawal of licence” notice, banning him from all Crown properties for a minimum of two years.

In the wake of the casino incident, Carey was forced to stand aside from his regular TV and radio broadcasting and commentating jobs.

Channel 7’s managing director in Melbourne, Lewis Martin, said Carey had “agreed to stand aside pending an investigation”, while a spokesperson for Triple M said the station and Carey had “agreed for Wayne to be relieved of his on-air duties pending an internal investigation”.

Originally published as Fallen crown: The troubled life of The King Wayne Carey