Wayne Carey

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Wayne Carey
Wayne Carey
Personal Info
Birth May 27, 1971,
Recruited from North Adelaide
Height/Weight 192cm / 97kg
Playing Career¹
Debut 1989, North Melbourne vs. Fitzroy, at Optus Oval
Team(s) North Melbourne (1989-2001)

244 games, 671 goals

Adelaide (2003-2004)

27 games, 57 goals
¹ Statistics to end of 2006 season
Career Highlights

Wayne Carey (born May 27, 1971), is regarded as one of the greatest Australian rules football players of all time. His nicknames include "The King", or "Duck" due to his walking style, caused by one leg being longer than the other.

Carey grew up in Wagga Wagga, a city in southern New South Wales regarded as the frontier dividing "Aussie rules" territory with that of rugby league, Carey played for North Adelaide in the SANFL, before joining North Melbourne in 1989 and quickly rising to prominence, winning his club's best and fairest award in 1992 and awarded the club captaincy by coach Denis Pagan in 1993. Playing in the centre half-forward position, Carey was renowned for his strength, height and fitness he repeated his best and fairest win four times, was selected in the All-Australian team six times (four times as captain), was his club's leading goalkicker five times, and most importantly, led his club to two premierships in 1996 and 1999.

Contents

[edit] Early career

Carey was picked up after a series of events which would have left the Sydney Swans' recruiting staff slightly red-faced over the course of the late 1980's . Greg Miller met with the Sydney's football department to discuss the transfer of a highly rated forward by the name of John Longmire. After that deal was settled, Miller then asked about "the Carey kid". He made them a relatively cheap offer of a $10,000 transfer fee to which the Swans agreed.

Carey's first few seasons had promised a lot, with commentators earmarking him as a future champion. Yet it wasn't until his first State of Origin match for South Australia in 1992 that Carey really came of age. Playing at centre half forward alongside and against some of the game's greatest, Carey took the game apart in the last quarter taking some big marks and kicking long goals from outside 50 metres. His maturity took leaps from thereon as he was able to match his talent and skill with consistency.

[edit] Captaincy

In 1993, one of the first things new coach Denis Pagan did was to appoint Carey as the club's captain - the second youngest captain in VFL/AFL history at 21 years of age. Carey took this great responsibility of leading a young team with aplomb, taking them to finals for the first time in many years. Pagan designed the team's offence around Carey, instructing other forwards to make space and draw their direct opponents well away from the goals to make space for Carey, a tactic which became known as "Pagan's Paddock". He consistently won games off his own boot, including a game against reigning premiers West Coast at the WACA where he cut Glen Jakovich (the one player who consistenly beat him for most of his career) to shreds and also against the year's premiers in Essendon, playing a dominant final quarter that marked him as an out-and-out champion that belied his relatively youthful age. A testament to his brilliant first year as North Melbourne's captain, Carey was named captain of the All-Australian team - the youngest All-Australian captain ever.

Wayne Carey after leading the Kangaroos to their 1996 Premiership.
Enlarge
Wayne Carey after leading the Kangaroos to their 1996 Premiership.

[edit] Memorable performances

Carey was well known for his performances in big games, particularly finals. In 1994, after tearing a calf muscle in the final game of the home-and-away season, he faced up to play perennial finalists Hawthorn. A tight contest all day, Hawthorn stepped up to kick a couple of goals with little time remaining. Enter Carey, who called and marked strongly over Hawthorn captain Chris Langford to kick a goal and then another to tie the scores. The match went into extra time, with Carey again kicking the sealer. Still struggling with the calf but with a week's break, Carey limped into the preliminary final against Geelong. Carey immediately stamped his authority on the game with a couple of strong marks and goals in the first quarter. Geelong then took complete control in the 2nd quarter. It was left to Carey again to lift his team out of despair and that he did, in one quarter, playing one of the most inspirational finals performances in recent memory, kicking 4 goals and seeing off Tim McGrath and Leigh Colbert. With scores level deep in the final quarter, Gary Ablett would mark and kick the winning goal after the siren, but Carey's performance that day would be remembered by all for many years to come.

Other dominating performances include his 11 goals 2 behinds (both hitting the post) against Melbourne in 1996. Carey was irrepressible under lights at the MCG this Friday night, seeing off Shaun Smith early, then David Neitz and Anthony Ingerson. Melbourne simply had no answer to his brilliance as Carey took contested marks at will, including a one-hander as Neitz pulled him to the ground.

Another memorable day for Carey was his 10 goals in a losing team against Essendon in 1999. Carey made a complete mockery of Kevin Sheedy's decision to start Paul Barnard on him, after which Sheedy quickly moved the more conventional match up of Dustin Fletcher to face the might of Carey. But the damage was already done. Carey was on fire again and there was little Essendon could do - except exert their dominance in every other area of the ground. With the ball almost going over the boundary line deep in the pocket at the Punt Rd end of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Carey, under pressure, picked it up, swivelled on his preferred right foot and kicked the ball on his non-preferred left foot from 25 metres, bending it through the big sticks for one of the most freakish of his 727 goals.

Despite his widely recognised skill, he was not well-liked by fans of opposing teams, who regarded him as arrogant -- particularly because of his unique and extraordinary habit of turning towards the television camera that was recording the play and gesturing towards that particular camera whenever he had scored a goal -- yet most could not deny that he might have made their respective teams stronger on the field, as he tore opposition defences apart and left mental scars with some that would last entire careers. Many defenders would confess to having sleepless nights the night before they matched up with Wayne Carey.

Despite his superlative skills, Carey never won a Brownlow medal. The fact that he did not do so is sometimes held up as an example of the flaws in the voting process (conducted by the games' umpires). Carey was a "key position" forward rather than the midfield players who are statistically over-represented amongst the medal winners. It is also sometimes asserted that Carey's testy relationship with the umpires, notably him pointing at the replay of any decision they had gotten wrong, was also responsible for him losing votes on occasion.

[edit] Retirement and comeback

In March 2002, after 244 games and 671 goals with the Kangaroos, Carey was pressured to resign from the club in sensational circumstances after other senior players reportedly agreed that they were unwilling to continue playing alongside him, after it was revealed that he had an ongoing extramarital affair with the wife of the Roos' vice-captain and then best friend, Anthony Stevens. The story filled the Melbourne media (and to a lesser extent the Australian national media) for days, with front page after front page of the Herald Sun devoted to the subject, giving some indication of Carey's and football's prominence in that city.

To avoid the media Carey fled to the USA, rumored to be given a chance punting for an NFL team, but that was only a rumor. Carey's management later denied the media speculation that he had trained with the Cowboys. He returned to Australia shortly afterward.

For some time, it was unclear whether Carey would continue playing AFL football again, but by the end of the 2002 season and following a bidding war between several clubs, Carey announced his wish to play for the Adelaide Crows in 2003 and the Kangaroos and Crows eventually negotiated the terms of a deal to allow the exchange to happen. Carey kicked a dramatic winning goal in the Crows 4 point win against Sydney in Round 18, 2003 at AAMI Stadium in which he appeared to mark while standing over the line and produced a freak soccer goal from a 90 degree angle to the right in heavy rain vs his former side in Round 21 2003 vs the Kangaroos at the same venue.

In June 2004, after 28 games with his new club, Carey retired with a disc-related neck injury, marking the end of a career that spanned 16 seasons, 272 games and included 727 goals. Despite his well-documented character flaws he is still regarded by some as the game's greatest ever player.

[edit] Post-AFL career

In early 2005, he agreed to assist former coach and mentor Denis Pagan at the Carlton Football Club, acting voluntarily as a part-time skills coach. As of 2006 he will be an assistant coach at Collingwood Football Club. He also signed a deal to work as a commentator and host of shows on the Fox Footy Channel.

His private life again became the subject of public comment in February 2006 when he and his wife Sally announced their separation.[1]

In June 2006, Carey coached the All Star side in the AFL Legends Match.

[edit] External links

Preceded by:
Mick Martyn, Craig Sholl		 North Melbourne Best and Fairest winner
1992-1993		 Succeeded by:
Wayne Schwass
Preceded by:
Greg Williams		 Leigh Matthews Trophy
1995		 Succeeded by:
Corey McKernan
Preceded by:
Wayne Schwass		 North Melbourne Best and Fairest winner
1996		 Succeeded by:
Anthony Stevens
Preceded by:
Robert Harvey		 Leigh Matthews Trophy
1998		 Succeeded by:
Shane Crawford
Preceded by:
Craig Bradley		 Michael Tuck Medallist
1998		 Succeeded by:
Paul Salmon
Preceded by:
Anthony Stevens		 North Melbourne Best and Fairest winner
1998		 Succeeded by:
Anthony Stevens
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