North Melbourne great Wayne Carey has responded to a recent story that suggested he and fellow premiership teammate Anthony Stevens 'came to blows' last weekend.
Carey and Stevens have had a highly-documented relationship dating back to their playing days at the Kangaroos in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with the pair both captaining the club.
Once considered close mates, the pair's relationship was shattered after it emerged that Carey had an extramarital affair with Steven's wife, Kelli, in 2002.
The scandal saw Carey depart the Roos that year, while Stevens would remain at the club and succeed Carey as North Melbourne's captain.
A report from SEN's Sam Edmund emerged earlier this week stating that both Carey and Stevens had again been part of a worrying rift at a Yarraville bar, with the pair attending a 25-year premiership reunion.
The report suggested that Carey's outburst at Stevens had left their former teammates "stunned", as the pair were involved in an "ugly altercation".
Speaking on Triple M on Wednesday, Carey refuted the report, stating Edmund's mail was "factually incorrect".
“The first story said came to blows and that’s factually incorrect," Carey said. "There were no blows.
“There was a firm conversation – altercation I think is even too firm to say that occurred.
“I wanted to have a conversation about Stevo, I was worried about him. I said ‘I’m worried about you’ and he obviously took a little bit of umbrage to me saying I was worried about him.
“I want him to look after himself like people want me to look after myself.
“To say that it was a massive altercation and it came to blows and then we left there and everyone was upset with everyone and it was a big thing is totally incorrect – that’s the disappointing thing about it.
“It wasn’t a story and still isn’t a story.
“I hope I’ve just cleared up that once again this has been blown into something it wasn’t.
“(Sam’s) let himself down with this... You know what Sam? We all have bad days. You’ve had a shocker.”
Carey revealed that following the incident both he and Stevens shared "a couple of beers" and left the venue together.
“What he did leave out was at the end of the night or the evening or late afternoon or whatever it was, Stevo and I actually had a couple of beers together and left together,” he said.
“It sounds like we’ve had this massive blow up and an altercation and as he said we came to blows which was clearly factually incorrect.”
Edmund has since responded to Carey's comments, doubling down on his report on SEN after the pair shared a phone call on Wednesday morning.
.@Sammy__Edmund responds to Wayne Carey's comments on the North Melbourne reunion story. @DwaynesWorldSEN | #AFL pic.twitter.com/P6w4WIOsWr
— SEN 1116 (@1116sen) August 10, 2022
"I stand by all those things," Edmund told SEN.
"Wayne's version is also very different to that relayed to me by multiple people who attended on the night. People I would say have no motivation to tell anything but the truth."
