AFL poster boy Bailey Smith quickly deleted an Instagram post about Carlton forward Charlie Curnow during Geelong’s controversial Mad Monday celebrations.
Geelong created headlines at their end-of-season get-together, with the stars wearing fancy dress after their devastating grand final loss to Brisbane on Saturday.
It’s rumoured Geelong are in talks with Carlton to get Curnow, who would arrive on a monster contract if a deal can be secured despite the fact his deal with the Blues runs until 2029.
Geelong are the frontrunners for Curnow, but both Sydney and Gold Coast have also reportedly expressed interest.
At the Mad Monday celebrations, Smith shared a post of Ollie Dempsey and Sam De Koning, who arrived in an Aston Martin with mysterious brown paper bags and fake Cotton On branding.
They were poking fun at a common footy conspiracy theory that Geelong have been able to get around the salary cap by giving players sneaky payments from third parties like their sponsor, Cotton On.
Bailey Smith deleted his Instagram post (top) about Carlton forward Charlie Curnow (pictured) shortly after it went up during the Cats’ Mad Monday party
‘We’re taking the chopper in next year @charliecurnow,’ Smith wrote alongside the post, before deleting the post minutes later.
Smith also deleted an Instagram post in which he mocked respected footy reporter Caroline Wilson and used a sexual emoji to get his point across.
Wilson had blasted Smith as a ‘brat’ after he unleashed on a female media photographer with an F-bomb verbal blast when she took snaps of him at a training session that was open to the media on September 10.
The 24-year-old’s teammate Max Holmes arrived at the Mad Monday party dressed as Wilson, mimicking a dress she once wore to the Walkley Awards and carrying a bow and arrow as a reference to her ‘Caro’s Arrow’ segment during her time with Channel Nine’s Footy Classified show.
Smith captioned an image on his Instagram story with Holmes as ‘Caro has never looked better’ alongside a sweat droplets emoji.
The emoji often carries sexual connotations.
Smith – who was dressed as Brad Pitt’s character from the western movie Legends of the Fall – also referred to the film Brokeback Mountain in a photo showing him being embraced by skipper Patrick Dangerfield, who was dressed as a character from the TV show Yellowstone.
‘This is what losing a Granny does to ya. Alright, phone away now. Bye,’ Smith wrote.
Bailey Smith deleted this Instagram post showing him alongside teammate Max Holmes, who was dressed as respected footy reporter Caroline Wilson
Smith made a Brokeback Mountain reference on an Instagram photo of him being embraced by Geelong skipper Patrick Dangerfield (pictured), with both stars dressed as western characters
The Geelong midfielder copped criticism for the social media post, with the AFL’s first openly bisexual player, Brown, subsequently hitting out at Smith on social media.
Brown first published a picture of Heath Ledger on his story, who plays the lead character Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain.
‘Just for the record, Heath Ledger’s way hotter,’ Brown said, appearing to fire shade at Smith.
He then followed that story up with another message, writing: ‘In all seriousness, though, guys do better.
‘Last time I checked, losing a Grand Final doesn’t make you gay, but being homophobic definitely makes you a loser,’ Brown said.
Footy pundit Kane Cornes believes that Geelong players embarrassed themselves at the get-together.
‘I thought that was one of the more embarrassing days at the Geelong footy club that I’ve seen in a while,’ Cornes said on Trade Radio.
‘They’ve owned this space for a long time, but at some point have you just got to say, it’s not book week, we’re not in year five.
‘Let’s just turn up in a shirt and some jeans and have a have a good day, a few quiet beers and celebrate a grand final loss where we got smashed in the second half.
‘We don’t need to dress up and make ourselves look like fools.
‘I thought Close, Holmes, Smith and Dangerfield, they embarrassed themselves yesterday.’
