Footy great Wayne Carey is dramatically set to return to the North Melbourne Football Club, 24 years after his shocking exit.
The Kangaroos are this year celebrating their 100th-year anniversary and will celebrate the landmark occasion at the Marvel Stadium during Round 17’s Thursday night clash against the Western Bulldogs.
Plenty of fanfare is expected for the iconic match, with the club also set to welcome back several key faces from years gone by.
According to Channel 7’s Caroline Wilson, Carey is now due to return alongside former team-mates Anthony Stevens and Glenn Archer for the match.
Interestingly, the news came six months after the two-time Leigh Matthews winner, Carey, was controversially snubbed by North from a video celebrating their 100-year anniversary.
The Roos forward is seen as one of the greatest players to have played AFL footy, winning seven All-Australian jackets and guiding the North Melbourne club to two premierships in 1996 and 1999.
Footy great Wayne Carey is dramatically set to return to the North Melbourne Football Club, 24 years after his shocking exit
Carey (left) and former team-mate Anthony Stevens (right) are set to reunite for North Melbourne’s centenary match in round 17
Glenn Archer (left) is also expected to return for the occasion alongside several other former North Melbourne players
He also captained the team for eight years between 1993 and 2001.
Despite that, Carey, Stevens and Archer will now all reunite for the landmark celebration.
It comes following Carey’s shocking and messy exit from the footy club back in 2001 after his extramarital affair with Steven’s wife, Kelli.
The affair left the footy world stunned after they had been caught in a toilet at a house party.
The two-time premiership captain subsequently left the club to join the Crows.
‘All three men (Carey, Stevens, Archer) are well aware that they will be there together and united for the first time,’ Wilson said on The Agenda Setters.
‘There was speculation last year when North unveiled their centenary jumper. And if you remember, there were North champions through the eras and there was no Wayne Carey. And Corey McKernan was very upset about this.’
McKernan took to X, posting: ‘FYI North Melbourne, you do know Wayne Carey played for us, don’t you?’
Carey had an extramarital affair with Anthony Stevens (right) wife, Kelli (left) back in 2001
North Melbourne great Carey (pictured) subsequently left the footy club after the affair was made public
Wilson then continued: ‘In 2022, a year later, they had a 25-year premiership reunion for the ‘96 flag, and there was an altercation at a pub between Anthony Stevens and Wayne Carey. We know the history there.’
Carey and Stevens allegedly had a heated altercation at a Melbourne Pub back in August 2022.
The pair were understood to have been at Yarraville’s Railway Hotel for a 1996 premiership reunion. SEN’s Sam Edmund stated that the pair allegedly had to be ‘separated’.
SEN reported at the time that witnesses said Carey accused Stevens of ‘talking behind his back and telling people he couldn’t be contacted and to not bother trying to catch up with him, but then being fine in-person’.
Stevens, who resigned from his role on the club’s board last year, did not attend the official celebrations the following day after the exchange.
‘I don’t think it was physical, but it was not nice,’ Wilson said, reflecting on their spat in the pub.
‘And when there was a motorcade the next day at Marvel Stadium, Anthony Stevens wasn’t there and Wayne Carey was.
‘So the club has worked really hard to get all these guys within the fold. And clearly you can’t celebrate your 100th anniversary without Wayne Carey being there.’
Carey and Stevens are also understood to have been involved in a frosty altercation in a Melbourne pub in 2022
Carey has interestingly been back at the footy club in recent months having also been seen at training
Interestingly, Wilson added that Carey had been returning to some training sessions at the club in recent months.
‘I think it’s been a slow and steady overture. He would say he was never banned from the club, but at times, probably didn’t feel all that welcome,’ she added.
Carey and Stevens’ pair had also clashed on the field after the former’s exit. Stevens was understood to have told Carey to ‘stick it’ at the time.
‘It’s the one thing he has never done,’ Stevens said, when asked by Mike Sheahan in 2015 if Carey has apologised.
‘He has never actually gone out of his way to say sorry for whatever reason.’
Carey did go on to apologise eventually, 14 years after the event.
He also spoke again on his apology to Stevens in 2022 during an episode of SAS Australia.
‘It’s haunted me for over 20 years. I was in self-destruction mode. You know, I guess my life started to unravel,’ he said. While the affair was going on, Carey was married to Sally McMahon and had even invited Stevens to be a groomsman at his wedding.
Carey, who had apologised for the incident, had also been snubbed from the club’s anniversary video last year
Footy great Luke Hodge, meanwhile, added that he was delighted to see Carey being welcomed back by the club.
‘Couldn’t agree more,’ Hodge said. ‘This is just as much about the supporters who grew up watching the captain of their football team.
‘He captained two premierships and for him not to be at the 100-year celebration. I think a lot of supporters would walk away upset about that, because he was such a big part of them throughout the 90s.
‘He was the face of the AFL. Some have touted him as the best player that they’ve ever seen play the game.”
‘All clubs have disagreements, but the club’s bigger than anyone, and that’s me, the celebration is about the players and it’s about the supporters.
‘They’ve had some tough times over the years to go back and put a smile on their face, from the ‘96, from the ‘99. I think that will pass the argument. And what happened then? For the bigger part of the club.’
