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Courier-Mail
a day ago
- Sport
- Courier-Mail
‘You should apologise': AFL legend, journo in heated clash
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News. St Kilda legend Nick Riewoldt has demanded an apology after his comments were called 'sexist' during a heated TV exchange on Monday night. The Saints champion and veteran football reporter Caroline Wilson exchanged verbal barbs on Channel 7's The Agenda Setters as the panel discussed North Melbourne's abysmal 101-point defeat to Geelong on Saturday. FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer. Wilson said it was now up to North Melbourne president Sonja Hood and chief executive Jennifer Watt to come out and address the club's woes in public. Wilson said it was also up to Hood to scrutinise the club's football department and coach Alastair Clarkson. Riewoldt said Clarkson would not be happy if Hood decided to question the four-time premiership coach's operations, despite the club enduring another disastrous season where they sit 17th on the ladder with just four wins this season. Nick Riewoldt gave Caroline Wilson both barrels. Photo: Channel 7. Hood was on a public relations drive and was full of praise for Clarkson when he was appointed coach of the Kangaroos on a five-year deal that reportedly made him the highest paid coach in the sport. Riewoldt described Hood's behaviour at the time 'sycophantic' with Wilson taking umbrage to the term. 'That is bordering on sexism,' she said. 'If a male president had lauded getting a premiership coach … you wouldn't call it sycophantic. I bet you wouldn't.' Riewoldt responded: 'What are you talking about … I resent the fact you think that's a sexist comment. That is a ridiculous thing to say. 'How is someone being sycophantic got anything to do with their gender? 'That's ridiculous and you should apologise. 'It's not sexist Caroline.' Wilson said she was not going to 'cop' Riewoldt's comment. Nick Riewoldt and Caroline at three paces. Photo: Channel 7. 'You're making ridiculous statements like that. You're wrong to say she was sycophantic,' she said. 'You should apologise to her Nick for calling her sycophantic. That's ridiculous.' The tension seemed to have simmered when the show returned from an ad-break. Wilson last week made plenty of headlines when she put Channel 7 host Craig Hutchison on the spot asking him not to fire her on air. The pre-planned segment, which Hutchison clearly did not know was going to happen, related to the media mogul's awkward appearance on radio network RSN last week after he announced a raft of sackings at the station. Earlier this month, the TV host's SEN group purchased RSN in a $3.25 million deal and immediately set about cutting costs, including giving popular hosts Daniel Harford and Michael Felgate the flick. Many long-time listeners of the station only learned the news when Hutchison fronted Felgate's Racing Pulse show last Thursday. So Wilson took the opportunity to make a cheeky plea over her own future on the Channel 7 show. X Learn More SUBSCRIBER ONLY Set up by Riewoldt in a section called The Spill, the former St Kilda captain put the vague question to Wilson: 'The hour on air of the Agenda Setters is the highest risk of all.' The long-time Age reporter replied: 'Well, certainly if you're on air with Craig Hutchison. 'This is no respect, disrespect I should say, to Michael Felgate or Daniel Harford for that matter. 'But if you're going to remove me from the show, can you please not do it with me on-air?' Wilson delivered the jab with a straight face and Hutchison did not take it well. 'This is not something to joke about,' he shot back. There was plenty of drama elsewhere on Monday night with Channel 9's Footy Classified showing previously unseen footage of Giants captain Toby Greene appearing to kick Swans defender Dane Rampe in the groin region. The new vision shows Greene lashing out, kicking directly behind him between Rampe's legs during a heated confrontation before the start of the game. Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd, on Monday night, told the AFL and new general manager of football performance Greg Swann the league needs to come out and make a public statement about Greene's uncovered act. Originally published as 'You should apologise': AFL legend, journo in heated clash
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Footy legend can't contain his anger after being branded a sexist by his co-host on live TV
Footy legend Nick Riewoldt demanded an apology on live TV after he was labelled a sexist by veteran AFL journalist Caroline Wilson on Monday night. The fiery exchange unfolded on Channel Seven 's The Agenda Setters as both panel members were discussing the dire state of North Melbourne. Alastair Clarkson's men were trounced by 101 points at Marvel Stadium on July 26 by Geelong, with Jeremy Cameron booting 11 goals. Bailey Smith was a standout in the midfield for the Cats, chalking up 43 disposals. Tellingly, the thrashing was the third time this season the Kangaroos have conceded a score of 150 or more - and the third time in five games they have allowed at least 130 points. Riewoldt was discussing where it's gone wrong for North when he labelled club president Sonja Hood 'sycophantic' over her praise when the team signed Clarkson as head coach in 2023. The fiery exchange unfolded on Channel Seven's The Agenda Setters when both panel hosts were discussing the dire state of North Melbourne That offended Wilson, who loudly questioned whether Riewoldt would have formed a similar view if Hood was a man. 'That is bordering on sexism, if a male president had lauded getting a premiership coach... you wouldn't call it sycophantic. I bet you wouldn't,' she said. The St Kilda great was seething at the accusation from Wilson. 'What are you talking about? I resent the fact you think that's a sexist comment, that is a ridiculous thing to say,' he said. 'How is someone being sycophantic got anything to do with their gender? That's ridiculous and you should apologise.' It is unknown if the footy identities resolved the tension - or if Wilson apologised - as an ad break broke up the clash. Meanwhile, two-time Kangaroos premiership player David King is concerned for the club's future with Clarkson at the helm. 'You have to be worried, don't you?' King said on SEN. 'Nothing has changed defensively, and when nothing (has) changed what are you building? 'Clarko for five years was perfect, but I thought there would be a more significant improvement in the third year (2025). 'In my own heart of hearts, this club desperately needs stability. It's been through turmoil. It's spat out coach after coach for six or seven years.
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
Alastair Clarkson accused of failing to improve North Melbourne after shellacking by Geelong
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson stands accused of failing to advance the Kangaroos in any measurable way after suffering the biggest loss of the 2025 season and having recorded just 10 wins across his three seasons in charge. Two-time Kangaroos premiership player David King said he was 'confused' watching his old side, which was demolished by 101 points by Geelong, asking questions about what four-time premiership winning mentor Clarkson was 'building'. In his post-match appraisal of the loss, Clarkson said he wouldn't get caught up in the 'hysteria around results' and 'we know where we are as a footy club'. King, however, said it was merely more lip service and he was genuinely worried about where the Kangaroos were heading, with Clarkson three years into a five-year contract. 'You have to be worried don't you?' he said on Monday. 'Nothing has changed defensively, and when nothing changed what are you building? 'Clarko for five years was perfect, but I thought there would be a more significant improvement in the third year.' King wasn't calling for change but questioned whether Clarkson was really aware of the problems his team faced. 'In my own heart of hearts, this club desperately need stability,' King told SEN. 'It's been through turmoil. It's spat out coach after coach for six or seven years. 'But we're still here. It's just so confusing trying to watch them and work out what they're doing. 'From a personal point of view I always wonder if the coach is telling the absolute truth or is it just words to appease a 10-minute press conference. Or is this what he really feels? 'I feel like sometimes they're words; I'm not going at Alastair, I'm not. It's just so confusing.' The Kangaroos brought in premiership-winning players Caleb Daniel and Luke Parker to help the young list, but King said Daniel in particular was not delivering. 'I didn't expect to be here at this point. There is so much work to do. I get confused with how they reward Caleb Daniel with selection – it baffles me,' he said. 'I haven't seen him do one thing that blows my mind. Defensively, he causes confusion for the rest of them. 'I would love them to honestly talk to us about it. It has not improved defensively. 'There's massive questions. I don't want to hear about what other clubs have done; I want to see North do it.'
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Gold Coast standard: Suns finally look like they belong with the AFL's big boys
Temperamentally, it's hard to imagine two more different footballers than Jeremy Cameron and Matt Rowell. Cameron kicked 11 goals on the weekend, and slotted each one with the same laconic air as when he's whacking golf balls into the lake on his farm. Rowell had 37 possessions, most of which were earned in a footballing form of hand-to-hand-combat. Rowell met considerably stiffer opposition than Cameron, whose bag came against a lamentable North Melbourne, a team that is driving its fans to despair. Rowell's 37 came against a crack midfield, with one of the sport's best two-way runners in his back pocket all afternoon. Rowell's motor often takes half a quarter or so to properly turn over. And Josh Dunkley, who has blanketed him in recent meetings, seemed to have his measure in the early minutes of the Queensland derby. He was doing all the right things – bumping him off balance, blocking him at stoppages and involving himself in possession chains. But in horseracing parlances, this was run on a Heavy 9 and Rowell is built for those conditions. He's low slung, incredibly strong through the glutes and legs, and excellent at holding his centre of gravity. Scrimmaging on his hands and knees – one of the more exhausting things you can do on a football field – he'll shovel out the handball at the fourth or fifth effort. For such a brute of a footballer, he also has fast feet and a recurring sight all afternoon was of him giving Dunkley the slip at stoppages – sometimes with twinkle toes, sometimes just sledgehammering his way out. It's impossible to write about Rowell and not mention Noah Anderson. The best friends are polar opposites as footballers. One pursues the ball in an almost demented manner. The other glides and slaloms his way through congestion. Anderson took a while to adapt to Damien Hardwick's ways. But he has been exceptional this year, and would be a worthy Brownlow medallist and All Australian captain. In a recent profile on the AFL website, three people who coach and work with him compared him to Scott Pendlebury. Words like 'calm' and 'unfazed' were peppered throughout the article. It's a shame he and Rowell aren't playing in front of 80,000 people every other week. But they drew their marbles, went where they were told and have made Gold Coast a serious football team. There are several things that stand out about the Suns. The first is how much they resemble Hardwick's great Richmond side just as it was about to pop – the frantic, raus raus football, the determination to attack from half back in great sweeping waves. Like Richmond's Tigers, and unlike any Suns side in its first dozen years, they don't drop their bundle following a bad loss. And there's finally a bit of mongrel about them, an attitude that GWS had right from the beginning but which the Suns failed to cultivate. A lot of them, including Rowell and ruckman Jarrod Witts, are prepared to do the dirty work, allowing thoroughbreds like Anderson the full expression of his game. Like Melbourne, they wined and dined all the prominent media figures in February. All the big movers and shakers were there – the president, the CEO, the coach, Anderson, Rowell and a lot of the best players. They were selling their story. They were asking for a fair ride from the media. And underpinning everything was a steely resolve that they weren't going to roll over for anyone anymore. Sign up to From the Pocket: AFL Weekly Jonathan Horn brings expert analysis on the week's biggest AFL stories after newsletter promotion Yeah yeah, most probably thought, thanks for the dinner but we've heard it all before. After all, this is the time of year where the Suns traditionally fall in a heap. In the last seven games of a season, they've never won more than three of them. They had a poor recent record against Brisbane, they were towelled up by Adelaide last week and they were without Daniel Rioli and Touk Miller. But they took on a premiership midfield, a midfield with depth and variety and talent to burn, and they obliterated them. Their 12th win is the most they've registered in a season. At the final break, in teeming rain, coach and players were squeezed in tight and grinning broadly. I'll take a stab and suggest Hardwick was saying something along the lines of 'How good is this?' and 'we finally belong with the big boys'. A final word on Rowell and Anderson. There's a photograph of them with Nick Daicos in the same school team in 2019. Pity the poor VCE students, concerned mainly with their studies, their social lives and playing a bit of footy on a Saturday, who had to try and quell that trio. The poor buggers should get a spot in the motorcade on grand final day.
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
Roos' identity crisis amid Clarko question as ‘sickening' loss lays bare failed draft trade gamble
Questions continue to be asked of North Melbourne's on-field identity after a 'sickening' 101-point loss to Geelong on Saturday night amid more evidence of a failed draft gamble. The Kangaroos finished a staggering -41 for inside-50s, -10 for clearances, -16 for contested possessions, and -18 for marks inside 50 on a night they couldn't come close to halving the territory battle nor begin to contain the Cats' purring forward line, with superstar Jeremy Cameron running riot for 11 majors. It was North Melbourne's 14th-straight defeat at the hands of Geelong and its fifth-straight loss as it remains with a measly four wins to its name for the season. FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer. 'For North Melbourne fans, that would've been a sickening watch; incredibly frustrating. You feel sorry for the Kangaroos fans, who have watched this for six years,' the Herald Sun's Jay Clark told Fox Footy's Super Saturday Live post-match coverage. Dual All-Australian and two-time Kangaroos premiership player David King pondered the machinations of the club's game plan and lamented its inability to adequately defend. 'This (the North Melbourne rooms) would be an awful place to be, at the moment. It's a tough one, because when you watch them play, it's kind of difficult to work out what they're trying to execute,' he began. 'Are they handballing when the options are available, and then run and gun? Or is it take territory and get numbers to drop of ball? Is it a mix of both? I don't know what they're doing defensively; that's just not working at all — 40 (Geelong) scores tonight.' The Cats scored 27 times from 58 intercepts on Saturday night, exemplifying the ease of which they were able to transition and punish the Roos on the counter. 'They just smashed them; they walked through them. The amount of times Jeremy Cameron was out the back by himself, and it'd be uncontested possession, uncontested possession, goal,' King continued. 'I'd love to ask Alastair Clarkson 'what are you trying to achieve?' Show us what it should look like, and then we can at least enjoy the ride. Because we just go from week to week and not see it. We have seen it in patches throughout the year, but we're not seeing it now. 'I know the ruckman's (Tristan Xerri) not there, I know Nick Larkey's not there, but that shouldn't have as big an effect as what it does on their ability to stop the opposition moving the ball full length of the ground.' Patrick Dangerfield was tactically substituted out of the game, his 200th for Geelong, and the sight of the veteran sitting on the bench munching on a kebab while the game was still going on would have rubbed salt into the wound for North fans. Serious questions continue to be asked of the Roos' direction under Alastair Clarkson in the third year of the four-time premiership coach's reign, with the club benefitting from top picks for the better part of the past six years. In 55 games under Clarkson, North Melbourne is 10-44-1. The club has finished 17th on the ladder in consecutive seasons and currently sits 17th with four games left to go this season. Asked when the pressure on Clarkson genuinely gets turned up, King answered: 'It's a great question; it's hard to answer. I think you have a blind faith in the club that the decision-makers will get it right. 'Words are cheap; it's really hard to just listen to the same conversation over and over and over. It's a tough place to be, there's no doubt about that ... third year in, a penny for his thoughts, is he able to do what he once thought he could do with this group? Are there any doubts there? 'You walk off the ground tonight, you have to doubt your own plan. You've got (Jack) Darling, (Luke) Parker and (Caleb) Daniel to the club to try and stiffen up with a bit of seniority; that doesn't look like it's working as well as it probably should.' North Melbourne fielded eight former top-12 draft picks against Geelong, as King declared the club's issues didn't revolve around an absence of talented players. 'It's not a talent issue; it's a system problem,' he said. 'You can be really brutal and say 'it's coaching', right, but it's also performance of that system. 'Where's the disconnect? Are the players not understanding? Are they not prepared to work hard enough to ensure the system works? I think they're good enough, and I don't think they're that young that they can't compete defensively. That's not really a talent issue. 'I'm the same as all those people in the room and all those watching on, I don't understand the system, because I see so many flaws in it, so many holes in it. 'I don't see it; it's not consistent enough to say 'this is their identifiable brand'. And I think when you see 150 points against, I think even they'd say 'you wouldn't be able to see it tonight'.' Speaking post-game on Saturday night, Clarkson, who lamented glaringly obvious deficiencies in contest, clearance and territory, made it a point to highlight the discrepancy in experience between the sides. 'The Geelong forward line versus the North Melbourne backline, just see the void that sits there in terms of just experience and exposure,' he said. 'And I don't want to make excuses for our players, but it's where we're at, though. 'And we're giving these young players some exposure and opportunity, and in our back end in particular, we're going to be left very, very vulnerable down there against a formidable forward line if we couldn't control the middle of the ground as well as we'd like. And Geelong was too good in that space.' The Roos fielded the second-youngest team in the competition in Round 20, with eight-game key defender Wil Dawson among those in royal blue and white tortured by Cameron and the Cats, who licked their lips each time they entered forward 50. 'Everyone will look at win-loss and all that sort of stuff, and making progress — and even if it is just win-loss, we have made some progress,' said Clarkson in his press conference. 'But we've had three performances that were well below our best, which (were) the Carlton game in Round 6 here, the Hawthorn game about a month ago down in Tassie, and tonight. 'But outside of that, we've been much more competitive than what we were last year, winning more quarters and being in more games at three-quarter-time than we had last year.' But while Clarkson continues to preach that non-linear progress continues to be made at Arden Street, the Roos' list management's choice to trade away the club's first-round pick this year has come back to bite hard. Last November, North Melbourne — banking on a significant uptick this season — traded its future first-round pick to Richmond to secure the No.27 selection, key-position utility Matt Whitlock, who has played just one senior game in his debut season. That future choice is currently slated to wind up as the second overall pick. Injecting young talent isn't as urgent for the Roos as it has been in previous seasons, but given the stagnancy of this season, it's premium draft capital they'd absolutely love to have this off-season. 'I think they thought they would be further progressed, because they did trade that pick away,' Clark said on Fox Footy. 'Would they have traded that No.2 pick away if they thought they were going to finish second-last on the ladder? No way. They thought they would be up the ladder; they thought they would improve, that's why they gave that pick away. 'So, it tells you that they thought they would be better than they're at; that's really clear.' The Roos are currently slated to make their first draft choice this November at No.20, holding a pair of picks at the top of the second round.
