WAYNE Carey has acknowledged he shouldn't be peddling "rumour and innuendo", after revealing that Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson apologised to him on Tuesday morning for comments made in a media conference after Sunday's win over West Coast.
Carey suggested on radio the day earlier that Hawks star Cyril Rioli was homesick and wanted to return home to the Tiwi islands.
Clarkson responded fiercely but Carey told Fairfax Media on Tuesday that the coach had admitted he went over the top.
"He was sincere and apologetic and basically said, 'Sorry'," Carey said.
"He talked about the things that have been said over the last year or so.
"He said he'll always defend his club but he went right over (the top) and was out of line in what he said.
"The lesson I took out of it all is … I'm in the game to talk about footy and I guess rumour and innuendo is not what I'm in the media to discuss, so I should leave that to news people.
"There's no rift between Clarko and I. We were teammates and we've got very good mutual friends.
"It was very positive and I had no problem in accepting his apology. We move forward and that's it."
The pair played at North Melbourne together in 1989-95.
Carey told Triple M Clarkson admitted he had not approached the situation in the right way.
"He's always going to defend Hawthorn, so if he feels like they've been unjustly spoken about, he'll come out swinging sometimes, and maybe sometimes, as he said this morning, in the wrong manner," Carey said.
"He was very sincere in his apology about that but I don't think he'll ever stop defending Hawthorn. I accept his apology and we move forward."
Carey said he made the initial contact.
"I texted him yesterday (Monday) and he got back to me yesterday and we caught up today," he said.
According to Carey, Clarkson wasn't completely across his initial comments.
"Clarko only heard the headline," Carey said.
"He didn't hear the whole conversation, but he did make one point very, very strongly, and in terms of Cyril and Cyril going back, he said he will go back to the Tiwi Islands or Darwin at some point in time, but it won't be until he's 34 or 35 years of age."
Carey refuted some of Clarkson's original assertions.
"Clarko used the word 'coerced'. I don't use that word, so I said, 'I didn't use that word'," Carey said.
Clarkson had not been asked about Carey's comments at the media conference when he took on the Roos great.
"I heard Wayne Carey make that great announcement that we've coerced [Rioli] into a five-year extension," Clarkson said.
"Do you reckon you'd be able to coerce someone into a five-year extension if you wanted to go back to the Tiwi? God, what a load of rubbish.
"Once again, no account by a bloke who should know better than throw up bulls--t about our players.
"(You have to) hold some of these people to account, because the hysteria it creates is just absolute rubbish, particularly Carey of all people.
"(Carey) shouldn't make too many comments about stories about other players, because we could just go to town on him."
The pair shook hands three times when they met.
"We shook hands when we met … and we actually had two handshakes when we left, if you want to get really into the finer details. Once and then another one when we were at our cars," Carey said.
When approached by AFL.com.au, Hawthorn said there was no need for further comment.
