AFL CEO Andrew Dillon.Credit:Eddie Jim
An AFL spokesman said the league did not discuss hall of fame decisions or deliberations,other than the elevation of Dunstall.
At the announcement for Dunstall’s elevation in April,AFL chairman Richard Goyder,who is on the hall of fame committee,said:“I won’t talk about hall of fame. I will say it’s a joy to see Ben in the shape he’s in right now,and I’ve seen a fair bit of him in the west.
“I think[Cousins’ recovery] is fantastic … what I would say with hall of fame,and it’s almost my precursor to our committee discussions each year,is it’s not who’s in,it’s who’s not in.
“It’s an incredibly high bar to be a hall of famer in the AFL,and it’s even higher to be a Legend,so we’ll look at these things in due course.”
Carey,inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2010,was also one of the 100 inaugural inductees into the NSW hall of fame announced in March by AFL NSW/ACT head Tiffany Robertson.
Carey,a former football columnist forThe Age,pleaded guilty to indecent assault after grabbing a woman’s breast in 1995. The woman filed a civil suit against him,which was settled out of court.
He was arrested in the US in 2007 and charged with assaulting a female police officer in 2007 after his then-girlfriend,Kate Neilson,accused him of smashing a wine glass against her face. He pleaded guilty to assaulting and resisting Miami police but escaped conviction. Neilson did not press charges.
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