Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson has launched a fierce attack on former North Melbourne forward Wayne Carey, who said Cyril Rioli was thinking about giving up the game and moving back to the Tiwi Islands.
Rioli starred for the Hawks during their 51-point win over West Coast at the MCG on Sunday, which allowed for Clarkson to hit back at Carey's comments post-game.
“Cyril is going back to the Tiwi, I heard Wayne Carey make that great announcement,” Clarkson fumed.
“You reckon you’d be able to coerce someone into a five-year extension if he wanted to go back to the Tiwi?
“What a load of rubbish. Once again, no account, no account by a bloke who should know better than throw up bulls**t about our players.
“Hold some of these people to account because the hysteria that it creates is just absolute rubbish.
“Particularly Carey, of all people… he shouldn’t make too many comments about stories about other players because we could just go to town on him.”
Carey make the comments on Triple M on Saturday, saying he had heard Rioli was homesick and had to be "coerced into signing a new five-year extension last year.
Clarkson followed the comments by suggesting his side had no standouts during their first win of the season, with an even contribution across the board helping them move to 1-4 after five rounds.
“The most significant part about today’s game is we had 22 contributors,” Clarkson said.
“We didn’t have any stars, but we had 22 guys that all played a really, really important role and that’s been a hallmark of Hawthorn sides the last 10 years.”
Despite a poor start to the season, Clarkson said his club have always kept the belief, and are still confident in turning their season around.
“(There has been) plenty of hysteria outside the club but not within the walls of our footy club,” Clarkson said.
“We got great faith in our group of players. There’s been a confidence and belief in the group that we can still turn our season around and it’s one small step and it’s a positive one today.”