Carlisle tight-lipped
Saint pledges to never again resort to abuse
ST KILDA defender Jake Carlisle has resolved to never again resort to personal onfield sledging, admitting he crossed the line in a controversial exchange involving Carlton captain Marc Murphy during a fiery Round 8 clash between the two teams.
Speaking for the first time about the incident, Carlisle said he had learnt a valuable lesson and will vastly temper his approach in the future.
While the 25-year-old accepts that on-field banter will always be a part of the game, he says what happened in the spiteful encounter with the Blues this year went too far.
“It won’t happen again, that’s a non-negotiable,” he said before tonight’s game against his old side, Essendon.
“You can have a bit of banter on the field, but you don’t get personal, and it doesn’t matter if it is myself, ‘Murph’ or any other player – it just shouldn’t happen.
“You make mistakes and things happen, but no matter what stage of the game it is, or whatever happens on the field, nothing should ever get personal.”
While Carlisle would not reveal what was said from players of either team, some of the comments were directed as a personal sledge against Murphy’s wife, which infuriated the Blues skipper.
“As a club, we have acknowledged we got it wrong, and hopefully we can all move on from it now,” Carlisle said.
An already tense atmosphere boiled over during the third quarter of the match after Carlisle received an accidental knee from Blues forward Levi Casboult.
As the Saints defender was on the ground, an unusually agitated Murphy ran over to him and directed heated comments in his direction, sparking a brawl.
Murphy later refused to shake the hands of a number of St Kilda players and later released a statement on social media condemning an online smear campaign against his family.
St Kilda coach Alan Richardson and captain Jarryn Geary called Murphy after the match to apologise.