A heated war has erupted on radio between AFL great Warren Tredrea and veteran sports journalist Caroline Wilson.
The fuse was lit when Tredrea — who has radio slot on FiveAA in South Australia — took a phone call from an irate Port Adelaide fan who was calling for coach Ken Hinkley’s head.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: James Brayshaw sends message to Warren Tredrea.
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The fan vented to Tredrea and called Hinkley a “con artist”.
“He (Hinkley) said he had the list, he sold our top future draft picks to get the list. Now he’s says he doesn’t have it, he’s a con artist,” the fan said.
Tredrea, a legend of the club and premiership captain, joined Port Adelaide’s board in February.
As the fan finished his rant, Tredrea simply responded: “Cool.”
Wilson has taken umbrage to that response.
“I want to open with a question to Warren: Are you still on the Port Adelaide board after your comments the other night?” Wilson asked Tredrea during a segment on FiveAA.
“I was really surprised with your response to that caller, and really surprised that you seemed to be at odds with the head of football Chris Davies, following his observations about the list.”
Tredrea said that assertion was “totally incorrect” and that he was not at odds with Davies.
He also said he was disappointed with himself after his “cool” response to the angry fan.
“(It) wasn’t an endorsement, it was an acknowledgment of the caller. And I understand the contents of his call, it was one of about 300 we took that night,” he said.
Wilson fired back: “Not even a comment, Warren? Not even a comment to say the coach is not a conman?”
Tredrea said their had been many fans “venting their spleen” and it was not up to him “to control their comments”.
“I’ve been very, very supportive of Ken Hinkley both publicly and privately,” Tredrea said.
But before Tredrea joined the board, he made headlines in April last year when when he told the Big Deal podcast that Hinkley’s position as senior coach was “untenable”.
And Wilson took objection to Tredrea’s lack of authority during the fan’s on-air rant.
“Warren, I’ve hosted many radio shows. If somebody rings up with an opinion that is unfair or I disagree with, I say so, and I think Stephen does too, and I’ve heard you do it as well,” she said.
“I don’t think to say ‘good call’ and leave it at that was enough, given that the bloke was asking for Ken to be removed pretty much immediately.”
Tredrea accused Wilson of doing a “hit job” on him despite the fact that had been on air to clarify and apologise for his one-word response to the fan.
Wilson had suggested on a TV program that the club was furious with Tredrea, but Tredrea stressed that was not the case and no one was angry.
“I got a text message (from the club after I had spoken to the fan),” Tredrea said.
“I called them back and said, ‘What’s the problem?’ They said, ‘Oh, this good call thing.’ I said, ‘OK, cool, I’ll come out of the news, explain this wasn’t an endorsement, (just acknowledging) the caller.’ And that should’ve been the end of the matter.
“But it looks as if you then went to air, when I’d already clarified my situation, and you still went to air with a hit job.”
Wilson said she did “didn’t buy” Tredrea’s clarification.
“Well, that’s how I clarified it,” Tredrea said.
“You chose to look into it how you chose to look into it. Then you say Port Adelaide’s a club divided — that is utter nonsense. There’s been nothing to suggest (that).
“Well, who’s telling you we’re not divided? That we are divided? Because every discussion I’ve had with the football club has been absolutely supportive of Ken Hinkley, his tenure, the current coaches, the role we’re playing, trying to be better, and then we have this.
“For me it was just poor. I clarified my comments, you tried to make a mountain out of a molehill, and Port Adelaide wasn’t seething.”
Wilson said she reported the situation accurately.
“I never said Port Adelaide were seething, I said there was a level of disappointment and I still believe that …,” she said.
“And I have been told several times, and we spoke at the Hall of Fame, I know people have been pretty happy with your performance (on the board) so far but I think after a loss like was seen last week, and the level of disappointment and unhappiness and concern and insecurity that comes as a result of those losses, what your club needed was all hands to the pump.
“Not just someone saying ‘good call’ at the end of a rant that described the coach as a conman, the president as having an ego, that’s going to affect his decisions, and a call for the coach to be removed before the next round.
“I think it deserved a better response than ‘good call’,” she said.
