In his BackPageLead Vidcast this week, Wayne Carey said in this day and age - when players are educated endlessly about racial vilification - Justin Sherman was probably lucky to have only received a four-week ban for racially abusing a Gold Coast opponent at the weekend. ''It's astounding someone could be that silly ... maybe he's even a bit lucky to get four,'' Carey said.

But the former North Melbourne captain, who began his career in 1989 and retired in 2004, did recall a time not so long ago when there was plenty of racial sledging on the field - not towards Aborigines but players of Italian and Greek descent. ''I did hear a few Italian boys get abused - getting called wogs and things like that,'' he said. ''That's obviously not acceptable either, but I suppose to some degree back then people thought that was more acceptable than abusing the other (Aboriginal) boys.''

The dual premiership skipper came out strongly in support of the players in their pay dispute with the AFL, saying they were the ones who put on the show and should be rewarded fairly.

And he thanked the Kangaroos' Drew Petrie for not breaking his record of most contested marks in a match (10) even though it was a record he didn't realise he owned. Petrie took nine contested marks against Port on Sunday and said later he was glad in a way he didn't knock Carey out of the record books. ''That sounds a bit like Mark Taylor and Sir Donald Bradman,'' Carey said (jokingly), in reference to Taylor's decision to declare one of his innings on 334, Bradman's highest Test score.

Looking ahead to Round 15's matches, Carey said he doubted whether the much-hyped Essendon and Geelong match would explode into fireworks, saying Mark Thompson's departure was not much different to Gary Ablett's, and there was no problem when Geelong played Gold Coast this season.

Click here to view the full Carey Vidcast ...