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'World's nastiest boy's club': Caroline Wilson hits back at AFL 'bullies'

Caroline Wilson is pictured on Channel 9 program Footy Classified.
Veteran AFL writer Caroline Wilson has angrily responded to critics, after she reported North Melbourne could be relocated to Tasmania earlier in the week. Picture: Channel 9/Footy Classified

High-profile football columnist Caroline Wilson has fired back at critics, following the storm that erupted after her report that the AFL and other clubs had discussed relocating North Melbourne to Tasmania.

Wilson reported conversations had been held between AFL powerbrokers about the possible relocation during Monday night’s episode of Footy Classified on Channel Nine - prompting an angry response from prominent North Melbourne figures, past and present.

Current Kangaroos president Ben Buckley and former president James Brayshaw led the charge, with Brayshaw in particular scathing of Wilson’s comments.

In a series of media appearances on Wednesday though, Walkley Award-winner Wilson angrily rejected any suggestion her information was bogus.

“It’s the usual suspects...some of them bullies,” Wilson said on 3AW radio program Sportsday.

“I’m absolutely fine with people defending North Melbourne, but all I was saying on Monday night was that everything I’m told from certain club presidents and certain AFL people, everything is on the table.

“There are no sacred cows, and if you ask clubs and people at the AFL about a few scenarios, obviously there’s a range, but a repeated comment probably from three clubs and also coming out of AFL, not Gillon McLachlan or Richard Goyder, is that there’s still a view that North Melbourne should’ve relocated.”

Caroline Wilson slams James Brayshaw ‘boys club’

Wilson also took direct issue with comments made by Brayshaw when she appeared on Footy Classified.

The former Kangaroos president called her information ‘baseless garbage’ - leaving Wilson irritated by ‘the world’s nastiest boy’s club’.

“It is blinkered and it's complete and utter balderdash to say that an issue I have with James Brayshaw is why I would report something that I'm hearing from the clubs on Footy Classified," she said.

“Do not ever accuse me of going for clickbait. It is so stupid to point the finger at the media every time there is a negative story at the moment.

“It's good to see the world's nastiest boys club has been reconnected again over such a inconsequential comment that I made, which was not my personal view, but it was stuff that I was reporting, that I was hearing from clubs and even people at certain levels of the AFL.”