The AFL dream ended in tears at 20. A decade later, he was lifting the World Test Championship. Alex Carey's journey to becoming one of Australian cricket's most trusted performers is one of the sporting world’s great second-act stories.

A talented junior who played both codes at a high level, Alex took a chance on AFL and moved to Sydney as one of the GWS Giants' foundation players - only to be let go with barely 24 hours' notice. Back in Adelaide, he drifted through a football pre-season and a stint in finance before a quiet conversation with the South Australian Cricket Association gave him one more shot. He almost didn't take it. He nearly quit that too.

But he didn’t and what came next … is all part of Alex’s incredible story.

In this episode, Luke Darcy and Alex Carey hit:

• Growing up in a sporting household and the father who shaped his values
• The AFL dream, and the brutal moment it was taken away
• How two delistings and a finance job led him back to cricket… and eventually to Test cricket
• The 2023 Ashes 'spirit of the game' incident at Lord's: online threats, mental battles, and what he'd do differently
• Working with performance psychologist Ben Crowe, and the value of having someone outside the system
• Fatherhood, sacrifice, and how he and wife Eloise make it all work

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