‘Overweight' Tom Papley claps back at Toby Greene with midnight DM sledge
Papley earned the ire of the Giants skipper in the first half and the prickly forward was still mouthing off at Greene as they left the field for the main break.
Frustrated that he was being interviewed at the time, Greene used the moment to swipe Papley.
'He's looking overweight, we'll see how he goes (in the) second half,' Greene
said before inspiring an extraordinary turnaround
from nearly five goals down to win by 44 points.
The rare personal jab prompted questions over whether the AFL could take action — but it has now emerged
just why Papley, Sydney and GWS brushed it off as a harmless joke
.
Papley, as it turns out, took it in his stride.
'I was sitting on the couch at midnight, had got home and I was just watching Tour de France,' Greene said on his Ausmerican Aces podcast.
'And on my Instagram message 'Tom Papley' comes up and I go 'oh here we go'. I was like what's this going to be.
'And it's just a photo of him eating McDonald's. It was pretty funny, I had a good laugh at that — that was good by him. It was pretty sharp by him.'
Greene's co-host and former AFL teammate Tommy Sheridan then shared that Papley had also been in touch with him before recording the episode.
'He's asked me to ask you a question so I'm going to ask you now — 'just ask Toby what his skinfolds are',' Sheridan said.
Papley had filmed himself getting his skinfolds tested to fire a second shot back at Greene.
'Interesting time for skinfolds. What was the result there? 37.5,' Papley said in the video with a knowing nod.
Greene replied on his podcast: '37.5, that's good from him. Yeah, he's in good nick there actually.'
'I didn't mean he was fat, I meant he was underdone — he hasn't really played much footy and I knew he'd rushed back in for the game,' he said.
'That's what I meant but yeah, well done to him there, that's good from him.'
Papley signalled the end of the chapter with a reply to the video of Greene's reaction: 'Good fun.'
Greene's jibe was thought to have been a response to Papley broaching the subject of Jake Stringer's weight during a back-and-forth between the pair on the boundary line.
On the podcast, Greene shared that more Papley verbals contributed to his 'overweight' remark.
'There was a lot going on before that moment. They were really up and about, and he'd certainly had a fair bit to say throughout the first half, and I didn't get near it,' the Giants star said.
'We were playing horrible. I was pretty furious at half-time. I saw (commentator) Ben Dixon walking towards me. I was like 'f*** don't interview me, please don't interview me'.
'While that interview (is happening), you can't really hear it, he (Papley) is just ripping into me while I'm getting interviewed, and I can't really say too much. I can't say anything. I can't go back at him mid-interview.
'Dicko's asking questions. I can't concentrate, I was that angry, mate. He's worded me up with a question about Paps, so I thought I handed it reasonably well, to be honest.
'I wasn't really going at his weight, although that's what I said. I knew he was underdone, and he probably shouldn't have been playing, so that's kind of what I meant by the comment.
'When I said it, I was like 'shouldn't have said that, that was stupid'. Again, the emotions got the better of me, and I could just hear Paps f***ing yapping away in my ear, I was like 'this dickhead'.
While Greene escaped punishment for the interview, he did receive a one-match ban for striking Isaac Heeney.
The GWS captain will miss his side's important finals-shaping clash with the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, Greene had no case to answer over a kick to the groin region of Swans veteran Dane Rampe.
Footage of the incident emerged on Monday night.
AFL match review officer Michael Christian looked at the vision on Monday and said the contact was negligible at best, Channel 7's Andrew McCormack reported.
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