AFL great apologises after alleged hit and run in Melbourne

Glenn Archer has apologised after the AFL great allegedly hit a cyclist with his truck and drove off in Melbourne. 

The former North Melbourne star, 49 told Channel 9 that he did not realise he had hit someone when he was driving on January 11 in Heidelberg.

Archer part owns a tree removalist business and was allegedly driving on Rosanna Road when the crash happened last month. 

A 58-year-old cyclist says he has been left mentally broken by the ordeal which left him in hospital for two days.

Mark Vander said: ‘He just swerved in and took me out and drove off and didn’t stop.

The North Melbourne great allegedly hit Mark Vander while driving last month

Vander, 58, said he was left mentally broken by the ordeal which hospitalised him

‘I just get angry all the time now, mentally it just breaks you. 

‘It could have been a lot worse, if I wasn’t wearing such a good helmet I wouldn’t be here telling the story.’

Vander claims he contacted the tree removalist business on a number of occasions but the company denied any wrongdoing. 

Dash-cam footage later confirmed what had happened and Archer has now apologised.

‘I am terribly sorry for what happened absolutely,’ he said. ‘I thought ‘wow, I did knock the guy off the bike.’

‘At the start, we were getting phone calls asking for money, I thought it was a scam.’

The two-time premiership winner has been charged with careless driving and failing to keep a safe distance while overtaking. He will face the Heidelberg Magistrates court in July. 

Archer played over 300 games for the Kangaroos during his 15-year playing career, scoring 148 goals for the club to etch his name in football folklore. 

He has had his fair share of controversies, though, having copped a $2,000 fine for assaulting a runner during his son’s junior footy match in 2017.

Archer successfully managed to overturn the conviction despite pleading guilty to the initial charge, arguing that he had not been given a fair hearing. 

The North Melbourne great struck the runner, breaking his glasses, as tensions boiled on the half-time break of the junior game at a Heidelberg oval in June 2017.

Jackson Archer now plays for the North Melbourne Football Club and made his senior debut last season. 

‘I’m glad it’s over. It’s been two years of my life and a lot of other peoples’ lives,’ Archer said outside court.

‘I’d like to thank the judge for being able to end this so quickly. It’s over now and we can all move on and get on with our lives.’

Archer has also held a long-running feud with former teammate Wayne Carey after the big forward had an affair with the wife of their teammate Anthony Stevens – a close mate of Archer’s. 

Archer confessed back in 2016 that the camaraderie amongst his premiership-winning teammates had not been the same since Carey’s affair with Stevens’ wife in 2002, and that the intervening years since had not healed the wounds.