Pat Voss issues public apology to Harrison Petty for cry baby taunt: ‘I had no idea’

Fremantle forward Pat Voss has issued a public apology to Harrison Petty for his “cry baby” taunt, insisting he didn’t know the full context around the sledge.

Voss was hit with a $1500 fine (reduced to $1000 with an early plea) for his repeated taunts to Petty during the quarter-time break of Saturday night’s clash.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Pat Voss taunts Harrison Petty

As well as doing the “cry baby” gesture, Voss rubbed Petty’s head multiple times, seemingly highlighting his opponent’s bald patch.

The Docker’s actions were widely condemned across the footy world and even prompted the AFL to swiftly introduce a rule change to outlaw head ruffling.

Petty was reduced to tears following an on-field incident with Brisbane veteran Dayne Zorko during a clash from 2022. It was reported at the time that the Lion made a comment about one of Petty’s family members.

Zorko’s teammate Noah Answerth rehashed the incident when he made the “cry baby” gesture to Petty in a 2024 clash.

Speaking to Triple M Perth on Wednesday morning, Voss revealed he immediately apologised to Petty when he learnt more about his sledge, even though he conceded he was aware of the previous incidents.

“From the bottom of my heart, I honestly had no context whatsoever around the whole situation,” Voss said on Triple M.

“As soon as I got some context around it at the end of the game, I reached out to Harry and just let him know there was nothing sinister behind it at all.

“He was really good about it. I’m glad that I was able to reach out to him and that he was able to accept my apology.

“If I had my time again, there’s no way in the world I’d go down that path. That’s obviously where I went wrong, and obviously put my hand up and say I got it wrong.

“I was obviously referring to the time where he did end up crying in Brisbane, but I had no idea why he was crying.

“There’s obviously been rumours around about why that did take place, but I had no idea.”

Voss also said he quickly raised the issue with coach Justin Longmuir and the club backed him to continue playing on the edge.

“On Sunday, I rang JL first thing,” he said.

“It didn’t sit too well with me after a win when everyone’s talking about you and something you did on the footy field, instead of what was a great team performance.

“The club’s been unbelievable this week in terms of reinforcing to me that they still want me to bring my competitive edge, and still walk the tightrope.

“I obviously stepped over the mark on the weekend, which I’ll put my hand up and own, and apologised to them in that sense.”

He also spoke with some members of the leadership group about the incident, but didn’t get up in front of the entire team as had been reported.

“The main thing for me was apologising to JL and making sure JL knew that I had no context around the gesture that I did,” he continued.

“From there I had a really good conversation with Caleb (Serong), who’s a close mate and in the leadership group. I had another great conversation with Alex (Pearce), the skipper,” he said.

“(It was) not so much getting into trouble from them, it was more just conversations around the competitor I am, once I go over that white line and finding the balance of when it’s an advantage to us, and when it can potentially become a distraction to us.”