AFL star Leigh Montagna recounts embarrassing run in with 'snake'

AFL footballer Leigh Montagna has recounted an embarrassing and expensive encounter with a snake in his garden – which turned out to be a shoe.

The St Kilda midfielder was moving trees in the garden of his Melbourne home on Sunday when he spotted a "snake in the corner of my laneway".

Unnerved, Montagna tried to ring his local council to have it safely removed, but as it was a Sunday, no one answered.

The footballer then called a local snake handler, who agreed to leave his family lunch - for a $180 fee.

"He (the handler) has gone over, he’s gone to flick it out and it’s a snakeskin sandal," an embarrassed Montagna told radio station Triple M.

"My wife comes over and she goes, '‘well why didn’t you throw a rock at it or something?'"

"I said 'I’m not going to throw a rock at a snake and look to see if it’s going to move or anything'!"

"I got stitched up — 180 bucks for the snake handler on his Sunday to come over and pick a sandal out of my garden," Montagna said.

The 232-game veteran’s woes didn't end after the false alarm, with his wife demanding to know who the female snakeskin shoe belonged to.