Eddie’s Pepper spray at AFL

COLLINGWOOD president Eddie McGuire has declared clubs are “sick of being treated like franchises” by the AFL.

Footy’s longest serving president yesterday weighed into the furore surrounding the AFL integrity unit’s handling of its investigation into Port Adelaide midfielder Sam Powell-Pepper.

It followed the release of an explosive “statement” by Power president David Koch that accused the AFL of “railroading a kid in trying to rebuild their reputation with women because of the misdemeanours of their own former executives”.

The Koch attack, aired on Triple M radio by journalist Tom Browne, was a direct reference to the forced resignations of AFL executives Simon Lethlean and Richard Simkiss in July last year over inappropriate relationships with younger female staff members.

Koch last night distanced himself from the “statement” made in his name, saying: “That [statement] missed my intentions, but not the subtlety of my feelings.”

McGuire fuelled the fire on his Triple M breakfast show.

“I’ll just give you a bit of background, so this is not me speaking as a president, I’ll just tell you what’s going on here — the clubs are getting sick of being treated like franchises,” McGuire said.

“The AFL commission was brought into place to act on behalf of the clubs. There is a very strong feeling that the clubs are there as a necessary impediment to the AFL hierarchy. That’s not [AFL boss] Gill McLachlan, it’s the levels underneath, so Gill is running around doing great deals and things like that . . . but in recent times you have had a message coming out saying, ‘We’re changing your theme songs’ or this situation — no impact from the club. ‘We’ll tell you what to do. You can’t stand there. Your banner has got to be this big. You can’t have this sponsor’ . . . and it is building and building and building.

“Like anything in life, the pendulum swings too far and it’s got to be swung back.”

McGuire hinted at an unofficial meeting of club presidents to discuss the AFL’s control of clubs.

Powell-Pepper, 20, has accepted a three-game suspension from the AFL over an incident on the dance floor of an Adelaide nightclub earlier this month but the club remains bemused by the league’s process.