REIGN OF ERROR
COLLINGWOOD president Eddie McGuire didn’t mince his words describing the state of the club he inherited on October 29, 1998 — the day he turned 34.
“The joint was rat-infested,” McGuire declared in a 2006 rant aimed at former coach Tony Shaw’s regime. “The club was in disarray. “The playing culture was appalling — off-field, on-field, every field.”
But almost 22 years on, rats in the ranks continue to plague McGuire’s own longrunning reign at the top of Australia’s most famous sporting club.
Incidents involving star forward Jordan De Goey and vice-captain Steele Sidebottom — and the spectre of the Heritier Lumumba racism investigation — are just the latest in a litany of off-field scandals at the Magpies under McGuire’s watch. Few clubs, if any, can match the Pies for such a sustained run of serious misconduct.
Since May 2000, more than 50 separate incidents involving Collingwood players have made headlines, linked to drugs, alcohol, violence and gambling. Many have been repeat offenders.
One of them, 2010 premiership star Dane Swan , explained last week that McGuire would privately rip through players who had made the news for all the wrong reasons.
“(But) once he got that out of his system, he was very supportive in trying to get you out of what you are in or the best way to manage the situation,” Swan said. “No matter what you do, he will come out to bat for you.”
As far back as 2006, when Chris Tarrant and Ben Johnson escaped suspension over a 4.30am brawl, McGuire has been taking bullets – and making excuses – for his Collingwood players.
“When these kids start to go off the rails … I tend to think that’s when you stand by them and you put your arm around them, rather than publicly humiliate them and castigate them,” he said.
McGuire is loved by the Collingwood faithful. He is one of the most influential figures in the game’s history, and among the first league bosses Gillon McLachlan sounded out when the COVID-19 crisis hit.
The majority of talkback callers on 3AW last Sunday sprung to his defence. He helped rebuild a broken club, masterminded the shift to Olympic Park and has one premiership from five grand finals.
But he has also heaped untold pressure on the club thanks to a series of gaffes in his other job as a media commentator, none more damaging than his 2013 suggestion that Adam Goodes be used to promote the musical King Kong.
Those who dare question the culture at Collingwood, as Tony Shaw tried to do again two years ago when De Goey (pictured) was charged with drink-driving, cop a savage dose of McGuire’s wrath.
“Tony’s a great supporter of the club, a great friend, one of our greatest-ever people but has no insight at all as to what’s going on in the club. That’s dial-a-quote stuff,” McGuire said of the 1990 Norm Smith medallist.
Ex-premier John Brumby, a Collingwood supporter, ruffled feathers in 2008 when he suggested there was something wrong with the club’s culture after Heath Shaw and Alan Didak brazenly lied about being involved in a drunken car crash.
“Didak will be accused of the Kennedy shooting next,” McGuire famously said when asked if Didak was in the car.
His other favourite line in fending off controversy is that nothing can sell a newspaper like a Magpies yarn.