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Collingwood president Eddie McGuire can not seriously be surprised the Sydney Swans hierarchy, along with coach John Longmire, are a little bit narky.
Narky is probably not the right word.
Pissed off, offended, insulted, and fed up, sums it up better, and for good reason.
McGuire’s public haranguing of John Longmire has become the icing on the cake, after 18 months worth of sustained attacks on the club over the Cost of Living Allowance and the academy.
New Swans chairman Andrew Pridham berated the Magpies boss by calling him the AFL’s equivalent of Clive Palmer and a self appointed spokesperson acting out of self-interest.
After McGuire chipped Longmire for turning down an assistant coaching position for the International Rules team, which McGuire manages, the Magpies president expressed his disappointment in a statement on Channel 9’s AFL Footy Show on Thursday night, saying the Swans coach should not let “petty club issues” get in the way of “national interest.”
It seemed lost on Eddie McGuire the issue had become a lot more than “petty.”
While McGuire has not been an entirely lone voice, with Carlton coach Mick Malthouse and Western Bulldogs chairman Peter Gordon also taking digs at the club, the Magpies boss has been the most prominent voice, and it’s all based upon the hysteria swept up over the club signing Kurt Tippett and Lance Frankiln on the back of winning the 2012 premiership.
All the Swans have been hearing is that the only reason club has been successful is because the AFL has given the club major advantages with the Cost of Living Allowance, easy draws, and the academies.
It is not because of the hard work of the clubs administrators, coaches, recruiting staff, and players.
All the hard work of Richard Colless, initially along with Ron Barassi, did not account for any of the clubs success.
Getting Tony Lockett to the club, combined with his deeds for not only the Swans, but for the game in the Harbour City, accounted for nothing.
All the hard work of Paul Roos and Andrew Ireland, in building a team list which ended the clubs 72 year premiership drought in 2005, accounted for nothing.
It seems forgotten the 2005 Sydney Swans were accused of playing an ugly brand of footy.
The 2012 premiership, which the Swans virtually won from nowhere, was not as the result of a perfectly executed and innovative coaching plan, or first class recruiting, it was as a result of the COLA, even though Sydney did not have a “marquee player” in their Grand Final team.
The team had a derided ex-Canadian international rugby player, high draft picks, has-beens, rejects and outcasts from other clubs, and a son of rugby league legend.
Very few tipped the Swans to make the top 8, let alone the top 4, and some even predicted the club would finish in the bottom 4.
For the Swans, it has become insulting and offensive because only 21 years ago, the club was declared dead, an embarrassment to the code, and were the laughing stock of Australian sport.
Only 20 years ago, the club was in the process of achieving its third consecutive wooden spoon.
The Sydney Swans Football Club, just like it was as the South Melbourne Football Club before relocation, was not taken seriously in Melbourne or Sydney, it had no respect. They were no hopers.
Even now, as the Swans stand as premiership favourites with record membership numbers and respect, it does not mean the club has suddenly won the code war in the Harbour City for the AFL – far from it.
It’s not like rugby league, a code which has a rich 106-year-old history in Sydney, has suddenly buckled and faded away.
McGuire, who was once the boss of Channel 9 – the TV rights holder for the NRL – knows this.
It seems McGuire has had the Sydney Swans Football Club in his sights, effectively declaring it his own personal business to try destroy what the club has been working hard at building up.
And he wonders why the Swans are angry.
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