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Collingwood President Eddie McGuire addresses the media during a Collingwood Magpies press conference announcing Nick Maxwell as new captain at the Lexus Centre, Melbourne. Slattery Images
Move over Jeff Kennett. For the fourth time this month, Eddie McGuire has played the role of most outspoken president – this time with the bizarre suggestion that telling wired-up umpires how long is left in a quarter could lead to corruption.
Communicating with umpires through an umpires adviser in the stands is only a new practice, with incidents such as Sirengate and the recent NAB Cup game in Blacktown, where a passing train was mistaken for the siren, leading to a call from umpires for greater assistance.
The Collingwood president hit out at the practice as part of a heated exchange with the AFL’s Adrian Anderson yesterday on his Triple M breakfast program.
“I think there’s a massive downside that anything can be corrupted,” McGuire said. “Let’s not forget that this is how Hansie Cronje justified his first foray into match betting and fixing … why not just take the heat off everybody.”
Anderson was quick to hit back.
“The mention of betting in connection with this is completely out of play,” he said. “It doesn’t open the door for anything, all it does is tell them that there’s a minute to go.”
Umpires boss Jeff Gieschen chimed in later in the day.
“Eddie’s taking it from the extreme view of people being corrupt or wanting to fix games. We’ve made it very clear the only information we’ll give during the course of a quarter is how long there is to go,” he told the AFL website.
In the same article, it was outlined that umpires will in the future be wired up to earpieces that alert them when the siren goes, but the league was still exploring the technology.
Indeed, when it’s all stacked up, it seems like Eddie was simply trying to make an issue out of nothing. It’s a massive stretch to bring corruption into the debate, when the only message being communicated is along the lines of, “one minute to go”.
It’s especially odd to bring corruption in given that the thing that brought this issue into the public spotlight was the fact Fox Sports picked up on one of the messages on the weekend. If anything said using this technology can be picked up on TV or radio and broadcast to the world, why would anyone bother trying to use it as a vehicle to fix a game?
Eddie could’ve asked why the move was necessary – do umpires really need to be reminded that a quarter is almost over? – and it would have made for a credible interview.
But the way in which he took it to Anderson over what was a far-fetched notion, and managed to talk over him at every opportunity, made it look like a ploy for ratings and headlines.
And given this isn’t the first time Eddie has spoken in such a manner lately, perhaps that’s all this is about.
Earlier this month, Eddie made the claim he’d sue Mick Malthouse for breach of contract if he left for a rival club. He then labelled South Australian footy fans as “feral” and AAMI Stadium as “unsafe” – a remarkable claim for the president of Collingwood to make.
Then just last week, in the immediate aftermath of the Malthouse-Stephen Milne saga, he tried to brush off what happened by claiming Mick only called Milne a “pest”, as opposed to the far more serious sledge that actually took place.
He’s left us scratching our head four times in the one month. Even Jeff Kennett at his peak would struggle to do that.
Eddie’s well within his rights to express his opinion, but when it gets to the point where all he’s doing is clutching at straws, maybe it’s time to back things up a little.