Once again, Collingwood president and media commentator Eddie McGuire is making news for all the wrong reasons. It’s not the first time, but it certainly needs to be the last.
Prior to the Queen’s Birthday clash, the Collingwood President told Triple M journalist Caroline Wilson should have a “one-person slide” at next year’s Freeze MND event.
“I’ll put in ten grand straight away, make it 20,” McGuire said. “And if she stays under, 50. What do you think guys?”
The laughing and agreement from fellow commentators, James Brayshaw and Danny Frawley, at the apparent ‘joke’ didn’t help the situation.
You see, there is nothing funny in this scenario. There is no humour in wanting a woman, or any person for that matter, to drown.
Certain people have called it a “joke” and McGuire himself even said it was meant as “banter”.
But these comments definitely surpassed any level of humour. Instead, this aggressive language had only one purpose – to bully and hurt Wilson.
Caroline Wilson is certainly a polarising figure in the AFL. She doesn’t hold back and her strong opinions often leave people disgruntled.
But she is a journalist. It is her primary job to critique and question all that is happening in the game.
You don’t have to agree with Wilson and you don’t even have to like her. But there are better ways to express your disagreement.
The comments made by McGuire and co. are only perpetuating a culture of violence against women in Australia. The comments shouldn’t hide behind the façade of a joke.
Anti-domestic violence campaigner, and former Australian of the Year, Rosie Batty articulated it perfectly.
“It wasn’t meant to be harmful but that’s the very point of being aware of the language you’re using, the role modelling that you have in a [high]-profile position, what you stand for and your behaviour,” Rosie Batty said. “And Eddie’s just as accountable as everybody else.”
While it was reported on Sunday that McGuire was not going to apologise for his comments, Monday saw a see-sawing turn of events.
The Collingwood President’s first response was during his usual breakfast spot on Triple M.
“[I’m] really disappointed that these comments have led to these feelings from people,” McGuire said. “I apologise and retract them in the spirit of what we’re trying to achieve, which is to look after women and children in our community.”
This half-hearted ‘apology’, if you can even call it that, lacked sincerity and ownership. It was a “sorry-you’re-upset-but-I-haven’t-actually-done-anything-wrong” apology.
But after Danny Frawley and James Brayshaw both owned up sincerely throughout the course of the day, McGuire also changed his tune.
In a video statement released on the Collingwood website, McGuire finally took ownership of the situation.
“Over the last 24 hours, I’ve seen the impact of the comments on [Wilson],” McGuire said. “No person should ever feel uneasy or threatened in football’s family. And for that I am truly sorry and I apologise unreservedly to Caroline for putting her in that position.”
But it seemed that McGuire’s differing stances removed any sort of sincerity from his apology. Public opinion and perception has forced his hand.
Eddie McGuire has been a great president of the Collingwood football club. He has also done some great things for the AFL and the wider community in general.
But his brash and insensitive comments need to stop.
The AFL is meant to be an inclusive environment for people of all genders, races, and sexualities.
But the words and actions of last week, only proves that we still have a long way to go.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Quite the influential ring leader it seems. Even impacting competitors!
GoGWS
Roar Guru
Yes Tara...Yes Tara it was just banter. What we're seeing right now is terrible terrible reasoning and a herd mentality, and organisations and media personalities trying to outdo each other to express outrage at supposed 'violence towards women'. Eddie has indeed said egregious things in the past where there is legitimate reason to call him to task (eg. King Kong comment) but this is just not one of those occasions not matter what terrible groupthink has been applied. The whole premise of the joke was about shuttting up a critic - 'staying under' was about shutting a critic up. the comments had, and have, nothing whatsoever to do with 'drowning' or 'violence' or disrespecting women, and it's quite depressing that that laughable interpretation of the comments has been latched onto by otherwise intelligent commentators. Some commentators seem to accept that whilst the comments weren't necessarily sexist they were just plain bullying. Really? If you'e going to make the claim that it was bullying then context matters - yes it would be bullying if it was a bunch of kids in a school yard saying this in front of a frighten kid in front of her friends. Yes that would be bullying. Here the context is that the comments were publicly made about a seasoned journalist who is surely thick-skinned enough to just raise the bat and let that ball go through to the keeper. In context, which you must consider for any claim of bullying, the comment just isn't in the nature bullying. It was just a joke. Just banter. And people have then charged off on discussion about punishments for a 'crime' that hasn't even been committed. The AFL are wrong in this, as are 90% of the commentators, but it's gone so far that people are now being dragged along by illogical and senseless handwringing. I reckon Carro has handled this issue reasonably well (she's been a lot less hysterical than a lot of commentators seeking to be offended on her behalf) but perhaps she could have just come out and said she didn't think eddie's were that funny, and that the triple m crew sounded like a bunch of school kids. There is no onus on Carro to respond at all of course, and whatever she says or does not say there were always plenty of media warriors at the ready to overact and hyperventilate about a fairly benign series of comments. The worse that can be said about them perhaps is that they were juvenile and unfunny. That's it.
GoGWS
Roar Guru
Yes Tara...Yes Tara it was just banter. What we're seeing right now is terrible terrible reasoning and a herd mentality, and organisations and media personalities trying to outdo each other to express outrage at supposed 'violence towards women'. Eddie has indeed said egregious things in the past where there is legitimate reason to call him to task (eg. King Kong comment) but this is just not one of those occasions not matter what terrible groupthink has been applied. The whole premise of the joke was about shuttting up a critic - 'staying under' was about shutting a critic up. the comments had, and have, nothing whatsoever to do with 'drowning' or 'violence' or disrespecting women, and it's quite depressing that that laughable interpretation of the comments has been latched onto by otherwise intelligent commentators. Some commentators seem to accept that whilst the comments weren't necessarily sexist they were just plain bullying. Really? If you'e going to make the claim that it was bullying context matters - yes it would be bullying if it was a bunch of kids in a school yard saying this in front of a frighten kid in front of her friends. Yes that would be bullying. Here the context is that the comments were publicly made about a seasoned journalist who is surely thick-skinned enough to just raise the bat and let that ball go through to the keeper. In context, which you must consider, the comment just were bullying. And people have then charged off on discussion about punishments for a 'crime' that hasn't even been committed. The AFL are wrong in this, as are 90% of the commentators, but it's gone so far that people are now being dragged along by illogical and senseless handwringing. I reckon Carro has handled this issue reasonably well (she's been a lot less hysterical than a lot of commentators seeking to be offended on her behalf) but perhaps she could have just come out and said she didn't think eddie's were that funny, and that the triple m crew sounded like a bunch of school kids. There is no onus on Carro to respond at all of course, and whatever she says or does not say there were always plenty of media warriors at the ready to overact and hyperventilate about a fairly benign series of comments. The worse that can be said about them perhaps is that they were juvenile and unfunny. That's it.
asd
Guest
Honestly Caro is nasty on footy classified. She didnt deserve those coments.Eddies not dumb hes very smart.But hes a prick of a bloke in some ways .
Josh
Expert
Well said, Tara.
McNaulty
Guest
you have hit this out of the ballpark Kaka. The vast majority of people are sensible and agree with you. These people are just so dumb.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Hardly the same thing. Michael Long was targeted for his race. Something he had no choice in. Caroline Wilson is targeted for repeatedly targeting people. Something she chooses to do. Plenty of others have forged successful careers (hell Robbo is damn near illiterate and the Chief Football Writer for his publication) without targeting and attacking people in the same manner. We aren't talking about her targeting of Essendon FC due to something they were found guilty of but more so things like her sustained agenda against North Melbourne.
andyl12
Guest
They used to say that Michael Long was just a PC whinger too, and that on-field racial abuse was just a joke and a bit of fun.
Steve Mcglashan
Guest
Please this is a beat up by all the politically correct people. It was a bit of fun albeit a little silly but I'm willing to bet if it wasn't Eddie it wouldn't be that big a story
michael RVC
Roar Pro
I do see the worth of a lot of dialog about this issue. I don't see the worth of sacking Eddie, much as I would like to see the back of him. What is missing is Collingwood's board - unless I have missed something - no action, no comment, nothing. This is what happens in our schools to this day unfortunately............a kid gets bullied, clear evidence of that is put in front of the school authorities, duck for cover.
andyl12
Guest
The ring-leader.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Interesting comment. Very interesting considering that James Brayshaw, Danny Frawley, Dwayne Russell and Tony Shaw among others were all engaged in very similar discussion. Only one is being publicly crucified over it. The "untouchable" one...
Carl Spackler
Guest
There are three 'untouchables' in AFL and Eddie is one of them. We are all just wasting our time. You would get more traction getting rid of Vladimir Putin or Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
Kaks
Roar Guru
And again it goes over peoples heads. Eddie didnt say anything about Caroline Wilson being a woman. Eddie only said something about a person he dislikes. People like you then misconstrue his comments to fit your agenda and say 'Caroline is a woman so obviously Eddie was talking about violence against women' when he made no remark at all. I'm not surprised to see the overreaction, I'm not surprised to see people manipulating what was said to fit their agenda, I'm not surprised to see people looking for reasons to be offended, but my god it's become tedious.
Kaks
Roar Guru
.
Penster
Guest
Adam Goodes has retired, James HIrd is nowhere to be seen so .............
JohnDee
Guest
I'm not disagreeing with the sentiment, but do we really need 17 different articles about the same topic, all basically saying the same thing??
Kaks
Roar Guru
It still surprises me how people can overreact so badly about something so small. "There is no humour in wanting a woman, or any person for that matter, to drown." - Except he didnt actually want her to drown, it was just a joke he made because she is someone he dislikes. Boo-hoo. Also do the people linking this to domestic violence understand that they are the only people that are making the issue worse when nothing Eddie said was about violence against women? Misconstruing someones comment to fit an agenda seems quite low. "It was a “sorry-you’re-upset-but-I-haven’t-actually-done-anything-wrong” apology." - Because he didnt do anything wrong. This whole thing is mad. It's all 'you're wrong cause I say so and if you disagree you're a misogynist'. Cry me a river.
andyl12
Guest
Exactly right. We will not stamp out violence against women if we continue to view such banter as acceptable. Judging by many of the posts on The Roar yesterday, we are still generations away from achieving due respect towards the female gender.