Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire says his ‘heart breaks’ that former players Heritier Lumumba, Andrew Krakouer and Leon Davis’ decision to sever ties with the club.
Lumumba announced on Twitter on Wednesday that the trio, who have all detailed their experiences of racism at the Magpies, will ‘officially terminate all communication’ with the club, accusing Collingwood of failing to make progress since the ‘Do Better’ report was released.
“Nothing has changed,” Lumumba wrote.
Speaking on Nine’s Footy Classified, McGuire, who resigned as Magpies president in 2021 following the Do Better report’s release, urged Lumumba, Krakouer and Davis to return to resolve the ongoing issues.
“I hope these three greats of the club come back to the club and have a truth-telling session, and get to a resolution. That‘s what everyone wants,” McGuire said
“Everyone wants this to be resolved and to move forward and do things. Not to move away because that‘s the easy thing to say.”
However, McGuire also defended the club from Lumumba’s allegations, saying the process to heal the club’s history of racism was always going to be slow.
“The Do Better’ report was a deep dive – I don’t think we’ve had a shallow dive. There’s been a 12-month review of that,” he said.
“They said there were systematic issues — that there was a system breakdown.
“Now Collingwood is the only club that has a 15-person multicultural task force that is there. Jodie Sizer is the vice-president of the club – she was involved in the reconciliation action plan before she came onto the board, and is now the vice-president. I think there’s a lot of things there.”
While McGuire is no longer involved with the Magpies, he said he would be prepared to do just about anything to help the ‘champions’ of Collingwood settle their differences with the club.
“If I can help at all, and certainly with these three champions… all of them have been close friends that I’ve looked after over the years.
“Of course, I would do anything possible to try and help everyone get to a position… that’s what we do.
“Our hearts break when we see these things.”
Gold Coast have responded swiftly to the AFL’s latest incident of racial abuse directed at a player on social media, with Suns recruit Mabior Chol targeted following their win over Carlton.
The Suns took to Twitter to release a video showing their support for Chol, who has kicked nine goals in his four games at the club since moving from Richmond in the off-season.
Speaking on Wednesday, teammate Sean Lemmens also came to Chol’s defence, calling out the ‘disgusting’ abuse.
“As a footy club we stand by ‘Cholly’ and we all really stand in front of him,” Lemmens told media.
“We don’t expect him to take the full brunt of that. Some pretty crap comments to be honest by some people… it’s ridiculous it’s still happening.
“So we’ll get behind him and continue to support him. But if it’s going to happen again, don’t think we’re going to stand back and let it happen – we’ll obviously stand up and back him in.”
Chol already has a history of being targeted by racist trolls, sharing a screenshot of an abusive Instagram message in late 2021, which was quickly condemned by both the Suns and Tigers.
Richmond premiership defender Nick Vlastuin is set to return for his first game of the season when the Tigers take on Adelaide on Saturday.
Vlastuin, who missed the first five rounds after suffering a hamstring injury on the eve of the season, will boost an inexperienced backline still missing co-captain Dylan Grimes.
But the news isn’t all good at Tigerland, with wingman Kamdyn McIntosh to miss under the AFL’s health and safety protocols.
“He’s [Vlastuin] one of those players that makes those around him better,” Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said on Thursday morning
“Players walk a little bit taller with him in the side because of the way he goes about it.
“We’ve got a relatively inexperienced defence that is growing week by week and players like Nick help that.”
Vlastuin managed just 12 games in 2021 due to a knee injury, a key reason behind the Tigers’ fall from grace after back-to-back premierships in 2019 and 2020.
Hardwick said he was hopeful the 27-year old’s tough luck with injuries is now behind him.
“He’s had a bit of a horror run the last couple of years,” he said.
“Internally we rate him very highly… possession game defenders are very valuable and Nick is also very good offensively as well, makes very good decisions.
“He’s such an important player to the way we play the game and when he’s playing his best footy generally we’re having a good run.
“Hopefully we can keep him on the park for the rest of the year.”
Hardwick was unable to provide any further clarity on the future of Dustin Martin, with the champion still on indefinite personal leave from the club.
“He’s got our full support to go about his business and achieve what he needs to achieve,” the coach said.
“We’ll be fully supportive of that and there’s no rush from our point of view.”
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