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Eddie McGuire has issued a qualified apology after video of his celebration at a restaurant following Brayden Maynard’s successful Tribunal hearing divided opinions around the footy world.
McGuire, who served as Collingwood president up until early 2021, was filmed by premiership Magpie Dale Thomas revealing the Maynard news to fellow patrons on Tuesday night.
“Ladies and gentlemen, justice has been done! Maynard is free to play for the Pies!” McGuire explained.
The video quickly caused a stir, with many accusing McGuire of being disrespectful to the family of Angus Brayshaw, who sustained a serious concussion during his collision with Maynard that prompted the Tribunal hearing.
Speaking on Nine’s Footy Classified, McGuire said there was ‘not any thought’ in his mind that he was disrespecting the Brayshaws, saying it was ‘pure fun’.
“I walk in about five minutes before that happens and everyone as I walked past was asking, ‘What’s going on with the Maynard situation?’” McGuire said.
“I get a message through that he’s been cleared… Daisy Thomas was sitting there, there were a couple of boys from the 2010 premiership side. The whole idea was that Maynard was right.
“Now people have said, ‘Was that being disrespectful to the Brayshaws?’ There was not any thought even about that and I apologise if anybody actually takes it that way.
“It was all about Brayden Maynard… a key player for Collingwood going into a preliminary final, amongst a lot of Collingwood people who’d come up and asked for photos at that stage.
“It was pure fun in what has been a very, very wrought situation. That’s it, as simple as it is.
“You’re still allowed to have some fun in the game and it was no slight or malice towards anyone, and unbridled joy that a champion of Collingwood Football Club will be alright to play in a final.”
Maynard is free to play in the Magpies’ home preliminary final against either Port Adelaide or GWS next week, while Brayshaw is sidelined under the AFL’s concussion protocols for the Demons’ semi final against Carlton, and is a chance to miss the rest of the season given his history of head knocks.
His lack of suspension has led to a wide array of opinions around the footy world, with former Demon Shaun Smith, whose son Joel is one of Brayshaw’s teammates and who in 2020 was awarded a $1.4 million insurance payout from the league related to severe mental health issues stemming from a career’s worth of head knocks, blasting the decision to clear Maynard as ‘absolutely disgusting’ and referring to the Magpie as a ‘thug’.
However, AFL legend Malcolm Blight has defended the Tribunal’s verdict, saying Smith’s take on the collision is ‘wrong’ and slamming suggestions Maynard should have been suspended as ‘codswallop’.
We’ve heard the [Brayshaw] family and they are very emotional about it and I get that, but somewhere down the track if the boot was on the other foot, would they be a bit more understanding about the decision?” Blight said on SEN SA.
“The thing I’ve found, and I’ve watched everything I’ve possibly could, is that the current day players think it is the right decision. They’ve all agreed it was part of football and that’s what they signed up for.
“We have an opinion, the AFL has an opinion, the counsels have an opinion, but the blokes that are actually playing the game, every one I’ve heard has said exactly that bar family members of the Brayshaws.
“Just sitting back and watching this all unfold, some of the commentary around ‘oh they [the AFL] only referred it to the Tribunal because it was Collingwood’, it’s the greatest codswallop I’ve heard in years.”
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