Michael McGuire: Failure defines Collingwood so why does anyone listen to them?

For a “big” AFL club, The Magpies are an astonishingly unsuccessful club. Why anyone takes them seriously is a mystery, writes Michael McGuire

Is there a smaller big club in the AFL than Collingwood? Not small in size, ambition or power, but small in achievement and culture. A club that wears its hubris like a fashionable winter scarf, displays its arrogance like it’s a painting in the Louvre.

The latest lamentable, interminable argument about Port Adelaide’s prison-bar jumper is just another example of how Collingwood tries to conflate its own best interests with that of the broader AFL.

That the AFL allows Collingwood to dictate policy on what other clubs are allowed to wear on the footy field shows two things. That the AFL is essentially a weak organisation. And that the Melbourne boys’ club refuses to believe the VFL has made way for a national competition.

You can tell this easily enough by the amount of times a Victorian official, commentator or fan refers to teams outside Melbourne as “interstate” clubs. Still, the amount of sway Collingwood apparently holds over the AFL is mystifying.

For a start, Collingwood is an astonishingly unsuccessful club. Honestly, it’s hard to fathom how bad they are. Given its resources, fan base and players over the years, its actual on-field achievements are a joke.

Port Adelaide celebrate their Showdown victory in the change rooms while wearing their prison bar guernseys. Picture: Mark Piovesan Photography

Collingwood won a premiership in 1958. It won another in 1990. Then another in 2010. Since 1958 it has won two premierships. That’s two in 63 years. And, the way they are travelling, there won’t be another for quite a few years yet.

For a quick point of comparison, since 1958 Hawthorn has won 13 flags. Richmond and Carlton have won eight apiece in that time. Geelong, West Coast and North have four each. Brisbane and Melbourne three.

Even Adelaide, another underachiever, can match Collingwood’s record of two flags since 1958 and it only started playing in 1991.

So, it’s a mystery why anyone takes Collingwood seriously when it comes to any talk about the how the competition should be run. They are serial failures.

And that’s before we arrive at any discussion about Collingwood’s long history of racism.

Collingwood has been indulged for far too long by a pliant AFL. It’s the only club in the competition that doesn’t have a proper clash jumper. No matter that around the world, sporting clubs far, far bigger than Collingwood recognise the need for more than one playing outfit.

You would think if Manchester United, Liverpool and Juventus (who also play in black and white) can play in a change strip then Collingwood should not have too many problems either.

But it’s back to the arrogance of the club again. Collingwood appears to believe it holds a trademark on the black-and-white colours.

I’m not a Port supporter so I have no connection to that prison-bar jumper. I don’t care if it never wears it again or wears it every week.

How much say does Eddie McGuire still have? Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

The bigger issue is what this annual argument says about how well the AFL is run. And about what sway a now past-president like Eddie McGuire still holds over the competition. That McGuire thinks it’s acceptable to talk about Port Adelaide president David Koch getting his nose broken is just another in a long line of offensive, stupid comments the Magpies ex-president has made during his long career.

As Koch astutely pointed out in response: “Eddie’s got form … he has this nasty streak of when he’s under a bit of pressure he comments about people’s figures, physical appearance and things like that.’’

Koch went on: “He has this enormous sense of self-importance that he runs the game and he could tell the AFL what to do.’’

And he’s right. And I’ve mentioned this already. But why does Eddie McGuire have this influence? In terms of on-field success, McGuire’s tenure as Collingwood president was a disaster.

More than 20 years in charge for one premiership can’t be seen as anything else. He was only forced out of the club after claiming a report that detailed his club’s racist past was a “proud and historic day’’.

Collingwood is part of the AFL, just like Port, Adelaide, the Swans and the Dockers. The Magpies should have no more or no less influence than any other club. It’s time the AFL stood up to them.