AFL 2021: Mark Korda or Peter Murphy to replace Eddie McGuire at Collingwood
He may have stepped down as president but Eddie McGuire remains firmly in Collingwood’s future plans, according to a club legend.
Collingwood
Don't miss out on the headlines from Collingwood. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Collingwood legend Tony Shaw believes the Magpies will go with either Peter Murphy or Mark Korda for their next president but says every other board member would also be capable of replacing Eddie McGuire.
The Pies are now on the hunt for a new president, following the resignation of McGuire in the wake of the Do Better report into racism at Collingwood.
Murphy and Korda have been named co-interim presidents as the Pies look for a new leader over the next eight weeks.
Watch every match of the 2021 AAMI Community Series LIVE on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your free trial now & start streaming instantly >
Shaw said he expected one of those two to get the job.
“Anybody on the board now would be capable of doing it,” he said.
“I think they will either go with Murphy or Korda but you have to go outside to see if there is anyone capable of doing it.
“But I think it could stay in house.”
Murphy, the founder of business consultant company PAN Australia Group, led an external review of the club’s operations in 2017 (which saved coach Nathan Buckley) before joining the board two years ago.
Korda has served at the club since 2007 and was a member of the board that said it “overwhelmingly endorsed” McGuire to continue as president after his infamous King Kong-Adam Goodes gaffe in May 2013.
At his resignation media conference this week McGuire said he would be taking a break, following also finishing up at Triple M.
Shaw said McGuire would still have a big impact on Collingwood going forward.
“Eddie is not there in name but he will be there in nature let me tell you that,” he said.
Korda and Murphy have taken charge of the club effective immediately.
In a statement, the Collingwood board said it would take eight weeks to decide its next president.
The board also declared the expert advisory panel recommended by the club’s report into racism would be formed as a priority, reporting directly to the board.
The club will also employ a strategic advisor to help implement “all the recommendations of the Do Better report across the organisation”.
Murphy, the founder of business consultant company PAN Australia Group, led an external review of the club’s operations in 2017 (which saved coach Nathan Buckley) before joining the board two years ago.
Korda has served at the club since 2007 and was a member of the board that said it “overwhelmingly endorsed” McGuire to continue as president after his infamous King Kong-Adam Goodes gaffe in May 2013.
Murphy led an external review of the club’s operations in 2017 (which saved coach Nathan Buckley) before joining the board two years ago.
The club’s other directors are former player Paul Licuria, indigenous leader Jodie Sizer, businessman Alex Waislitz, former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate and chief executive Mark Anderson.
EX-AFL BOSS LAUDS MCGUIRE’S IMPACT ON GAME
Rebecca Williams
Former AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has revealed the pitch over coffee Eddie McGuire made to him for the Magpies’ CEO job as he lauded the “profound impact” the departed president had on the game.
As the ex-league boss declared McGuire’s immediate resignation from the Collingwood presidency on Tuesday as a “sad” ending for the long-time club leader, Demetriou said he did not “subscribe to the theory” Collingwood was a “racist football club” and felt the “Do Better” report needed to have a “lot more detail” in it.
McGuire’s position has been under extreme pressure since the Magpies’ damning racism report became public last week when he described it as a “proud and historic day” for the club, before later apologising for his choice of words.
Demetriou, whose own tenure at the AFL coincided with McGuire’s as president, said it was an “unfortunate” ending for McGuire and not the way he “deserved to go out”.
The former AFL chief revealed his initial dealings with McGuire and how the Pies president offered him the job as Collingwood CEO when he was at the AFL Players’ Association.
“He came to the club at a time the club was really struggling and it was on its knees financially and there was a lot of division at the club and issues off-field,” Demetriou said on SEN.
“I remember that time pretty significantly because I had started at the AFLPA mid-1998 and probably the end of 1999 Eddie took me out for coffee in Bridge Road, Richmond, and offered me a job to be CEO of Collingwood while I was at the AFLPA.
“I didn’t know at that point in time I was going to head to the AFL – I politely declined.
“But he must have seen something in me that he thought might work. But less than a year later I was at the AFL as general manager of football operations.”
Demetriou said McGuire had delivered on everything he told him he wanted to do for the club in his pitch at the time.
“It was very clear. We were at a coffee shop in Bridge Road and he walked me out to his car … he wheeled out the plans for the Lexus Centre – and said ‘this is what I want to build at Olympic Park and I want you to be part of it and this is where I want to take the club’,” Demetriou said.
“He, like really good leaders, had a vision for the club that he saw probably more clearly than anyone else and he articulated that vision and he delivered on that vision.
“Everything he told me he was going to do at that time he did, he did it in spades and he did more.”
Demetriou said he had read the ‘Do Better’ report, which he said contained some “unsubstantiated issues”.
“I understand what the report was saying and I respect what the authors have written, but there were seven examples there over a long period of time – over 50 years – and there were some perceptions written about, unsubstantiated issues in there,” Demetriou said.
“I thought the report needed to have a lot more detail in it to be honest.
“But the report doesn’t lie about the issue. The issue is real and it’s an issue we’ve got to confront continually.”
Demetriou said Collingwood – and the league had made “significant progress” over the years on the issue of racism and indigenous affairs.
“I think the Collingwood Football Club has made huge progress over the years,” he said.
“The report went back 50 years, it highlighted Syd Jackson. If you went back 50 years for every football club and most – if not all – organisations in this country well you would probably get the same outcome.
“When I was playing football I can’t remember a day when I didn’t get called an “f***ing wog” on the football field. We have made significant progress.
“I don’t subscribe to the theory that it’s completely broken and we’re a racist code or Collingwood is a racist football club. There has been significant progress made.
“But it’s a continuing process to keep dealing with these issues that crop up.”
Demetriou said McGuire had made a greater impact on the game than any other president.
“There is no doubt he has been the highest-profile president that we have seen but not only has he been high profile, he has been a doer, he’s been a heavy lifter, he has made a profound and significant contribution to the game,” Demetriou said.
“I dare say off-field from a president and honorary role, I can’t think of anyone that would have made such an impact on the game.
“He has been a big change merchant, a big advocate for the game, a big positive for the game. Notwithstanding that he’s had issues, but everyone does … it’s human nature.”
‘A LIGHTNING ROD FOR VITRIOL’: EDDIE’S FINAL BOW
– Mick Warner
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire choked back tears on Tuesday as he quit the club he has led for 22 seasons, saying he had become “a lightning rod for vitriol”.
McGuire, 56, admitted that he had become a negative distraction amid a racism storm and his staying on would undermine the club’s ability to move forward both on and off the field.
“I try my best and I don’t always get it right, but I don’t stop trying,” an emotional McGuire said.
“When I came to Collingwood, it was a club ridden with rivalries, enemies and division. It has not been the case in my time. So I do not want any of this to cause rancour or factions. It is better to fast track my leaving of the club from the end of the year to now.”
McGuire also flagged that he would step away from his media commitments, though Channel Nine said he would continue to host Millionaire Hot Seat.
Fox Footy did not comment on his commentary role, while Triple M said he would appear during the AFL season as a special guest.
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan told the Herald Sun on Tuesday night: “For Eddie the two most important things are his family and Collingwood and that has been the order – family and Collingwood and he put them first again today.
“He leaves after more than two decades of devotion to the club and knowing that his departure allows the club to focus on taking the next steps to implementing the recommendation.”
McGuire’s resignation came eight days after Herald Sun revealed the damning contents of a 35-page report commissioned by the Pies that found there was “systemic racism within the Collingwood Football Club”.
On Monday the Herald Sun further revealed an open letter had been circulated among community leaders, calling for McGuire’s “immediate” resignation following his controversial claim in a disastrous press conference that the emergence of the report was “a day of pride for the club”.
Among the 100 signatories were federal Labor MPs Peter Khalil and Anne Aly, former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda, Greens Senators Lidia Thorpe and Mehreen Faruqi and St Kilda welfare officer Nathan Lovett-Murray.
The letter said the club’s response to the leaked ‘Do Better’ racism report had been “unacceptable and insulting” and “a dangerous example of how victims of racism should be treated”.
McGuire, who took on the Collingwood presidency on his 34th birthday in October 1998, said on Tuesday: “People have latched on to my opening line last week, and as a result I have become a lightning rod for vitriol, but worse, have placed the club in a position where it is hard to move forward with our plans …
“I don’t think that (continuing as president) is now either fair or tenable for the club or the community.”
But he defended his legacy, adding: “We are not a racist club, far from it. It is why I’m so proud of our club and the people every day and every week who benefit and who are inspired by the very purpose of the being of Collingwood and that is to be a beacon of hope for all people, particularly those at their lowest ebb or who have been socially isolated and left behind.”
Of the damning ‘Do Better’ report, McGuire said: “(It) is an acknowledgment that our club, our game and our country have not always got it right.
“For our part we have always sought to do our best but that hasn’t always been good enough.
For that we are sorry.”
McGuire’s greatest achievements included the club’s historic shift from Victoria Park to the Holden Centre, the poaching of master coach Mick Malthouse in 1999, major commercial partnerships and the team’s 2010 premiership win over St Kilda.
“From the moment I became president … my sole motivation was to heal, unite, inspire and drive a new social conscience not just into this club, but sport and the community in general and build an organisation that would be a place of opportunity for all people,” he said.
“I committed myself to making Collingwood the best place it could be.”
But McGuire’s reign was marred by a series of self-inflicted lows, including his 2013 King Kong comment in reference to Sydney Swans champion Adam Goodes.
McGuire declined to take questions as he announced his resignation, exiting the stage flanked by wife Carla and his two adult sons.
Hours earlier, Victorian premier Daniel Andrews had thrown his support behind McGuire, declaring: “I made it pretty clear last week that you don’t run from challenges. You do everything you can to be equal to them. The Eddie McGuire I know is up to that task.”
Former Collingwood player Heritier Lumumba, whose claims of racism during his time at the club sparked the ‘Do Better’ report, said of the premier: “With so many leaders from First Nations and communities of colour calling for McGuire to step down, Daniel Andrews has shown us the boys’ club on full display.
“The pain and trauma of communities who suffer racism is more important than the powerful white men and their friendships.”
Tony Shaw, Collingwood’s 1990 premiership captain, said it was “a sad day for the footy club and the AFL”.
“They (his critics) probably wore him down in the end … but I think the time was probably right,” he said.
Long-time friends and The Footy Show co-host Sam Newman said: “What they’ve done to Eddie McGuire is an absolute disgrace … people should be ashamed of themselves.”
AFL commission chairman Richard Goyder said the league acknowledged McGuire’s decision to stand down on Tuesday.
“Eddie has made an enormous contribution to the Collingwood Football Club and Australian rules football over the past 22 years,” Goyder said in a statement.
“We will have time to properly acknowledge his contribution to the club and to the football community in the weeks ahead but one thing is clear in that Eddie leaves Collingwood in better shape than when he started as president.
“Eddie’s actions today showed his commitment to put the Collingwood Football Club first and to ensure the focus for the club was on moving to implement the 18 recommendations of the ‘Do Better’ report.” Goyder said the AFL Executive were reviewing the report and would present their findings to the AFL’s indigenous Advisory Council.
“(We) we will ask for them to provide their views on the next steps for the AFL commission in helping our football community better understand and fight all forms of racism and discrimination,” he said.
Goyder said the commission wanted to reiterate its stance that as a governing body it was “committed to demonstrating our commitment to anti-racism”.
“Racism is not, and never will be, acceptable in our game and that there are no circumstances where racism can be allowed to occur unchecked,” he said.
“We want all people to be able to belong and feel welcome in our game and we know this is not possible while racism and discrimination exists at any level.
“We have not always succeeded in doing that but we remain committed to working with our clubs, players, coaches, staff and with cultural leaders to create positive change in our communities through creating positive change in our game.”
BELOW: FULL TRANSCRIPT OF EDDIE McGUIRE’S SPEECH
More Coverage
McGuire: "This is why I say we're not a racist club ... I remind people that our recent review ... was to look to what we need to do for the next 10 years, not the last (10 years)"
— SuperFooty (AFL) (@superfooty) February 9, 2021
WATCH LIVE: https://t.co/fJhMdltLL4
McGuire on initially announcing he would step down at the end of 2021: "I don't think that is now fair nor tenable for the club or community.
— SuperFooty (AFL) (@superfooty) February 9, 2021
"I have become a lightning bolt for vitriol."
WATCH LIVE: https://t.co/fJhMdltLL4
Dayne Beams' reaction to Eddie McGuire's announcement pic.twitter.com/quEzWIsPZU
— Oliver Caffrey (@ollycaffrey) February 9, 2021
1/ With so many leaders from First Nations & communities of colour calling for McGuire to step down, Daniel Andrews has shown us the boy’s club on full display. The pain & trauma of communities who suffer racism is more important than powerful white men and their friendships.
— Héritier Lumumba (@iamlumumba) February 9, 2021
2/ If Andrews wants to show real leadership, stand up for the communities who are hurting because of Collingwood’s public refusal to admit fault. He says Eddie is ‘equal to the task.’ 22 years is a long time for someone to decide if they want to understand what racism is.
— Héritier Lumumba (@iamlumumba) February 9, 2021
3/ The fact that Andrews can ignore a former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, former Indigenous players and their families, academics and community leaders, shows he cares more about one white man’s ego than fighting racism.
— Héritier Lumumba (@iamlumumba) February 9, 2021
Originally published as AFL 2021: Mark Korda or Peter Murphy to replace Eddie McGuire at Collingwood
‘Disgraceful’: Buckley’s sad confession
Footy legend Nathan Buckley has revealed his regret while for the first time addressing “disrespectful” behaviour he showed behind the scenes.
Trade moves Pies can pull to keep themselves in flag race
Collingwood needs a bounceback after a disappointing 2024 season, but don’t have any draft capital to bring in young talent or hit the trade tables. JOSH BARNES looks at how the Pies can get creative.