Port Adelaide’s plans to wear its ‘prison bars’ strip in 2020 can proceed with less fear of Eddie McGuire
AFL bosses would shake when Collingwood president Eddie McGuire took to the soap box. But this week’s rebuff on the finals fixture should echo at Alberton.
- To sing or not sing anthem before AFL finals?
- Grand injustice if Eagles face Magpies in decider
- Rucci’s Roast: Which era of SANFL footy was the best?
EDDIE McGuire has lost his touch. There was a time when the Collingwood president would bark and the AFL executive feared his bite.
But that was more than a decade ago. South Australian tennis maestro Roger Rasheed still has the rash to show from the burning tone of McGuire’s words at an AFL qualifying final at Football Park in 2002 when Port Adelaide hosted Collingwood.
McGuire accused Rasheed of “inciting the crowd” when he was doing no more than encouraging the Power faithful to get behind Mark Williams’ team after it scored a goal (that would again prove difficult for Port Adelaide in the second rendition of the choke-fest it perfected before September 2004).
As ridiculous as McGuire’s protest was, the AFL acted. Legendary SA television producer Des Flavel — a pioneer in football coverage in Adelaide — was compelled to remove any “home-team bias” during finals in his presentations on the new SuperScreens at Football Park. The meter recording the fans’ cheering — and encouraging them to send the reading into the red zone — was packed away.
Rasheed, as the ground announcer, was toned down from supposed cheerleader to resemble “Whispering Ted” in a billiards hall.
McGuire won.
McGuire barked again this week. And, unlike that 2002 farce at Football Park, he had reason to take issue with the AFL again proving television has a major say in how the finals fixture is drawn up to maximise critical ratings.
McGuire’s point that the AFL has ignored the need to maximise the lead-up time — as seven rather than six days — for Collingwood or Greater Western Sydney to next week’s preliminary final against AFL premier Richmond cannot be dismissed.
But that is exactly what the AFL did. McGuire barked. And the AFL executive showed no fear for his bite that one time included the thought of having his black-and-white army march on AFL House.
It is not hard to imagine that in 2002 the AFL would have folded when McGuire started his rant on Melbourne radio demanding the executive meet again to fix up their mess. But in 2018, AFL executive Travis Auld shut down McGuire saying: “Not going to happen”.
Clearly, AFL House has changed from that era when the executive recognised the power carried by McGuire and the competition’s biggest club — that is now Richmond that has a president, Peggy O’Neal, who has proven results can be achieved without grandstanding.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has a new-generation executive that neither fears McGuire’s bark nor his once ominous bite.
The sad note from this episode is how McGuire has far more justification for change with the AFL finals fixture than he did in 2002 when Rasheed was doing what any ground announcer should — pump up the crowd.
Now the question is how will the leaders at Alberton — 16 years after being bitten by McGuire — note the change in the landscape as the Port Adelaide Football Club makes plans for its 150th anniversary in 2020? Having repeatedly locked horns with McGuire on the right to wear a black-and-white jumper in the national league, Port Adelaide might find it much easier to dust down a heritage jumper design in 2020.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au