Eddie McGuire Q&A: Bruce McAvaney, Paris Olympics and the plan to stop AFL draftees falling through the cracks

Eddie McGuire has spoken of his regret that he won’t be calling alongside broadcasting icon Bruce McAvaney at this year’s Paris Olympics.

Buoyed by the recent success of Collingwood’s Lachie Sullivan and Joe Richards as mature-aged recruits, Eddie McGuire is calling for an October game to showcase the talents of those not on AFL lists.

McGuire has long believed too many potential AFL players fall through the cracks for a variety of reasons, and more would emerge if a round-robin event was held in the first week of October.

Lachie Sullivan has had a big impact for Collingwood this year. Picture: Michael Klein

Joe Richards was playing for Wangaratta when he was discovered. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

JA: I like your thinking, how would it work?

EM: At the end of a football season everyone goes, ‘Thank God that’s over’ then a week later we’re all looking ahead to the draft. What I’m proposing, and it has TV appeal to Foxtel and/or Seven, to get all of those players who aren’t on a list.

JA: Not drafted because they were too slow, too small, couldn’t kick or didn’t have a “big enough tank”?

EM: All of that. They may have been delisted, or have gone to university to study after missing out on a pathway program at ages 14-15. You don’t want the only pathway to be via private schools and under-18s. Plus we are going to have to find another 100 players in due course. We need to give kids the chance to grow into their bodies, or learn what’s required to become an AFL player.

JA: When and where?

EM: Put together two teams where the boys are training at elite centres under good coaches. Their names become known to us so we start to look for them in their respective competitions.

JA: How many teams?

EM: The idea is to bring them together over a three or four-week period, you might have four or six teams, play a round-robin and televise each game. I bet you will find a few, the brickie from Beaufort John Noble is another good example, too small at age 18 but a very accomplished player now.

Eddie McGuire says he would have loved to work with Bruce McAvaney on the Olympics Picture: Alex Coppel.

JA: To the Olympics. How disappointed are you that Bruce McAvaney couldn’t join you given Channel 7 wouldn’t let him join Channel 9 for two weeks?

EM: I would have loved Bruce to work with me but sadly that just doesn’t quite work sometimes. In 1984 he first showed the world how extraordinary he was as a caller, the best broadcaster in the world.

JA: I don’t get why he couldn’t have worked for Channel 9 for two weeks, because most viewers couldn’t give a stuff where he normally works? Plenty of others have worked for different channels at the same time.

EM: You could argue that if the Olympics are there, then get the best bloke available which is Bruce. He has an Order of Australia basically for service to the Olympics. As a young kid I was as proud of our callers like Bill Collins, Lou Richards and Mike Williamson as I was of our sporting stars.

JA: What’s it like going to the footy these days?

EM: Very different in that I don’t have a media pass for the first time since I was 13 as a stats man. I’m just there as a barracker like everyone else.

JA: You still write down the goalkickers in the Record after every score?

EM: Until the day I die.

Originally published as Eddie McGuire Q&A: Bruce McAvaney, Paris Olympics and the plan to stop AFL draftees falling through the cracks