Keilor premiership coach Mick McGuane speaks after having 2023 Essendon District premiership stripped due to salary cap breach
In his first and only interview since the club’s salary cap breach was revealed, Keilor premiership coach Mick McGuane has hit back at social media barbs and revealed the toll the saga has taken on all involved.
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A defiant Keilor Football Club has vowed to use its salary cap breach penalties – including being stripped of its 2023 premiership – as “added fuel” for success this year.
It comes as president Shaun Morris insisted long-time coach Mick McGuane has never had any involvement in player contract negotiations.
As part of an exclusive interview with the Herald Sun, McGuane, first-year president Morris and captain Kane Barbuto said the club was “devastated” by the penalties.
But they said the club refused to be defined by what it called “an administrative error in the timing of payments”.
“Everyone involved in the football club is absolutely devastated about the sanctions imposed,” McGuane said. “I will leave it to others to decide if it is fair or unfair.”
“I firmly believe we won’t judge ourselves by our past, we will learn as a club from this, but we don’t live there anymore.”
“We must look back on what has happened, learn from it and don’t repeat it. The past won’t define us; the future will.
“We know what we achieved that year (in 2023) and that will never go away. We’ll be back. We’re not there to run second (in 2025).”
The Essendon District Football League powerhouse club fronted an AFL Victoria hearing on Tuesday night where the club was found to be $45,100 over the cap in 2023 and $605 over it in 2022. Keilor was “well under” the salary cap for 2024.
As well as stripping Keilor of its 2023 flag, the panel also fined the club $50,000, with $20,000 suspended ‘pending compliance’ with the competition player payment rules for the next three seasons, but stated it had been co-operative in the investigation and its actions were “not dishonest or wilful”.
The three key leaders of the Keilor club on Thursday also revealed:
● They would fight back against misinformation, inaccuracies and scurrilous social media comments, which had seriously impacted the mental health of several volunteers at the club, with McGuane saying: “The axe forgets, the tree remembers”
● The ‘mistake’ had been an honest one, as the hearing panel had determined
● Consideration had been given to appealing the penalties before Wednesday’s deadline, but they decided against it for the mental health and wellbeing of some of those involved
● The players met on Wednesday night to clarify what had occurred, with a unified resolution to throw everything into winning the 2025 flag and stand behind the club and those running it.
The Herald Sun understands the administrative error – which Keilor believed had been cleared in 2023 before a re-audit last year – concerned payments to VFL players coming back to play for their home club (Keilor).
In 2021, the club got five games out of its VFL-aligned players, in 2022, it was seven games and in 2023 there was a significant increase to 60 games.
Morris, who took on the president’s role this year, said the club wanted to move forward, but stressed McGuane had no involvement in the salary cap breach.
“He is an incredible leader, he is the best coach this competition has ever seen and possibly will ever see,” Morris said of the coach.
“At both senior and junior level, his passion for personal growth and how he inspires and motivates people, and allows them to become the best version of themselves, is something to behold.
“Just look at some of our current players that have lived out their dream by getting on an AFL list who then come back to their junior club – players like Nick O’Kearney, Corey Ellis, Josh Honey and Curtis Taylor come to mind. It speaks highly of our club, but also they want to reconnect with Mick as he was a huge part of their initial (football) journey.
Morris added: “In relation to some of the baseless claims, I need to be categoric here. He (McGuane) has never had any role in administration or in decisions around player contracts or any management of salary cap since its inception in 2017.”
“And that’s why this recent EDFL decision would leave him perplexed, shattered, frustrated and angry. He will be gutted, I know he is – as I see how much time he commits to his craft.
“But he will rally the troops and go again. He will not point the finger and play the blame game.”
Last year’s premiership captain Kane Barbuto, who has been with Keilor since his junior days, said McGuane had never been a part of his contract negotiations.
McGuane said he didn’t feel the need to defend himself, but is furious with some of the baseless allegations that have been levelled at the club.
“I come from an AFL background … (as a player) I never had (coaches) Leigh Matthews or David Parkin sit before me when I signed a contract.
“My emotive attachment (as a coach) in that situation could become clouded when it comes to selecting a team (if he knew what players were being paid).
“That’s the reason why I’ve never done it. And I never will.”
He said he doesn’t care what people think of him as he knows he has done nothing wrong.
But he urged those making wild claims against the football club – including fake social media posts and AI-generated statements – to stop it for the sake of the mental health of the volunteers involved at the club.
“It’s cowardly and unjustified. If we are serious about mental health, stop the rot,” McGuane said. “We will learn from our mistakes as a footy club, but you have to remember we are dealing with volunteers here.
“In this space (local football) we are dealing with an ageing demographic and a declining one. They (volunteers) are hard to get nowadays.
“For the respect and protection of all club-land people, just take a deep breath before you flippantly criticise someone without all the facts in front of you.
“Some of the baseless claims from people, who use their media platforms to make their point about what’s happened and what should happen, is very concerning.
“Last Friday the narrative in terms of figures … was distorted and blatantly wrong.
“We are dealing with volunteers who are not in a good space right now.
“If we are being serious as an industry about mental health, whether it is in the AFL, the VFL, or the EDFL, it has to stop. Stop throwing hand grenades with no substance …
“I spent multiple hours checking-in with (former Keilor player) Damian Cavka as his name was falsely used on social media for ‘ratting’ out the club.
“When I first received the post, I was disgusted with what was implied and even though ‘Cav’ is not at the club anymore, my support and concern for him was front of mind.”
Barbuto said the players had been galvanised by the controversy and would do everything in their power to ensure more success at the club.
“We are not going anywhere,” Barbuto said. “This will add more fuel to what we will be doing this year. We are moving forward. If you had been at training (on Wednesday night), you would have seen that. You can see the motivation behind us.”
McGuane added: “We’ve won three of the last four (grand finals). I have always said in footy, when things appear to be going all right, that comfort is an addiction. I can guarantee you that this group won’t get comfortable.”
Morris said the panel had accepted the breach had been “a mistake” and wanted to move on.
“We took ownership of it and we tried to fix it,” he said.
“In 2023 it was given the all-clear, but in 2024 they reinvestigated it and found the anomalies.
“We didn’t try to hide it. We were upfront and they understood how we made the mistake.
“We had a (club) meeting (on Wednesday night) and we addressed the players. We told them exactly what happened. It was just an administrative error. We will wear it and move on.”
Mick McGuane is a 1990 Collingwood premiership player and Herald Sun columnist.
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Originally published as Keilor premiership coach Mick McGuane speaks after having 2023 Essendon District premiership stripped due to salary cap breach
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