Eddie McGuire: Why the AFL hub will be the future of footy
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire says sporting codes worldwide will be looking to the AFL anti-COVID hub system for ideas on how to run their seasons next year, including events like the Australian Open and the FIFA World Cup.
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Eddie McGuire says the AFL hub is a template for the future of sport and footy.
“We’ll get to the end of this season, and we’ll take a deep breath, but the (2020 season in hubs) has certainly showed us there are other ways of doing things; a truncated season, 16 to 18 minute quarters, and whatever we end up with next year,” McGuire said.
“I think there’s opportunity to have more games, and a more equitable fixture.
He added: “Suddenly, the players and coaching staff have realised that playing a game of football is a lot more fun, and a lot more beneficial, than doing five days of training. So, there are a whole lot of things people are looking at.”
McGuire, a broadcaster and the Collingwood Football Club president, said: “In many ways, (the AFL hub) will be a template for where sports will be going worldwide for a while yet.”
He said the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, and Tokyo Olympics would benefit from insights gleaned from the Queensland experiment that saved the AFL’s 2020 season, adding: “I would think the Australian Open would be in discussions with Darren Birch (the AFL’s general manager of growth, digital and audience).”
McGuire was among 370 AFL powerbrokers, staff, players and families released from 14-day quarantine last week after entering the Gold Coast hub in time for finals.
The 370 included AFL boss Gillon McLachlan and his family, AFL executives Andrew Dillon, Brian Walsh and Kylie Rogers, AFL players Gary Ablett, Shane Edwards, Dan Hannebery, Jade Gresham, and Biggy Nyuon, AFL club CEOs Brian Cook and Brendon Gale, AFL club presidents McGuire and Colin Carter, AFL coaches Jarryd Roughead, Andrew Mackie and Sam Lonergan, and AFL Players Association CEO Paul Marsh.
“It was very strict,” McGuire said of q uarantine life.
“Face masks on all the time in the communal areas. You could take your mask off when you went for a walk on the 700 metre track that goes around the perimeter of the resort.
“But it was interesting to see how quickly everyone adapted to that way of life. Most of the group I was with spent the day inside because they were home schooling.”
McGuire said he, McLachlan, Cook, and Carter addressed the troops to do the right thing. “We said: ‘Listen, it’s easy for standards to drop. This is an orange pole that is 1.5 metres. That is how far you must be apart.’ That was the only time anything had to be said.”
McGuire says McLachlan has adhered to the social distance and sanitising rules like a pro.
“Gil walks around here like Howard Hughes. His regime is unbelievable,” McGuire said. “He’s washing his hands every five seconds so he doesn’t give anything to anybody, or get anything from anybody. It’s quite funny.”
McGuire described the meals as boarding house buffet.
“You lined up, 1.5 metres apart from everyone, and food was perfectly edible. You weren’t eating at Heston Blumenthal’s, but nor did you expect to,” McGuire said. “You were on camp. That’s what it was.”
He bristled at reports about poolside fun, pina coladas and sunbaking WAGs at the quarantine hub.
“It was a swimming pool in a hotel in Queensl and. They have them everywhere. The pool was for kids aged five to 12, to jump in, with their mums.”
But he said it was “human nature” for some to crack.
The AFL ejected Tigers players Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones from Queensland after an incident near a Gold Coast strip club on September 4.
“There are always going to be a couple of people that fracture. There will always be a couple of young blokes who, for whatever reason, break loose. But there are more than 1200 people here in Queensland, and that’s one case,” McGuire said.
McGuire said he took inspiration from, and got clarity on one of the hub’s missions, from an unlikely source: Anna Betts, wife of Carlton superstar Eddie Betts.
“Every time I saw her, she had a baby on her hip, she’s pregnant, she was holding a pram, and she had three or four little Eddie Betts’s running around,” McGuire said.
“She’s running two businesses with great aplomb, she’s reading in the newspaper every day; is her husband going to be relieved of his services by Carlton after this weekend?
“In the meantime, Eddie’s had to cop racial vilification, he’s standing up for the cause, and at the same time, he’s trying to get a kick in a very tough season.
“And, all through this, she’s one of the great leaders that other women (in the AFL bubble) have turned to.”
McGuire said a recent Instagram post on Eddie’s Betts’ page, of an emotional reunion with his family after 12 weeks apart, showed the sacrifice and investment made by those staying in the hubs.
“I blanch a bit when people talk about sacrifices,” McGuire said.
“I look at it as an investment in our game. In my case, it’s an investment in the game, my career, my family, and the Collingwood Football Club. They’re growth experiences.
“My son (Xander) is back home doing his VCE. (McGuire’s wife) Carla is back home, and I won’t see her for the best part of a couple of months.”
His oldest son, Joe, a university student, is in Queensland working as a producer on McGuire’s radio show, and other remote broadcasts.
McGuire said the AFL’s decision to allow families and partners inside the hub was vitally important.
“The mothers, the girlfriends, the wives and families; they hadn’t seen their loved ones in months,” McGuire said. “These blokes have been playing multiple games, they’ve had injuries, and some are about to get delisted.
“There’s a lot of pressure on people in there, and the AFL to their credit, made it not only bearable, but it couldn’t have been done any better.
“I say this sincerely — the AFL has been masterful in saving a lot of people’s lives, and relationships and given them the opportunity to flourish in really tough circumstances.”
Last week, after completing quarantine, AFL and club officials, players and families moved into designated hotels and resorts on the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Noosa.
Under the AFL’s protocols, everyone in the hubs must be tested for coronavirus twice a week, and adhere to social distancing rules.
They can get takeaway food, but not dine at a restaurant or cafe.
They can go for a walk, run, bike ride or swim, but not sunbake at the beach. Theme park visits are banned. Media inside in the hub have signed non disclosure agreements.
The rules and regulations have also somehow affected WAG activity on social media, with sudden radio silence in paradise.
During finals, players will have 36 hours to leave the hubs after their team is eliminated from the premiership race.
They will then be strictly forbidden from seeing players or staff from any club still competing because those people will still be living in the AFL bubble.
McLachlan is living outside the hub, in Broadbeach, which allows him to meet with Queensland officials and other stakeholders leading up to the AFL Grand Final on October 24.
McGuire is also living outside the hub, so he can attend the same high-powered meetings, and keep his broadcast commitments with Triple M, Fox Footy and Nine. But it also means he cannot enter the Collingwood hub.
“The most important thing is, we’ve saved the season,” McGuire says. “People said at the start of the year, ‘Will there be an asterisk next to this season?’ Nah, no chance in the world. It’s an absolutely legitimate season, and everyone has adapted to it.”
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