Eddie McGuire’s emotional speech to save footy
Bulldogs president labelled it as “one of the best speeches” he has ever heard, now Eddie McGuire has revealed details of the speech he hoped would save the 2020 footy season.
Confidential
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Eddie McGuire has revealed details of the emotional speech he delivered to the AFL’s “war cabinet” to save the 2020 footy season.
The call, between Magpies president McGuire, Bulldogs boss Peter Gordon, and AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan, happened in the days leading up to round one.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I wish someone had recorded this,’ because honestly, it was one of the best speeches I have ever heard … and it was to an audience of two,” Gordon said in a recent interview with the Herald Sun.
Triple M and Fox Footy star McGuire told Confidential: “I’ve had a bit of practice at this particular speech because it’s one I often deliver on Anzac Day, when it's a Collingwood home game. I’ve had 10 or 11 goes at it over the journey.”
The speech reflected on debates and editorials asking whether football should be played while Aussie troops fought during WW1.
“It was the boys themselves on the frontline who wrote back and said, ‘We need football, it gives us something, it’s gives us normality, it gives our families back home something to hang on to,” McGuire said.
“The speech was me giving an indication of what the game means to the three of us. When push came to shove back in those days, they stuck with the football. In that period, they went from WW1, into a pandemic, into the Great Depression, into WWII.
“This was the period of time that consolidated Australian rules football as everything we have today.”
Asked if the speech was as emotional as Gordon recalls, McGuire said: “I was touched it made an impact on Peter. This was a big moment, the three of us discussing the first-ever abandonment of an AFL season. It was a privilege, but also one of great seriousness.”
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