Mark Robinson: Eddie McGuire wears many hats - from Collingwood president to journalist - and that’s the problem

Eddie McGuire says, as a journalist, he can break news, pass opinion and in this case, talk about Carlton. But as Mark Robinson asks, should he while president of Collingwood?

Eddie McGuire is no Charlie Chaplin.

Chaplin was predictable with his black bowler hat.

McGuire, however, has his Collingwood president's hat, his “millionaire” hat, his radio shock jock hat, his journalist’s hat, his Broady Brawler hat and, in moments of ill decision, his controversial hats.

And oddly, the “you’re-jealous-of-me” hat, as he suggested this week — just who says that about themselves?

Anyway, so many hats that he needs a full-time milliner.

And it gets confusing.

The latest angst came this week when McGuire suggested the Blues should talk to Alastair Clarkson about being their next coach — if, in fact, the Blues need one.

Eddie McGuire embraces Travis Varcoe after Collingwood’s preliminary final win last year. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith.

As a rival club president, of course, it raised discussion.

As it would have if Carlton president Mark LoGiudice suggested, in the middle of 2017 when Nathan Buckley was under siege, that McGuire should talk to Clarkson, or Paul Roos, or Chris Scott.

Maybe McGuire spoke to all of them at the time, but is it LoGiudice’s realm to offer coaching advice to a rival club — even if he was asked, as McGuire was on radio on Monday?

You could imagine McGuire telling his counterpart to butt out of Collingwood’s business.

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To suggest to McGuire he should do the same invited hostility from McGuire.

Being in football for 35 years allows McGuire to say anything, apparently, and remember he’s never got a story wrong in 35 years.

“My first title is football journalist, football reporter, football pundit,” he said with his radio hat on yesterday.

“And I’m the Collingwood president which is an unpaid part-time job. My job is to offer opinions and break news.”

So, he is a journalist. OK then.

But when asked by Triple M sidekick Luke Darcy about Carlton, McGuire switched hats.

“You put it to me as president of a club, given the fact I’ve been president of a club longer than any person who is alive at the moment, and beaten by two people in the game, so I've been around a bit,” McGuire said.

“So I could be seen, maybe, as special comments expert on this situation.”

So, he is president now? OK then.

Eddie McGuire launches into celebration mode after a finals win for Collingwood last season. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Media/Getty Images.

He was asked as a club president, and answered as a club president, all the while sitting in his journalist’s chair.

It can be convenient for McGuire.

And seemingly an irritation for Buckley, who couldn’t place himself, or the club, further from McGuire’s comments yesterday.

Buckley said on SEN he didn’t know of McGuire’s on-air advice to Carlton about Clarkson, or if the comment was made under McGuire’s media guise or presidential guise.

“I’m not across that so I don’t know, but I’m glad that you (Gerard Whateley) said his ‘media guise’ because if it was with his Collingwood hat on it would be inconsistent with the way we want to carry ourselves and the way we view our respect and understanding of the fact that competition’s important and we’ve got places and things to talk about and things to let go,” Buckley said.

Seriously, it’s a bizarro world when you’re expected to assess McGuire’s comments, not only by what he says but by where he says them.

Eddie McGuire with Triple M Hot Breakfast co-hosts Luke Darcy and Wil Anderson and comedian Mick Molloy.

If they are said on his morning radio program, it’s acceptable.

If the same stuff were said at his pre-game president’s dinner, they are not.

As Buckley said: “It would be inconsistent with the way we want to carry ourselves ...”

It doesn’t have to be said McGuire’s good for the game, but not everything he says is good for the game.

He says he has been an “accredited media AFL card carrier for 41 years”, but his recent record includes a racial gaffe about Adam Goodes, mocking double amputee Cynthia Banham’s coin toss, making gags about holding a female journalist’s head under water and making gags about GWS being in the “land of the falafel”.

He got the quaddie there — indigenous, Muslim, disabled and female violence.

How many journalists would keep their “card”, in fact how many people in football would keep their jobs, if they landed that quaddie?

The point is McGuire says he is a journalist, but he’s not made accountable like a journalist.

This latest stoush is about Carlton and Brendon Bolton and Clarkson.

All we did was suggest to President McGuire to leave Carlton to sort out its own mess and Journalist McGuire took it personally.

Relax Ed, watch a movie. Chaplin’s The Great Dictator is said to be a classic.