SACKED Podcast: Mal Michael lifts the lid on how Eddie McGuire and TV star Rob Sitch saved Chris Tarrant’s career

In January 2000, Chris Tarrant vanished, leaving flatmate Mal Michael with a concerning letter. They soon tracked him down – but it was then-president Eddie McGuire who brought him back.

Former Collingwood defender Mal Michael has finally lifted the lid on how Eddie McGuire and TV star Rob Sitch saved Chris Tarrant’s career after he walked away just two seasons into a career that saw him become the club’s five-time leading goalkicker.

Michael and Tarrant lived together in their early years at Collingwood and were the club’s resident ratbags as they played hard and partied hard after games.

Michael was traded after the 2000 season for Lions player Jarrod Molloy in a perfect slice of fortune that saw him win premierships in his first three seasons at Brisbane.

But in January 2000, his flatmate vanished without a trace – except for a letter he had left for Michael telling him he was done with football.

Chris Tarrant and Mal Michael during their time at Collingwood together.

Michael told the Herald Sun’s Sacked series that Tarrant had to be lured back from his home in Mildura, with great mates McGuire and Sitch eventually wining and dining him in Portsea.

It was their intervention, along with Sitch’s wife and fellow comedy sensation Jane Kennedy, that saw him return to play in 2000 before winning 2003 All Australian honours, five Pies goalkicking titles, a Mark of the Year award and the 2001 Anzac Day Medal.

He was traded to Fremantle at the end of 2006 but eventually returned to the Pies and played in the 2011 Grand Final loss as a star defender.

Michael said he was wowed by McGuire’s intervention after mixed reviews when he arrived as president and cancelling the club’s footy trip after the wooden spoon season in 1999.

Michael played a part in saving Tarrant’s career.

“We went out one night, and then I came home and Chris wasn’t home. Then there was just this letter, and it said, ‘I’ve had enough. I’ve gone back to Mildura’. So I head(ed) into the club, and Mark Kleiman was the player liaison manager (football manager).

“And he said, ‘We need to get up to Mildura to see him’. It was actually pre-season, And I said, All right, well, off you go. And he said, ‘No, you’re coming with me’. They charted a plane, we flew up to Mildura. He (Tarrant) wouldn’t answer his phone, in fact he left his phone at home.

“To be honest, I didn’t know (if he would come back) because I hadn’t seen this before, and I hadn’t seen it from Chris either. I learned later on there was some other stuff going on with him. But what happened after that, was that after we got to Mildura, we picked him up and flew down to somewhere like Moorabbin (Airport) and we got taken down to Portsea.

“‘Eduardo’ (Eddie) was on holidays with Rob Sitch, they were sharing a place together. That was a hilarious night.

“At this point in time everyone was still training and I was kind of feeling bad. We’re at Portsea, but I think the club knew that me being there was going to help them try to reason with Chris to stay.”

Eddie McGuire and Rob Sitch together in 1999.

Tarrant seemed nonplussed and Michael was a startled observer as their hosts entertained them but also gently counselled Tarrant on why he should not waste his chance at AFL stardom.

“Taz didn’t really say anything. I didn’t say much. It was just maybe Eddie just telling stories about himself. Rob Sitch is hilarious, that guy.

“It’s kind of unbelievable, really, but it’s just one of those things that I just thought was just normal at the time.”