Geelong president Colin Carter and Collingwood's Eddie McGuire to meet for first time since war of words
Feuding presidents Colin Carter and Eddie McGuire will meet for the first time since they traded barbs on Wednesday, although the Geelong president is not expecting any fireworks between the pair.
Geelong
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It's a good thing Eddie McGuire loves boxing because the Collingwood president is certainly rolling with the punches this week.
McGuire has found himself in the middle of a stoush with Geelong president Colin Carter which inspired 3AW radio host Neil Mitchell to come off the long-run throwing haymakers.
And then Olympian Tamsyn Manou got involved, giving him a nice left jab for his role in the Pies taking over Olympic Park and kicking the track and field community to the curb.
The next round in the McGuire-Carter showdown will take place on Wednesday when the pair cross paths in a committee meeting.
The latest blow-up was ignited after McGuire was critical of the Cats’ handling of the Jack Steven stabbing and coach Chris Scott for not clarifying the circumstances of the investigation, prompting Carter to defend the club’s stance.
It again raised questions of McGuire’s conflict between his media roles and his position in club land.
In response, the Pies president and 'Footy Classified' host declared Carter’s move from the AFL Commission to Geelong at the end of 2007 as one of “the biggest conflict of interest I’ve seen”.
Carter said the meeting would be the first time the two had spoken since the war of words.
“There’s not much point … it’s a pretty silly debate,” Carter told the Geelong Advertiser.
“I think it was unfair to Chris to imply he called a press conference and then didn’t say anything.
"There’s a press conference in any case and one of the questions he was asked about was Jack Steven. I think it’s important people understand that.”
Carter said he had moved on from the saga and didn't expect it to affect their relationship.
“We’ve had spats before,” he said.
“It probably won’t be the last one. I think he contributes a lot to footy but that doesn’t mean to say I have to agree with everything he does.”
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CARTER ‘DISAPPOINTED’ IN EDDIE OVER STEVEN REMARK
Mark Robinson
Geelong president Colin Carter lashed Eddie McGuire on Friday for his commentary on the Jack Steven situation
The Collingwood president on Friday demanded Cats coach Chris Scott reveal the events surrounding the stabbing of Steven last weekend in order to end ongoing speculation about what transpired.
“There’s an easy solution, Scotty — tell us what the hell happened,’’ McGuire said.
Carter said the club’s handling of the Steven stabbing was none of McGuire’s business and, once again, McGuire was conflicted in his role as a media performer and a club president.
“Do you want a polite answer or the impolite answer from me or both,’’ Carter told the Herald Sun.
“The polite answer is I’m disappointed Eddie raises this is a public forum and I can only imagine how he would react if I questioned publicly how Collingwood was handling an issue with one of its players.
“My less polite answer is it’s none of his business.
“There is a police investigation underway, the AFL Integrity unit is involved, our view is we let them do their work and after that we make a comment.’’
Not for the first time McGuire’s dual roles in the media and at club level are being questioned.
McGuire said on Triple M the Cats needed to come clean about Steven’s mysterious stabbing.
Scott fronted the media on Thursday and warned against drawing a link between Steven’s mental health battles and the stabbing incident.
McGuire believed the speculation about what happened would end if the Cats coughed up the truth.
“Then we won’t have to jump the gun and figure out the line between the two points and all the rest of it,’’ McGuire said.
“That’s the easy way, just tell us what happened. Then we’ll be able to move on
“My point is don’t have a press conference if you’re not going to say anything.’’
Carter said he was proud of how the club handled player issues in the past.
“I think we have a good record, we don’t have many of course which is a relief,’’ Carter said.
“I’ve often joked to my friends the phone call as a club president you dread is the phone call before 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning from your CEO, because you know it can’t be anything other than bad news.
“In 10 years as president, I’ve had two of them.
“I’m happy with the way we handle these things. As I said, there’s a police investigation going on, the AFL integrity unit is involved and in the meantime we’re mainly concerned about Jack Steven’s heath and wellbeing.
“He’s a guy we want to support. He’s been the victim of something. The 100 per cent of our priority is he’s OK.’’
On Thursday Scott said the Cats off-season recruit was the “victim of something serious” and is expected to return to the club within days.
Steven came close to walking away from the game last year as he dealt with mental health issues, playing just seven games for St Kilda in 2019.
“I get the feeling that some people want to roll some of the previous problems that Jack has had into this current situation and I would caution against that. They are two separate issues,” Scott said.
“My sense is that some feel Jack might have some sort of case to answer here. I haven’t seen or heard any information that would imply that.
“It is clear he was a victim of something quite serious that required hospitalisation. I think the priority should be his well being and part of that is respecting his privacy as well.”
Steven was discharged from hospital on Tuesday after arriving at Cabrini Hospital in Melbourne at about 1am on Sunday with a stab wound that required surgery to repair the injury under his right thoracic duct in his chest.
Scott said he didn’t think Steven should have to explain the circumstances of what happened to be cleared to play again but more clarity would help the club assist him moving forward.
“I think it’s wrong that some people have jumped the gun and said that this is an AFL integrity matter and somehow Jack has a case to answer before he is allowed to play footy again. I just think that is assuming the worst in people,” Scott said.
“We’d like to know the circumstances only so we can help him, so he can help us. Those two things go together really clearly.
“I think Jack is a good fun guy, our players have really warmed to him and he’s been a real positive through this pre-season.
“He’s certainly not your cookie-cutter AFL player, he is a little bit different but I could speak about 30 of our players in a similar manner because we respect their right to be individuals.
“He’s a fun-loving guy but no-one should extrapolate that to that it means he loves a good time to the point that he goes and does the wrong thing consistently. That is a dangerous extrapolation.”
The AFL is expected to begin an investigation when the police have finalised their work.
Scott said it was too early to predict when Steven, who missed Round 1 because of injury, would make his Geelong debut.
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“He is very much in our thoughts when it comes to the possible composition of our team in 2020,” Scott said.
“He was travelling well (in the pre-season) but missed Round 1 with a minor issue, it was touch and go whether we play him and we took the conservative approach with him.”
Steven, who grew up in Lorne, was granted his wish to be traded to Geelong after 11 seasons at St Kilda where he played 183 games and won four best and fairest awards.
- with Scott Gullan