Jeff Kennett calls out Eddie McGuire for Gold Coast nightclub visit

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has taken aim at Eddie McGuire after the Collingwood President was spotted at a nightclub.

Jeff Kennett and Eddie McGuire.

Hawthorn Hawks president Jeff Kennett has taken aim at Eddie McGuire after the Collingwood president was spotted at a Gold Coast nightclub on the weekend.

McGuire attended the Pink Flamingo on the Gold Coast on Saturday evening with his 19-year-old son and members of Millionaire Hot Seat crew. Photos of the night out were posted to social media.

McGuire has been an outspoken critic AFL players who breached the league’s strict biosecurity protocols, and Kennett could not resist calling out the “hell of a contradiction”.

“You can’t have one rule for one group of people and another rule for others,’’ Kennett said, as reported by The Herald Sun.

“It looks silly. He probably hasn’t broken any Queensland laws, but he has put himself again at the centre of attention where this issue of conflict of interest continues to raise its head. “While he is out there jiving at the Pink Flamingo, his players and coaches are in a hub breathing stale air.”

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McGuire recently completed two weeks of quarantine in the sunshine state, and will remain in Queensland for October’s AFL Grand Final at the Gabba.

Eddie McGuire, President of the Collingwood FC.

The Fox Footy presenter is not a member of Collingwood’s isolation hub, and quickly defended his actions.

“I’m not in the hub … I’m here as a reporter and as a citizen of Queensland,” McGuire said.

“I took my son and a couple of my crew from Hot Seat out for dinner, and the people over at the restaurant said, ‘Come over and have a drink’.

“My boy is 19, he hasn’t been out for the best part of six months, so I took him across and bought him a beer.’

“There are a whole heap of people, like (AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan), not in a hub … I’m up here basically as a television host.’’

In June, Collingwood midfielder Steele Sidebottom was hit with a four-match suspension after he and teammate Lynden Dunn breached the AFL’s COVID-19 protocols.

Soon after, Magpies coach Nathan Buckley and assistant coach Brenton Sanderson played a tennis match with two people outside the club’s bubble, similarly breaching the league’s coronavirus biosecurity rules.

Collingwood accepted a $50,000 fine from the AFL, with $25,000 suspended.