Eddie McGuire in another stoush with fellow media personalities

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire is in the middle of two stoushes with fellow media personalities, with one journalist threatening to quit and McGuire pointing out one big issue with “young journos”.

Journalist Sam McClure isn’t resigning and Eddie McGuire isn’t backing down after a Footy Classified stoush which had the football world reaching for popcorn.

The pair butted heads over the media’s handling of the Jack Steven stabbing incident during Wednesday night’s show before both poured more fuel on the fire on Thursday.

McGuire addressed the issue on his Triple M breakfast show and delivered a drive-by on McClure when lamenting the different approaches journalists had compared to “back in his day”.

“(They need to decide) whether they want to be PR agents … maybe this is the problem because a lot of the young journos these days have managers who are actually player managers,” McGuire said.

McClure, who also hosts Sportsday on 3AW, is managed by leading player agent Paul Connors.

During a lively debate on the Channel 9 show – which McGuire’s company produces – the Collingwood president was adamant journalists should have asked Steven what happened on the night he got stabbed when they door stopped him at GMHBA Stadium on Monday morning.

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Eddie McGuire is in the thick of things again.

McGuire said he would’ve told McClure: “Son, there’s the car, get in it and don’t come back” if he hadn’t pressed Steven for information as they filmed him walking into training.

But McClure stood his ground and then took to Twitter yesterday morning to reinforce his stance that the Steven matter was delicate and private which required respectful handling by the media.

“I’m a sports journalist,” McLure tweeted. “If a guy who has been open about his mental health battle - who nearly lost his life in a violent incident - doesn’t want to talk about it, I’m going to respect that.

“If you disagree with that, Eddie, don’t bother sacking me, I’ll resign.”

We’re told the last line was very much “tongue-in-cheek” and that the pair had no issues when the show finished on Wednesday night with producers viewing the argy bargy as good TV theatre.

McLure adds his name to an impressive list of targets McGuire has lined up over the past fortnight including Geelong president Colin Carter, rival radio host Neil Mitchell and Olympian Tamsyn Manou.

The constant headlines have raised some eyebrows at Collingwood who it’s fair to say are keener than anyone for football to start and their president’s stoushes to end after he last week urged the Cats to be transparent over the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Neil Mitchell had a crack at Eddie McGuire this week. Picture: David Geraghty

It prompted a war of words between McGuire and Carter after he declared his Magpies counterpart was “hopelessly conflicted”.

Prominent radio host Mitchell also got stuck into McGuire.

“Don’t anybody accuse Eddie McGuire of hypocrisy or he’s behaving like a world champion hypocrite at the moment,” Mitchell said.

“Don’t accuse him of a conflict of interest or anything like that because he will go feral. After all, he’s ‘Untouchable Eddie’.

“Eddie said Geelong should just come clean on what happened with Jack Steven getting stabbed, just tell us what happened. Colin Carter responded pointing out there was a conflict between being a president of a club and a football commentator, which is painfully true and obvious often when Eddie opens his mouth, which is often.”

It didn’t take long for McGuire to hit back.

“My point was the same on Friday as it is now, which has been misreported and especially yesterday maliciously by that over-puffed up windbag on 3AW Neil Mitchell who uses things at his own volition,” McGuire said on Triple M.

“What we said on Friday and we say here today is if you’re not going to get asked the question that is pertinent don’t put the person up in front of the media whether it’s the coach or the player itself.

“Otherwise the journos there are to ask the questions that are the most pertinent in the situation. Not for them, if he’s right to answer the questions put them forward if you’re not, you don’t ask them.”

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Originally published as Eddie McGuire in another stoush with fellow media personalities