Eddie McGuire’s ‘spin de force’ is just Dan-dy

The only thing missing was Dan’s North Face jacket.

Other than that, Eddie McGuire’s performance on Monday was a “spin de force” rivalling Victorian Premier Dan Andrews’ performances over his government’s hotel quarantine debacle.

Faced with the leaked findings of an inquiry into racism at the Collingwood Football Club — a club he has run for more than two decades — Eddie launched his breathtaking attempt to reframe the scathing findings.

Not to worry about the fact the club had sat on the findings of the 35-page report since December and its emergence in the Herald Sun. This was, in fact, a day of pride.

“This is a historic and proud day for the Collingwood Football Club,” Eddie said with passion and conviction, pointing out that the club had ordered the review, and was now a leader in the ongoing fight against the scourge of racism.

In other words, despite presiding over the era that ultimately produced the culture and events that were shamed in the report, Eddie had an obligation to spend his final year as club president fixing the very problem that emerged on his watch.

Without any sense of self-doubt, he declared: “This is an area fraught with danger and recriminations, but we have decided as a club that this fight against racism, and against discrimination of all types, is where we want to be.”

It is true the club commissioned the report. It is also true that it did so after repeated racial controversies and criticism.

And it is true that the findings of the report represent a devastating indictment of not just the club culture but the people who ran it. Particularly pointed was this paragraph: “There is a culture of individuals, if not quite being bigger than the club, then at least having an unhealthy ­degree of influence over club culture.”

Eddie and Dan thrive in that classical Melbourne sense, a city where natural gravitational forces draw the powerful from politics, business and football together into the same orbit.

So if the Premier was watching the Collingwood president’s press conference, he can only have been impressed. After all, it was only a few months ago that he delivered his own “spin de force”.

Despite repeatedly saying variations of “I will be accountable for those ... errors and mistakes”, when the hotel quarantine buck did stop, it wasn’t with him. The health minister quit and even his chief bureaucrat quit.

But not Dan. Even when the hotel inquiry slammed the performance of the Victorian government he has run for six years, “being accountable” transformed into “I don’t cut and run”. Far from resigning, the findings of the hotel report made it more important than ever to be the leader.

For some years, Victoria’s number plate slogan has been The Education State. Perhaps The Spin State is more fitting.