Powerful mates keeping ‘proud’ Eddie McGuire in game

For a few hours on Tuesday morning, it looked like the clock had ­finally caught Eddie McGuire, the biggest and best-connected name in ­Melbourne.

At the eye of a racism storm … Eddie McGuire who is in his final year as Collingwood president. Picture: Benn Wood / GQ Australia

For a few hours on Tuesday morning, it looked like the clock had ­finally caught Eddie, the biggest and best-connected name in ­Melbourne.

McGuire had heard the tick-tock several times before, most ­infamously during the crisis that erupted and raged for days (in fact, it’s never really gone away) in 2013 after his “King Kong” gaffe about Indigenous champion Adam Goodes.

McGuire — Ed, to those who are genuinely close to him — scraped through and continued to dominate footy, radio, television and boardrooms as Melbourne’s most relentless networker.

But now, the morning after he described the shameful findings of the club’s racism inquiry as a ­“historic and proud day”, it seemed the 56-year-old had ­finally run out of time.

Influential figures such as 3AW’s Neil Mitchell and the ­Herald Sun’s Mark Robinson called for him to resign immediately, and not wait until his planned departure as club president at the end of this season, his 23rd running the club.

Heritier Lumumba — the former Collingwood footballer whose complaints of racism, including allegations he was dubbed “chimp” at the club, triggered the inquiry — piled the pressure on.

“Eddie McGuire’s inability to let go of the illusion he’s constructed of himself does not serve the club, the code or the community. It’s a pity his final year looks like it will be marked by yet ­another self-inflicted racism scandal,” Lumumba tweeted.

A few hours later, on radio, he doubled down: “Individuals as leaders, people who are faces of the club, such as Eddie McGuire, are unable to radically transform the way they are viewing, interacting with the history of racism in public and privately, and I think it is absolutely time for them to step down.”

The next few hours would ­determine his fate. He needed support. Big-time support. Would Premier Daniel Andrews, a progressive leader who has led a push to legislate Australia’s first Indigenous treaty, back him?

To help unpack what unfolded next, you need to understand just how the top end of town functions in Melbourne and McGuire’s unique place in this world.

Like most cities, wealth is ­important in determining status in Melbourne, but football is the real currency that buys power and ­influence. And Eddie is the king of this world.

There is no better illustration of this than the AFL’s official grand final lunch. Almost 1000 of the nation’s politicians, including prime ministers, premiers, billionaires, media moguls, and movers and shakers are brought together for the greatest concentration of wealth, ego and influence in the nation. Watching McGuire in this environment is like watching a full forward kick 10 goals. He easily dominates the space around him, with a beaming smile, and an ­intense handshake. He radiates energy. It’s likely he knows and deals with almost everyone in this room during the course of any given year.

Mr Connections

One of the reasons McGuire is so comfortable in this more-than-footy crowd is that he’s been ­astute enough to extend his reach beyond Aussie rules and the media, spending years on the board of the government’s major events committee and even the state library.

“Eddie is very knowledgeable of all things AFL given his involvement in it as a commentator, a journo, a president,” one footy powerbroker reflected. “He probably has the best history of any other person in the game. In terms of knowledge, of all aspects of the sport and off-field matters, he is better than anyone else.”

There’s a classic “Eddie photo” from McGuire’s 30th anniversary in television party — yes, there was a party — in 2012 at the Stoke House in St Kilda. James Packer is on one side, Shane Warne on the other.

There’s little doubt that McGuire is driven by the ­accumulation of wealth and influence. But alongside that is a genuine passion for promoting the Collingwood Football Club, the city of Melbourne, the state of Victoria and many other causes.

He’s an ideas factory and constantly on the move, looking for the next opportunity. At his best, he is inspiring; at his worst, he is arrogant and prone to appalling, insensitive gaffes that leave victims devastated as they’re unwittingly dragged into the eye of a McGuire shit storm.

“One of Eddie’s great strengths is his emotion and passion, and one of his great weaknesses is his emotion and passion,” one football figure and veteran McGuire observer remarked. “He’d give you the shirt off his back. He does a lot for a lot of people. But then you look at what happened on Monday and all the emotion and passion has produced this ‘oh f. k’ moment.”

Collingwood board member and Djap Wurrung/Gunditjmara woman Jodie Sizer was sitting alongside McGuire when he proclaimed the racism report a “historic and proud day”.

Sizer said she had discussed with the president the intent of what they wanted to communicate, including they were proud to have had the courage to commission the report.

“I think the intent was ­removed but we spoke about the intent of what we wanted to communicate and to say,” Sizer told The Weekend Australian.

“I think it was the wrong thing to say and it’s regrettable.”

The dealmaker

Football is big business and McGuire is an asset to the AFL. Depending on who you talk to, McGuire was either pivotal or, at least partially responsible, in convincing the Premier to kick $225m of taxpayers’ funds to the AFL to bankroll its redevelopment of Marvel Stadium, one of the great financial coups pulled off by a sporting organisation in the nation.

Encased within office and residential towers in the Docklands, the stadium is now largely shielded from view from the CBD, but it has well and truly aged quickly. It is a tired-looking 20-year-old structure. The AFL owns it but didn’t want to fund the reno.

Underlining his view of the deal at the time, McGuire hailed the deal: “It has been going for nearly two years, it will be signed in the next 24 hours. It is one of the biggest days in the history of AFL football.”

A footy powerbroker summed McGuire’s role in the deal this way: “I have heard Eddie’s claim that (being pivotal to convincing Andrews) was the case, and I have heard Gil (AFL chief executive Gil McLachlan) play that down. But it is accurate to say he was involved in the negotiations. I think everyone blows their own trumpet when it suits them, and that is particularly the case with Eddie.

“Gil’s working very closely with (Sports Minister Martin) ­Pakula in terms of crowds for this season. Eddie will probably claim some credit … it’s very much a boys club and they all scratch each other’s backs.”

The 35-page Do Better report, commissioned by the club in ­response to the racism claims, had landed in December, and been kept under wraps. Then it was splashed across the front of the Herald Sun on Monday.

It was always going to be impossible to spin the devastating findings, and in attempting the impossible, McGuire got it horribly wrong. By Tuesday morning, seasoned McGuire observers were openly speculating that he may have run out of lives.

Powerful support #1

But then came the reinforcements in the shape of Andrews and McLachlan.

Just after 9am, Andrews, who has spent years cultivating a reputation as the nation’s most progressive leader, backed McGuire in. Big time. While describing the report as a “sad day”, the Premier repeatedly chose not to directly criticise McGuire, instead falling back on his smothering skills by saying he won’t be “running a commentary on every word that’s said by every person”.

Asked whether McGuire should have apologised over the racism on his watch, Andrews said he was “not the arbiter” of whether football club presidents “do a good or a bad job”.

And then came the overt backing. Asked whether McGuire should resign, he said: “I don’t think running away from challenges is leadership, whether it’s in a footy club or any other role … I think you’ve asked me should (McGuire) go, and I’m saying no. That doesn’t make any sense to me. That’s running from a challenge instead of dealing with it.”

The endorsement was motivated by two things: the Premier’s genuine regard for McGuire and a more expedient necessity. In ­defending McGuire, he had used almost identical language to that used to fend off calls for his own resignation over the quarantine hotel fiasco. “Daniel said just a few months ago ‘I will take ­responsibility’ but I’m not resigning,” one observer said.

“So he could hardly turn around and tell Eddie to go. There was an element of self-protection motivating the Premier.”

One football figure described the relationship as part-genuine and part-mutual convenience.

“He (McGuire) works very closely with those who are in ­office, and that in many ways is a very shrewd thing to do,” the figure said. “He (McGuire) would argue that he is conservative in voting but I would doubt that … yes he’s close and I think Daniel also recognises that Eddie has a very large public backing.

“Regardless of what (Andrews) thought about his comments privately, I think it’s just an arrangement made in politics … through mutual convenience.

“There is a value for Daniel in having a good relationship with Eddie. There is no doubt about that. It’s the fact that Eddie is a public figure, Eddie has a lot of irons in the fire, Eddie’s support of Daniel is of value to him in terms of community support.

“Even with this latest hoo-ha, many, many Collingwood fans ­remain locked into Eddie, no matter what he does.”

Powerful support #2

By midday, McLachlan had given McGuire another boost. While critical of his “historic and proud” language, McLachlan left it at that. He said he had spoken to McGuire on Tuesday morning, and he expected his Collingwood president would clarify his comments that day.

Had Andrews and McLachlan supported calls for McGuire to stand down, it’s hard to see how he could have survived.

At 6pm, addressing the club’s AGM, McGuire moved to clean up the mess, apologising for his language, admitting he got it wrong, but recommitting to seeing out his final year.

It was left to ­Collingwood ruckman Brodie Grundy to find the words his president was unable to, when he tweeted: “My sincere and unreserved ­apology to anyone who, through their association with our club, has been marginalised, hurt or discriminated against due to their race.”