Israel Folau, Nick Kyrgios, Eddie McGuire shoot own feet again

Eddie McGuire, Nick Kyrgios and Israel Folau all found themselves in the headlines for different reasons over the past few days. Picture: Supplied/AFP

Eddie McGuire, Israel Folau and Nick Kyrgios walk into a bar …

Or a yarn. You can put them on a pedestal for sticking to their guns or place them in a punchline for their spectacular collective knack of using those guns to shoot themselves in both feet.

When Eddie McGuire had the chance to say bon voyage to Nathan Buckley and his buddy, Brenton Sanderson, he went missing.

Let’s start with McGuire and the bleeding obvious. His fondness for telling other AFL clubs how to conduct their business while failing to do it himself in the aftermath of Nathan Buckley and Alicia Molik opening a can of worms, let alone a tin of new balls, for the most controversial tennis match since Bobby Riggs had a hit with Billie Jean King.

McGuire last week came out with all pistols blazing on the subject of COVID-19 protocol breaches, saying guilty individuals should pay their own fines and then be plonked on the first plane home. Hear, hear. Eddie’s an ideas man, no joke.

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But when McGuire had the chance to say bon voyage to Buckley and his buddy, Brenton Sanderson, for their doubles date against Molik and an unnamed fourth individual, now the most mysterious figure in tennis since Alice Marble, the Collingwood chief has gone missing for 24 hours before trying to talk his way out of it. Bang, bang. Both feet.

Let’s put McGuire in his own game show. His own Hot Seat. Righto, Eddie from Melbourne! For $50,000 fine, your response to the regrettable actions of Buckley and Sanderson has been a) consistent b) not very consistent c) not remotely consistent or d) comically hypocritical. We’ll give you a hint. It’s not a, b or c.

These are actual excuses Eddie McGuire has used in the past. I reckon he'll give something like C another try this time. Lock it in, Eddie! pic.twitter.com/9IHYJpaVEv

— Hawk Talk Podcast (@HawkTalkPod) August 1, 2020

Eddie McGuire: Any non-Collingwood player of official caught breaching protocols should be sent home immediately.

— Titus O'Reily (@TitusOReily) August 1, 2020

Buckley and Sanderson have coughed up the $25,000 fine but there’s been no one-way ticket home from the club boss advocating such a sanction.

McGuire finally broke his silence on Monday to say he’d been “completely misconstrued as usual”.

Said McGuire: “When you’re the president of a football club, you actually have a say as opposed to those in the media who can have a go from the sidelines. You’re actually involved in the conversations. Let me just clear this up once and for all – my position going into the COVID-19 in society and very much in the AFL football world … we had to be very careful. I have Gillon McLachlan, I have Richard Goyder. I sit on these committees and I hear first hand what goes on and how we have to go about it. When I’m asked my opinion, I give my opinion. My opinion has been that we needed to go very hard as far as what the sanctions would be and that people had to have personal responsibility.”

Said McGuire: “I would’ve been far tougher in society on people who transgressed and I would’ve been far tougher on people in the AFL society who transgressed. The AFL then said no, we will do these things and these are the sanction penalties, and now I support them 100 per cent. Clearly people want to change things around, they want to say that I said this and Buckley should’ve been sacked … no, I’ve said it from the word go, my position has been absolutely consistent. The AFL have taken a different path and here we are, simple as that.”

Pedestal or punchline? It’s a nice little loophole for McGuire to wriggle through, saying it’s for the AFL to act, not him. But the bottom line is this. McGuire is the boss of the club. He could have sent Buckley and Sanderson on their way. Even for one match. See you at the next game, that would have sent an exemplary message. Without that, he’s a walking, talking punchline.

Buckley has admitted to a lack of due diligence, adding: “I don’t have a leg to stand on.”

Which brings us to Folau. Bang, bang. Both feet. He’s found two legs to stand on when the rest of the sporting world is taking a knee for the Black Lives Matter movement. Folau, of Tongan heritage, has been one of the few athletes in world sport to have refused to join the displays of solidarity.

Israel Folau stands up during the moment of reflection

NRL players, AFL players, NBA players, EPL players, all players from all walks of life have taken a knee in response to the worldwide reaction to the death of George Floyd. But not Folau, standing on his own before Catalans’ Super League match at Headingley. Quite a different approach to the issues of racism and social justice to, say, Patty Mills, who’s donating his entire NBA salary to the causes.

Says Folau’s coach, Steve McNamara: "As a group of players and coaching staff, we spoke about it in depth and, as a club, we are completely against racism and all for equal opportunity. But there were some players and staff who made the decision not to take the knee. That was based on personal choice, they have their own reasons for doing that, and we decided we would respect anyone's personal choice on the matter.”

Curiously, the NBA coach at San Antonio, Gregg Popovich, has declined to kneel alongside Mills, wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt but standing bolt upright during the US anthem.

Asked why, Popovic has said: “I'd prefer to keep that to myself. Everybody has to make a personal decision. The league's been great about that; everybody has the freedom to react any way they want. For whatever reasons I have, I reacted the way I wanted to.”

Gregg Popovich and Becky Hammon are the only two people on the court standing. pic.twitter.com/Zz2XWCKGkm

— Evan Closky (@EvanClosky) August 1, 2020

The obvious inference for from failing to take a knee is that you think black lives don’t matter. That you’re not supporting those most passionate about it. That you’re thumbing your nose at Floyd and every other victim of police brutality. But Popovic is a long-time proponent of racial equality. If there’s another side to taking a knee, a downside, I’m all ears to hearing it from him or Folau or anyone else. The silence from Folau helps no cause, least of all his own. Go Fund Me? He keeps giving people reason to think, mate, go fund yourself.

We’ve heard a lot from Kyrgios lately. On skipping the US Open, he says: “I’m sitting out for the people, my Aussies, for the hundreds and thousands of American people who have lost their lives. For all of you.”

Those are noble words, but a bit nonsensical. Few Australians care too much if he plays in New York or not. He may just as easily have done a good deed by playing FOR those suffering.

He’s sledged an assortment of peers: “You can't be dancing on tables, money grabbing your way around Europe, trying to make a quick buck hosting an exhibition. That's just so selfish. Think of all the other people for once.”

Which may be right, but as McGuire has shown, preaching from a shaky pulpit can come back and bite you. When Kyrgios returns to the tour, he will be inviting a pile-on of McGuire-scale, Folau-esque proportions if he returns to his juvenile on-court behaviour. My prediction? Bang, bang. Both feet.