Eddie McGuire timeline: The rise and fall of a Collingwood icon

Eddie McGuire’s rise as one of Australia’s most influential media commentators and administrators is a remarkable one – but it was far from smooth.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuires signs autographs as he arrives at the Salvos footy finals lunch in Bourke St headquarters. .Pic: Michael Klein

In the wake of Eddie McGuire standing down from his position at Collingwood, Glenn McFarlane looks at the highs and lows of the polarising figure’s 8140 days as club president.

THE BOY FROM BROADY

Eddie McGuire fell in love before his 5th birthday.

It wasn’t a schoolyard romance on the tough streets of Broadmeadows.

Instead, it was a childhood passion for the Collingwood Football Club and its mop-topped goalkicker Peter McKenna that ultimately grew into an adult obsession.

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Eddie McGuire as a young journalist in 1990.

A young Eddie McGuire with sister Brigette in the paddocks at Broadmeadows.

“The day I got my first guernsey was a special one for me,” McGuire would recall years later. “It was my birthday … I ran in and on my bed was a parcel in brown wrapping and string around it. From that moment on, it was Araldited to my back.

“I ended up putting a plastic No.6 on my back for my hero, Peter McKenna.”

When McKenna left the Pies in the mid 1970s, McGuire cut the No.6 off his jumper and turned it upside down for the No.9 worn by his new hero, Phil Carman.

His first visit to Victoria Park strengthened his connection.

“Coming across from (Victoria Park) station, I took my first look at the ground, and the black and white colours that dominated the (Sherrin) Stand,” he said. “It just got to me. I still get a shiver about it when I think about it today.”

BECOMING PRESIDENT ED

Collingwood was bleeding financially and football-wise in the late 1990s.

McGuire’s media career – which started as a 14-year-old filing through the stats via phone for The Herald on Saturday nights – made him one of the highest-profile journalist-presenters in the country.

But he had a new plan on a miserable day in Round 21, 1998, when old rivals Carlton were trouncing Collingwood.

McGuire in 1998 after becoming Collingwood president.

The front page of the Herald Sun on September 9, 1998.

McGuire looked out of the Triple M commentary box to hear a frustrated Magpie fan yell out: “F--k Collingwood.”

“He wasn’t a fairweather supporter; he was one of us,” McGuire recounted.

“I was thinking ‘I know how you feel mate’.

“This might sound melodramatic, but the AFL was looking to put teams out of business or merge them at the time. I thought if this ever happened to Collingwood, if I hadn’t done anything to help, I would never forgive myself. I thought, ‘if I ever have boys, and they asked me who I barracked for, and I said ‘Collingwood had gone the same way as Fitzroy and University’, I would never forgive myself.”

On the night of his 34th birthday – October 29, 1998 – McGuire was elevated to the presidency in a bloodless coup.

THE EARLY YEARS

Against the odds, Collingwood played off in successive losing Grand Finals in 2002 and 2003 in new coach Mick Malthouse’s third and fourth seasons.

The club’s finances were dragged back from the brink, with a swag of new sponsors and a bold move from Victoria Park to a state-of-the-art Olympic Park base in 2004.

“Ultimately, we’ve been able to have three wonderful pillars of the club,” McGuire said in 2018.

“There’s Victoria Park, which Collingwood did a deal with the federal government for $10m to fix it up. We’ve helped make it a grassroots community centre, and used for (AFLW) games and under-18s/16s games. There’s the Holden Centre which has become the No.1 centre for excellence. Then, there’s the MCG, the best ground in the world to play on with the best facilities for our supporters.”

THE MALTHOUSE-BUCKLEY SUCCESSION

Few off-field moments in Collingwood’s history have caused as much debate and angst as the 2009 coaching succession plan.

McGuire negotiated two more years for Malthouse after 2009, with three as director of coaching. Nathan Buckley was to be assistant for two years before assuming the coaching mantle in 2012.

The only problem was Malthouse changed his mind, quitting after the 2011 Grand Final loss.

McGuire stands by the decision.

McGuire announces that Mick Malthouse will stay on as coach until 2011 before Nathan Buckley takes over.

“People seem to forget the first conversation was with Mick Malthouse’s manager Peter Sidwell,” he said.

“Both of us had Mick’s best interests and his family’s best interests at heart.

“We didn’t air our dirty laundry, which was unusual for a footy club.”

But did it work?

“In some ways, it panned out beautifully,” he argued. “We played in a preliminary final (2009), won a Grand Final (2010), and we were 20 minutes off winning back-to-back flags (in 2011).

“The whole idea was for Mick to stay and bring through (Buckley) — while we still had a good list — who could be coach for the next 10 years.

“We made a preliminary final (under Buckley in 2012). The next year we had shocking injuries but still made the finals.

McGuire walks past his players following the 2018 Grand Final loss.

“We fell out (of contention) after that, but we were in a rebuild. Nathan Buckley acquiesced to the board’s call to cut deep. He did what we knew we had to. So when the time came for Bucks to look for a bit of support, I am glad to say I was there to back him up.”

It almost resulted in a premiership when the Magpies led all day in the 2018 Grand Final against West Coast before being overtaken by a freakish late goal to Dom Sheed which broke the Magpies’ hearts. McGuire might even have relinquished his role then if Collingwood had won that day.

THE RACE CONTROVERSIES

McGuire will forever regret his Adam Goodes King Kong comments of 2013 and his and the club’s inability to reconcile with 2010 premiership star Heritier Lumumba over his treatment at the club.

McGuire said in 2018: “The Adam Goodes thing (in 2013) was something that happened when I was exhausted. If people are going to (criticise) for what was a complete slip of the tongue, that’s not my issue.”

Heritier Lumumba celebrates with McGuire after the 2010 premiership.

McGuire fronts the media after his Adam Goodes comments.

But the damage was done.

Asked about Lumumba’s criticism of the club’s culture, McGuire said last year: “I continually try to reach out to Heritier. In fact, when I was in Los Angeles (in 2019), I tried to find him, because I want to bring him home to give him a life membership at the Collingwood Football Club.”

OFF-FIELD SUCCESSES

McGuire says the club’s philanthropic endeavours have always made him just as proud as the on-field wins.

“In many ways, that’s the reason why I stayed (as president),” he said.

McGuire meets with some homeless people in 2014. Picture: Tony Gough

They come in the form of Magpie Nest Salvation Army Cafe in Melbourne, where in 2018 the aim was to provide more than 4000 meals a week, as well as accommodation for more than 300 homeless people in more than 100 homes.

There are also the Indigenous and community projects, expansion into women’s football, netball, wheelchair teams, and the club’s decision to sell its lucrative pokies.

THE TEARFUL FAREWELL

McGuire has never shied away from a fight, but ultimately he knew this was one he couldn’t win.

The fallout from the club’s independent review into historic racism — which pointed to “systemic racism” over many years — was extremely damaging.

But McGuire’s “proud and historic day for the club” gaffe and failure to apologise at last week’s hastily-arranged press conference after the embarrassing leaking of the Do Better report ramped the pressure up on the president.

He later admitted he had “got it wrong” but it was too late. An open letter from community leaders calling on McGuire to depart immediately was the final straw.

His voice quivering with emotion, McGuire said he had always tried to give his best for Collingwood, and stepping away now was part of that. His wife and two sons were in the room, as was most of the playing group who have known no other president in their time at the club.

“My family feel it a thousand times more than me,” he said. “I am going to take a break for a little while to regroup and heal … the club can build to a new future, with an enormously strong base, the implementation of the Do Better report will make us indeed better.”

Originally published as Eddie McGuire timeline: The rise and fall of a Collingwood icon