‘Nasty bastard’: Eddie McGuire in fiery radio spat with Neil Mitchell

Eddie McGuire and a high profile radio identity have traded barbs in a heated radio segment that threatened to boil over.

Eddie McGuire and radio host Neil Mitchell have traded verbal barbs in a heated radio segment that got out of hand on Thursday.

McGuire accused Mitchell of inviting him on his 3AW breakfast radio show under false pretence before their war of words got nasty.

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The simmering tensions between the pair erupted again this week when they ended up on different sides on the public debate surrounding the punishment given to AFL star Jordan De Goey.

De Goey was on Tuesday handed a suspended $25,000 fine by Collingwood and the club “condemned” his behaviour as seen in footage that emerged last week on social media.

De Goey has also apologised for his conduct towards a female friend during the incident in a Bali nightclub during his mid-season getaway.

It came as De Goey revealed he had recently been diagnosed with ADHD and said he believes it was a potential factor in the “mistake” he made.

Eddie McGuire has left Collingwood. Photo by Mackenzie Sweetnam/Getty Images.

De Goey has been granted personal leave by the club.

He has also reportedly had a $3.2 million contract offer taken off the table.

Mitchell was one of several media commentators on Wednesday to criticise any suggestion that De Goey’s ADHD diagnosed excused his behaviour.

Mitchell said on Wednesday “it can’t be a go-to for every AFL player in trouble to say ‘oh dear, I’ve got this mental health condition’,” he said.

“How does ADHD turn you into a misogynistic, anti-social Bali boofhead?”

McGuire hit back on his Channel 9 football show on Wednesday night by saying Mitchell had “made mockery of his mental health condition today”.

The pair then faced off on Mitchell’s show on Thursday morning and it produced almost half an hour of prickly radio.

Caroline Wilson also said she has had a “gutful” of athletes blaming mental health.

The pair quickly lost their cool when it came to the debate surrounding De Goey’s conduct.

“You got into a person who came out and declared he had a mental health condition that he’s being treated for for a long time,” McGuire said.

“(I gave) the most benign of critiques last night but you’re happy to come on here when you know a kid’s got mental health issues.

“You know the media does this, the pile-ons, you know there have been people who have committed suicide on the back of people just kicking the hell out of them too far in these situations.”

McGuire, who was Collingwood president from 1998 until 2021, said he came on the show to “discuss where the media takes us and then criticises people”.

“We were trying to work out, how does this guy get himself into trouble? I’m not defending him,” he said.

McGuire appeared to suggest Mitchell was out of touch with “TikTok” as a “70-year-old person”.

Mitchell responded tersely: “Geez you’re a nasty bastard sometimes. You really are.”

Neil Mitchell in studio. Photo: Stuart McEvoy for The Australian.

He said he “will not accept” any suggestion from McGuire he was “mocking mental health”.

He also said he “will not accept that I have lied to you”.

Mitchell told McGuire that he simply “doesn’t understand the media anymore”.

“One thing I’ve got in my life is my reputation. I’m not a liar. I’ve got a right to defend my integrity,” he said.

“You accused me of mocking mental health and I’m not.”

Mitchell said McGuire had his own long history of lambasting public figures through media commentary.

“Remember this is the same Eddie who called Adam Goodes ‘King Kong’ and wanted to drown Caroline Wilson at the Big Freeze,” he said.

“To paraphrase Julia Gillard, I will not be lectured on decency by this man.

“I would normally ignore a massive sledge I copped from Eddie McGuire on TV last night but I can’t ignore it.”

McGuire hit back by saying Mitchell had himself driven a list of people he wouldn’t name to “very dark places”.

The Bali incident is 26-year-old De Goey’s latest in a years-long string of scandals.

In 2017, De Goey broke his hand during an incident in a St Kilda bar and initially lied to the club, telling officials he injured it while playing with his dog.

A year later he was suspended by Collingwood after being caught drink-driving and fined $10,000.

In July 2020, De Goey and another man were charged by Victoria Police with indecent assault, stemming from an incident that was alleged to have taken place with a woman in 2015.

However, the prosecutors withdrew the charge laid against both men the following year and agreed to pay De Goey’s legal costs.

In October 2021, De Goey was arrested at a nightclub in New York City and charged with forcible touching of a 35-year-old woman and the assault of a 37-year-old man.

The charge of forcible touching was dropped and he was offered a plea bargain to downgrade the remaining assault charge to second-degree harassment in January 2022.

— with NCA NewsWire

Originally published as ‘Nasty bastard’: Eddie McGuire in fiery radio spat with Neil Mitchell