Fox Footy and Eddie McGuire part ways and ex-Magpies president’s calling days

While he has his detractors after an at-times controversial career in the media and as Collingwood president, it would be a shame if Eddie McGuire was lost to football, writes Mark Robinson.

Eddie Everywhere might now be Eddie Hardly Anywhere.

The decision by Fox Footy and Eddie McGuire to part ways is likely to be the end of a calling career that began in the mid 1980s, when McGuire first called Division Two football for Channel 10 in the now defunct VFA.

Off and on since then, he called footy for Channel 9, Triple M and Fox Footy in a career which spanned 35 years.

Love him or hate him, it is a colossal contribution to the airwaves.

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Eddie McGuire’s media career spanned 35 years.

At one stage only Rex Hunt was a bigger name in the media game, although the ever competitive McGuire would probably dispute that.

When you remember the might of The Footy Show, which McGuire hosted, he has fair argument.

At 57, however, the unthinkable has happened.

McGuire will be without a senior media gig in 2022, which is a sobering reality for a man who has had a “big’’ two years in football.

He will continue his hosting gig on Footy Classified on Wednesday nights, but that’s hardly centre stage because of its late-night timeslot.

In the space of those two years, McGuire, who famously found headlines and infamously made headlines, will have ended his morning radio gig on Triple M, his Collingwood presidency and now his calling and hosting duties at Fox Footy.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Certainly, it’s hard to believe these would be purely McGuire decisions.

Outside of family, McGuire’s first love was Collingwood and he was forced to resign.

His next love was calling footy and it beggars belief McGuire would voluntarily hand in his microphone.

Eddie McGuire has always had a big say on Melbourne’s future. Picture: David Caird

He’s a mover and shaker in this city, a powerful businessman with contacts the world over, but deep down he is man who loved the cut and thrust of calling a game of footy.

He wore that as a badge of honour.

Forget the spin, if you know McGuire you know he would be gutted it’s over.

How did it get to this?

McGuire’s response to the Do Better Report and the subsequent outrage from leading indigenous people prompted his departure from the Magpies at the start of 2021.

You have to wonder if the same circumstances helped prompt his departure from Fox Footy because, it could be argued, the lustre which once shrouded the McGuire name has been tarnished in the past 12 months.

His detractors would argue it was forever tarnished when he made the quip about Adam Goodes and King Kong.

That happened in 2013, almost a decade ago, when the AFL did not punish McGuire as one of its 18 club presidents.

Certainly, the recruitment of Nathan Buckley to Fox Footy would’ve squeezed the salary cap and McGuire unquestionably was footy media’s highest earner for two and half decades and certainly was the highest-paid talent at Fox Footy.

How the worm turns. In 2011, McGuire oversaw the transition of Mick Malthouse for Buckley and now it’s McGuire’s turn to move aside for Buckley.

So, what’s next?

Eddie McGuire and Sam Newman at the Grand Final Footy Show 2018.

People such as Eddie McGuire — who runs his booming Jam TV media business — should never be lost to the game despite his ability to sometimes kick himself in the head.

In fact, he’s been touted as an AFL Commissioner by new Collingwood president Jeff Browne.

“Eddie’s a big thinker, has genuine passion for the game and knows first-hand the pressures and demands of clubs,’’ Browne told the Herald Sun in November last year.

“That’s the kind of knowledge and motivation we need at the very top.”

AFL chiefs Gillon McLachlan and Richard Goyder might agree, but good luck appeasing those same indigenous people who turned the heat up on McGuire 12 months ago.

Put it another way, what would Adam Goodes — and every indigenous player — think? Goodes rejected entry into the Hall of Fame last year, such is his disenchantment with the AFL.

An AFL push to manage McGuire on to the Commission would be a political bomb.

No, that’s not on the horizon.

At Fox, Garry Lyon is expected to fill the Friday night hosting chair, while Jason Dunstall and Sarah Jones will host the weekend’s coverage.

Clearly, it is a bold call for Fox and McGuire to part ways and some fans will be stunned. Just as some fans were stunned when it was announced Channel 7 was replacing Wayne Carey with Daisy Pearce as special comments person on Friday night footy.

Be stunned all you like, but the landscape has changed.

The world is woke and Carey and McGuire, two of the biggest names in the game, don’t have the same TV cache as they once held.

As always, the times they are a changing.

Originally published as Fox Footy and Eddie McGuire part ways and ex-Magpies president’s calling days