As Collingwood looks to rebuild from the ashes of its worst year in memory, club director Paul Licuria has opened up about the moment he knew the club was in trouble, why he’ll always see Nathan Buckley as his captain, and his long relationship with Eddie McGuire. Read part two of Glenn McFarlane and Michael Warner’s feature of the demise of the Pies.
Paul Licuria HAS shed blood and tears for Collingwood.
As a warrior in black and white, the dual Copeland Trophy winner gave his all for the club.
His emotional post-game embrace with coach Mick Malthouse in the aftermath of the club’s heartbreaking 2002 Grand Final loss is a part of Magpies’ folklore.
He has felt pain, too, in recent months in his role as a Collingwood director.
But it was repeated claims by a senior journalist that he had “turned on” Eddie McGuire in the weeks before the long-time president’s shock resignation in February that cut him to his core.
Not only was it blatantly wrong, he says, but damaging to a relationship dating back almost a quarter of a century.
■READ PART ONE OF WHO KILLED COLLINGWOOD HERE
“That really affected me,” Licuria tells the Herald Sun.
“What really offended me is that I have a 25-year relationship with Ed … not only Ed, but (McGuire’s wife) Carla and the boys, and I was really hurt by that.
How can someone come out and say that without understanding what happened? It caused a fair bit of grief in my family … with my kids, it got spoken about at school.
“I have got the utmost respect for Eddie. We wouldn’t have enough time to go through everything with Ed, in terms of how good he has been for the footy club. We know he made significant changes.
“He helped me be a better player and a better person post-footy.”
Minutes before McGuire shocked the football world by stepping down from his role, Licuria picked up the phone in a desperate attempt to change his mind.
“When I got wind of it, I rang Ed because no one knew (he was about to quit), I rang him 15 minutes beforehand and literally begged him not to do it,” Licuria explains.
“I know (club director) Peter Murphy’s name has been dragged through the mud as well … we just want the best for the footy club.”
Licuria has since assured McGuire he did not betray him.
“It just hurt me because I am not that type of person and I know Pete Murphy is not that type of person. It is a real shame,” he said.
“I think those comments in a way fractured our relationship, which is really sad.”
McGuire’s departure set in course a chain of events and resignations that have rocked the nation’s most talked-about football club.
Licuria, 43, is one of seven Magpies’ directors facing a challenge led by McGuire’s old friend, former Channel 9 boss Jeff Browne.
New president Mark Korda had barely put his feet under the desk before the Browne forces were plotting to take over the club.
Public endorsements in favour of Browne from Peter Moore and Craig Kelly – two past greats and the fathers of current Collingwood players – raised the stakes.
BUCKS IS STILL MY SKIPPER
THE DRAMA INTENSIFIED LAST Wednesday with the announcement that favourite son and 10-season senior coach Nathan Buckley would leave the club after Monday’s Queen’s Birthday clash with Melbourne.
Licuria says while there was a feeling of sadness surrounding Buckley’s departure, there was an accompanying sense of gratitude for his extraordinary almost-three decade commitment to the Collingwood Football Club.
Buckley had been Licuria’s skipper and mentor in all of his nine celebrated seasons in black and white.
“It has been tough, (because) Bucks, to me, is still my skipper, my captain,” Licuria says.
“It still feels that way, he is an absolute gentleman, the way he spoke the other day was incredible.
“Throughout the whole process he kept saying, ‘(let’s do) what’s best for the club first, and then me’.
“It was hard when you see a mate go through what he has gone through.
“Bucks is Collingwood …
“That decision was made between him and the club, and he wasn’t sure he could commit to what we needed – two to five years.
“For him, it was a case of what’s best for the club … the club and the players are his priority
It was a bit like Ed’s departure. Whenever he was going to leave, it was going to be tough. I think with Nathan, I am really comfortable with it because I know how comfortable he is.
“He is a mate and you want to make sure he is OK.”
Licuria and Korda attended the Buckley press conference – off camera. He says the club felt it was more appropriate that CEO Mark Anderson and general manager of football Graham Wright accompanied the coach at the Zoom press conference.
“Mark (Korda) was three metres away from him (Buckley),” Licuria says.
“He was there to support Bucks, and he was a part of the process, but we honestly didn’t believe Mark needed to be (at the press conference).”
As the club’s football director, Licuria will form part of a panel to select Buckley’s replacement, alongside Murphy, Anderson, Wright and a fifth member to be named soon.
He has promised one of the most exhaustive searches for a new coach in the club’s history, mindful that the regeneration of the playing list – fast-tracked after last year’s semi-final flogging at the hands of Geelong and the club’s salary cap squeeze – requires the right man.
CATS OUT OF THE BAG
LICURIA WATCHED THE CATS game from his home back in Melbourne last October.
He knew it would prove a tipping point for change.
“After the Geelong result, we were like, ‘Let’s be really honest with ourselves … some tough decisions are going to have to be made,” he says.
“I do believe that was a little bit of a turning point where we were like, ‘OK, we need to look at a few different areas’.
“We had an issue with the salary cap, and it was one that we had to resolve because up until last year we haven’t been able to play in the free agency space. We would have liked to have had a Tom Lynch or a Jeremy Cameron, so that became a priority for us.
We needed to re-energise and regenerate this team, hence we went hard at the draft. As much as our core senior players have been fantastic and you would love them to play forever, but the fact of the matter is they are not going to.
Collingwood went on to trade 2018 Grand Final players Adam Treloar, Jaidyn Stephenson and Tom Phillips to provide some much-needed salary cap relief and tried to secure a better draft hand as a result.
He concedes the communication of the club’s plan could have been handled better with the members.
“We acknowledged it wasn’t handled as well as it could have been and we learnt a lot out of it,” he says.
“It was a real trigger that we needed to create some (cap) space. For us to be a consistently top four side, we have got to be playing in that free agency space.”
The club’s salary cap remains relatively tight heading into the end of this year, but Licuria says the acquisition of Wright to the role has already paid dividends and he hopes that will allow the Magpies to attack the free agency market with more venom in the coming years.
BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
COLLINGWOOD PREMIERSHIP HERO Mick McGuane believes the club can rebound a little quicker than most pundits have predicted, particularly if they can secure the right coach.
“They need to choose the best available coach,” McGuane says.
“They should search far and wide. They haven’t had to do that for a long time because of the stability the club has had.
“They had Leigh Matthews for 10 seasons – they gave ‘Shawry’ (Tony Shaw) an opportunity as a favourite son, a captain and a revered figure.
“Then there was the big coup of getting Mick Malthouse followed by another favourite son in Nathan Buckley, who was given a chance based on his credentials.
“Those names are synonymous with Collingwood. Now they have got to surf the net and see what is out there and go hard at the right person.”
McGuane says the Pies ‘don’t bat as deep as the good sides such as Richmond’, partly because of the club’s salary cap calamity.
“They lost core players through the mismanagement of their salary cap – Treloar, Phillips and Stephenson.
The kids have played quicker than they normally would have played. But playing seven debutants will stand them in good stead for the future.
“They need to keep moving forward as ‘Pendles’ (Scott Pendlebury) and ‘Sidey’ (Steele Sidebottom) are not going to be there forever.
“Jamie (Elliott) has a history of having issues with his legs, as has Jordy (De Goey), but we know how good they can be.
“Jeremy Howe has been a bit unfortunate with injuries in recent years, but he is really important to their back half.”
While the list regeneration is well underway and the search for a new coach starts after Monday’s game, the complicating off-field factor is a looming board challenge, with Browne seeking to put together a seven-person ticket to challenge.
The club hasn’t had an election this century, but that seems certain to change.
Collingwood has been here before.
Bitter boardroom battles have divided the club on several occasions in the past, sometimes with friendships destroyed along voting lines.
Licuria says he hasn’t spent a lot of time worrying about the prospect of a board challenge, saying he has been focused on the reason he took on the job in the first place.
“My main reason for joining the board was to help our athletes – men and women – to leave better people, whether they are here for five years or two or ten,” he says.
“That’s what has helped get me through this.”
SIDE BY SIDE
LICURIA MAINTAINS THE CURRENT board is ‘100 per cent united’, having been a part of a pledge to reject Browne’s quest for four seats on a blended board.
But Licuria, who was a great communicator as a player, says: “I will happily sit down and talk to anyone who thinks we can do better at the club.”
Behind the scenes several prominent Collingwood identities are working towards trying to bring the two warring factions together in the hope of reaching a compromised peace.
Licuria bristles at the criticism of the current board, saying: “We are a united board.”
There has been a lot of change in the past three years. We have had five new board members in (recent years); we will have a new coach, a new president, a new GM of footy, a new CEO, a new CFO … There is a lot going on.
“I personally believe that it is all the (outside) noise causing disruption, not the board.”
One thing he intends to work on is re-establishing his relationship with McGuire.
Asked if it is repairable, he says: “100 per cent it is …
“For me, and my fellow ex-teammates would say the same, the best thing we have had at Collingwood and through football is our friendships. ”
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