The bitter war of words between a highly-respected ex-Swans boss and the controversial Eddie McGuire has continued, with the former saying he has ‘had a gutful’ of the media kingpin’s ‘rubbish’.
Richard Colless, a hugely successful businessman and the league’s longest-serving chairman before he retired from Sydney, is one of the few football figures who have continually stood up to the ex-Collingwood president, who he describes as a ‘bully’.
Colless has grown tired of McGuire’s continual criticism of the Swans, the previous cost-of-living allowance (COLA) the Sydney sides received and the club’s Indigenous players.
He lashed McGuire’s comments on radio and television about Adam Goodes and Lance Franklin, after the media icon once again accused the Swans of ‘rorting’ the now-defunct COLA, and then blamed the club for not having enough forethought to avoid Franklin being booed by Pies supporters on the weekend.
The controversial Collingwood figure has long struggled to understand why teams in Sydney – the 10th-most expensive city in the world to live in, according to the World Economic Forum – ever received the COLA.
Indigenous footy legend Adam Goodes (pictured) has often found himself the subject of a McGuire rant – and an ex-Swans boss has had enough
Ex-Swans chair Richard Colless (left) and then-Collingwood president Eddie McGuire (right), pictured in 2003, have had a bitter war of words over the previous cost-of-living allowance (COLA) helping Sydney clubs
McGuire has once again attacked Swans star Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin, pictured playing in the club’s Indigenous guernsey in Sir Doug Nicholls Round last year, saying the club ‘rorted’ the COLA in order to give the superstar forward more ‘cleaners and maids’
Intended to help draftees and recruits with a pro-rata payment (based on their salary) given the sky-high property and rental prices, McGuire has once against accused the Swans on ‘rorting’ it in order to attract Franklin.
‘I was happy for it (COLA) and supportive … but I turned,’ he said on Channel Nine show Footy Classified.
‘I’ll tell you why, it ended up being how many cleaners or housemaids Buddy Franklin had.
‘I’m happy for the young players who haven’t got the money to pay, but not getting the extra for somebody on over a million dollars.
‘Don’t rort it and you’ll survive.’
Colless was incredulous McGuire would reignite the war of words and was scathing of the fact his rival once again targeted Goodes and Franklin.
‘He’s got form, talking about our Indigenous players. He’s got form using the term rort,’ he told News Corp.
‘But he’s also got form because he is a bully. He says he won’t accept rubbish. I have had a gutful. I won’t accept his rubbish.
‘I find that absolutely offensive and it has got a strangely familiar ring to the “Goodesy” comments.
McGuire was a central figure in the series of events that eventually led to Goodes leaving the game and being so dismayed that he even refused an offer to be inducted into the AFL’s Hall of Fame.
In 2013, the Indigenous Swans legend was effectively bullied into retirement when he was subjected to booing every game he played after pointing out a 13-year-old Collingwood fan in the crowd who called him an ape.
Shockingly, on radio, McGuire then suggested a King Kong musical could use Goodes in its promotion, and insisted he ‘wasn’t racially vilifying anyone’ when he was slammed for it.
Adam Goodes pointed out a young Collingwood fan to security in 2013 after she directed a racial slur at him. What unfolded next essentially finished his career
A Collingwood fan boos Goodes in 2015, with the Indigenous great eventually forced into retirement over the affair
At the time, Colless was furious vocally supported his player, even saying he was ‘ashamed of sport’ for not supporting Goodes more.
His fury continues today, slamming McGuire’s lack of education around what COLA even was as he accused him of ‘demonising’ the term in the footy world.
‘The stupidity of it. I would ask him the question, do you even know how it (COLA) works?’ he said.
‘It is a pro-rata thing. If Buddy is on X and someone else is on Y, they all got it (COLA). It is the same percentage uplift (for every player). There was no Buddy-type slush-fund.’
McGuire used the fact the Bulldogs and Demons have since won premierships as bizarre evidence that removing COLA was the right thing to do.
McGuire claimed Sydney ‘rorted the COLA’ so Lance Franklin could have ‘more cleaners and housemaids’
Goodes (left) and Ryan O’Keefe celebrate winning the 2012 grand final against the Hawks
‘I’ll tell you what it (removing COLA) led to, it led to the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne having a chance at winning a flag because equalisation came in and the clubs who you say are vocal were the ones who signed off and came up with the idea to keep everyone going,’ the ex-Collingwood president said.
‘I’m not going to cop this rubbish anymore, I’m not the president anymore I’ll tell you straight what happened. You overbaked the cake and in the end you burnt it.
The take didn’t sit with Colless, who suggested it was hypocritical.
‘If there is a club which has done well out of an element of the competition where there isn’t equalisation, then it is Collingwood,’ he said.
‘A lot of people are absolutely sick of Eddie’s self-serving approach, and I’m sick of defending him up here (in Sydney).’
It comes as Franklin was booed every time he went near the ball during Sydney’s loss to Collingwood at the MCG on Sunday, which reminded many in the footy industry of Goodes’ treatment, which started with the Magpies as well.
McGuire said the whole situation could have been avoided had the Swans not got stuck into Magpies star Nick Daicos, or had honoured their own legend by organising a guard of honour.
His remarks came despite the fact Franklin has not announced his retirement and there’s still a finals series to play – one in which the talented Swans are tipped to feature.
Swans superstar Lance Franklin was booed everytime he went near the ball in his side’s loss to Collingwood at the MCG on Sunday
Eddie McGuire believes the Swans and AFL could have avoided the booing controversy
‘In hindsight, it would have been good, and I’m not victim-blaming them, but it would have been nice for the Sydney Swans or the AFL to acknowledge this could have been one of his last games at the MCG, and certainly his last game against Collingwood, for example,’ McGuire said on the Eddie and Jimmy Podcast.
‘And then you can have to to-ing and fro-ing on the field, and then you line up and you pay homage to one of the greats of the game.
‘That sort of thing, a little bit of forward thinking, could have averted it [the booing].
‘You go back to what swung the crowd – 72,000 people, what do you do in that situation when you’re the opposition side and you come to the MCG and Shape Kapseln Höhle der Löwen the Pies have got the place all to themselves?
‘You want to shut the crowd up, get on top of them early … kick the early goals and rough up Nick Daicos, the golden child.
‘This is not squaring up saying “Sydney said this and Collingwood are saying this”, but … it was the ultimate form of bullying.’
Sydney
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