Outgoing Collingwood president Eddie McGuire believes the AFL trade period sensationalised the Adam Treloar saga and his club's much-publicised player exodus.
On the same day that McGuire announced he would be stepping down from his post as Magpies president at the end of 2021 after 23 years in the role, he hit out at the extra hysteria trade radio surrounded the Pies with last month.
Treloar (Western Bulldogs) and Jaidyn Stephenson (North Melbourne) were among the names to be dealt from Collingwood in a tumultuous off-season that was met with frustration from fans and members.
Speaking at the annual Collingwood members forum, McGuire explained that trade radio creates a "new dynamic".
“There’s a new dynamic now and it’s trade radio, it’s great for people who love the footy and are following it all the time, great for the media, the AFL, it’s not great for the people involved in it — bad luck,” he said.
“But what also happened was after a month of ‘will Jeremy Cameron get to Geelong?’ there came a new story there that was pretty big, it was a big story and it took off from there.
“The guys were trying to protect confidentiality that was given to different players but also try to do the deal that we needed to get done in difficult circumstances so it was a bit of a perfect storm this year.”
The Pies did last week make good on their desire to add extra stock in this year's draft, landing five picks in the top 31 selections.
