Ex-Collingwood President Eddie McGuire has come in to bat for his former team over the club's list management.
Pressure is building on the Pies following their latest defeat to GWS in a game where they went in red-hot favourites against a winless and injury-savaged Giants.
As it stands, the Pies sit 14th on the AFL ladder with a win-loss record of 1-3 with many pundits preempting a tough season ahead exasperated by a disastrous trade period.
The most notorious storyline coming out the Pies' off-season is the offloading of Adam Treloar to the Western Bulldogs against his will.
It is understood that the Pies are paying $300,000 of Treloar's $900,000 salary over the next five years for the Bulldogs in a desperate plea to dump money out of their salary cap.
Jaidyn Stephenson and Tom Phillips were also forced out of the club to North Melbourne and Hawthorn respectively to ease salary pressure.
But despite all of this, McGuire came to the defence of the Pies and more specifically to the club's list management.
Speaking on Channel Nine's Footy Classified on Wednesday night, McGuire got defensive when journalist Sam McClure proclaimed that Collingwood's list management was a 'debacle'.
Below is the transcript of the heated conversation:
Sam McClure: There are so many other issues at Collingwood that are outside of the control of the senior coach. The fact that their list management has been a debacle since about five years ago, and the fact that they had to...
Eddie McGuire: Hang on, just settle on that. These things that are getting thrown out all the time about a debacle five years ago, this is a team that played in a grand final, a preliminary final, played last year and beat West Coast at home in one of the great wins of all time, fixed up its situation. At the moment, there are 11 clubs who are in a worse situation or as bad going into that situation. Decisions were made. It could have been pushed down or kicked down the road even further.
Sam: No, you kicked it down the road a few times. GWS have put themselves in the same position.
Eddie: But it's not a debacle? How can you say it is a debacle?
Sam: Eddie, you had to trade Adam Treloar, one of your best players.
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Eddie: It wasn't a 'debacle' to get to a grand final and get within a kick of winning it, to get into a preliminary final and get within a kick of getting into a grand final, and winning one of the great finals performances of all time last year.
That's that list. Now it's a new one. Now you can have a look from this year going forward. It's not a debacle. That's a throwaway line. I just get sick of people just making things up and just saying stupid things.
Sam: What am I making up?
Eddie: How is it a debacle when we've played in a grand final, a preliminary final and won a final?
Sam: You're taking it as too much of a negative?
Eddie: Too much of a negative? You just said the place was a debacle! How would I take it?
Sam: You got within a kick of a grand final, you doubled down on your list, it didn't work. Now you're trying to build your way through it.
Eddie: Is winning the premiership the only matrix of a season being successful?
Sam: You got close in 2019-
Eddie: You reckon last year wasn't a successful season for Collingwood? Going to Perth with all the things that went against the club, with injuries and the draw and everything else.
Sam: It was a tremendous win.
Eddie: You don't stand there going, 'That wasn't a bad year, we got through that. We were a bit stiff and we might have done better'?
Sam: I didn't say the club was a debacle, I said the list management was.
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Eddie: Well, I disagree. I think the list management got us into those positions. I'll say it again, what happened was, a lot of players wanted to stay at Collingwood. A lot of players at other clubs were running out down the road.
He had one bad press conference, so did I and I'm not there anymore, that's how they do things these days.
Ned Guy was doing what he was told to do. He was told by the board to get it sorted out and he and Geoff Walsh got stuck into it and did it. It wasn't pretty in the end, but you know what, there's been plenty of other times when players have walked out of a club.
I'll cop that it's untidy and at the moment they need to win a game this weekend. I'm jack of people saying about 'debacle' and 'carry on'.
I'll tell you what it was, it's trade radio whipping things into a frenzy. By day 10, when you've asked how many times if Jeremy Cameron is going down, this was a good sexy story.
Sam: You can't blame the media, Eddie.
Eddie: I'm telling you what I thin. I'm not blaming the media, it's what happened.
Sam: But you said it was trade radio?
Eddie: I said it was whipped up into a frenzy. These things happen in football all the time.
Sam: I completely agree, and I said it happened to GWS.
"It's not a debacle, how can you say it was a debacle?"
Eddie McGuire has taken exception to @sam_mcclure criticising Collingwood's recent list management decisions.#9FootyClassified | Watch @channel9 pic.twitter.com/dZomVNncGL
— Footy on Nine (@FootyonNine) April 14, 2021
