Collingwood president Eddie McGuire says he is not going anywhere, following calls for the long-time Pies head honcho to call it quits after another disappointing season.
With Collingwood set to miss out on the finals once again, coach Nathan Buckley's job is on a knife's edge and on Wednesday morning, there were calls from Herald Sun chief reporter Mark Robinson that McGuire should also be out the door if Buckley goes at the end of the season.
McGuire, who has been president of the club since 1998, was the man who orchestrated the succession plan involving Mick Malthouse and Nathan Buckley.
Speaking on his radio program, Triple M's Hot Breakfast, McGuire hit back at suggestions he should quit his role at the Pies.
"The only people I have to answer to are the Collingwood members, who voted me in unanimously for another three years," McGuire said.
"To be perfectly honest I'm in the most exciting phase of my career of what I'm doing at Collingwood and in football. There's a lot of things going on up at the adults table that are going to shape the face of football for the next 25 years and it's all great.
“I think I've made it clear at Collingwood that we realise there are things that we need to do because the whole business model has changed. Our performances on the field haven’t been good enough and as a result of that two months ago we instigated a blueprint for the future.
“We’ve come out and said we are going to look at the coaching situation and everything in the football department. That is happening at the moment and we’ll have an announcement and a decision when we get through the whole season - that is fair a reasonable.
"If I thought I was going half rat-power I'd be first out the door because I don't get paid for this."
McGuire also defended his succession plan, claiming it has not failed.
"Can I state for the record the success plan happened in 2008-09 then we played in a preliminary final, premiership, Grand Final, preliminary final, final," he said.
"The whole idea was to get Bucks a team on the up."
The 52-year-old also took aim at Robinson, suggesting he needs to contact the Magpies on a more regular basis to gain a clearer picture of the goings on at the club.
“Mark hasn’t spoken to me other than to ring up to apologise for his tweet about Alex Fasolo in I reckon two years. He hasn’t spoken to me since writing that story in round one last year about Collingwood having a drug problem which he just guessed at the numbers," McGuire added.
“That is not a backhanded sledge. He’s the chief football writer for the Herald Sun. He works with me at Fox Footy - we don’t cross paths with each other. But he should be coming down and talking to us and having a relationship with us.
“He doesn’t know what I’m doing behind the scenes. I’m not trying to gild the lily here. I’m actually in the most exciting phase of my career, what I’m doing at Collingwood."
The Magpies are currently 15th on the ladder, with six wins and 10 losses.
Collingwood last made the finals in 2013 and have finished 11th (11 wins), 12th (10 wins) and 12th (nine wins) in the past three seasons.
