Well, here we are again, people. Just one step away from the big dance. Welcome to the Game Day thread for the 1st Preliminary Final. Standing in our way of a date with destiny, and the Richmond Football Club, is the franchise operation from out in Sydney’s western suburbs, the Greater Western Sydney Giants. Depleted, but still dangerous.
The teams:
Tip: Oh, I’m hopeless at this. On one hand, when I tip against us, we often win. On the other hand, when I tip for us, we often lose. Every rule has it’s exception, though, so here goes… Collingwood by 19 points.
Over to you…
Everything negative about Fat Eddie and why he is a boil on the CFC is on display in this article today in the Herald Sun, RFCM.
Eddie McGuire claims waning interest of athletics is due to drug cheating after Tamsyn Manou calls out McGuire over his conflict of interest
Dan Batten, Herald Sun
May 27, 2020 9:57am
Subscriber only
Eddie McGuire has delivered a vehement response to Olympian Tamsyn Manou, insinuating that the waning interest in athletics is a result of “systematic drug cheating” and poor governance.
Manou told the Herald Sun on Monday that McGuire had a conflict of interest during Collingwood’s controversial takeover of Olympic Park in 2008.
McGuire was a member of the Athletics Australia board, the governing body for Athletics Victoria, and Collingwood president at the time.
She said part of the reason she is watching her sport “slowly die” is because of their move to Lakeside Oval in Albert Park.
“As a track and field athlete and somebody who is watching our sport slowly die, I know that part of the problem is that we don’t have Olympic Park anymore,” she said.
While McGuire was complimentary of Manou’s competitiveness on the track, he took aim at the supposed foul play in athletics in a brutal takedown.
“Tamsyn Manou had a crack yesterday – fair dinkum,” McGuire said on Triple M’s Hot Breakfast.
“Yes, the demise of athletics as a sport is because they’re not at Olympic Park anymore. Nothing to do with systematic drug cheating throughout the whole industry over the last 25 years or the fact that their governing officers, the IOC, most of them are in jail over the last period of time. Nothing to do with any of that.
“I feel for Tamsyn though … she ran in the semi-finals so often and just did such a great job. The great thing about Tamsyn is that she just turned up in Australia and ran all the time … unlike a lot of her compatriots who didn’t turn up for the Australian summers and ran, literally and figuratively, the competition and the interest in the sport into an all-time low.”
Former Olympian David Culbert weighed into the spat, calling out the hypocrisy in McGuire’s comments by citing the Essendon drugs saga.
“Considering the AFL (Essendon) was responsible for the greatest systematic drug cheating episode in Australian sports history, which the AFL tried to simply make disappear, this is some effort by Eddie,” he tweeted.
Considering the AFL (Essendon) was responsible for the greatest systematic drug cheating episode in Australian sports history, which the AFL tried to simply make disappear, this is some effort by Eddie. https://t.co/oXJa9k8mfc
— David Culbert (@Culbert_Report) May 26, 2020
McGuire revealed intimate details about the Athletics Australia’s move from Olympic Park, including a phone call with then-Premier Steve Bracks.
He says Athletics Australia was haemorrhaging money at their previous precinct and it was “falling down.”
“I had a contract that said Collingwood’s ground could be no further from where that was, so it was either going to be built across the road at the Tennis Centre or on the athletics track, McGuire explained.
“Athletics was going to be shunted out to Doncaster or even to Aberfeldie where there’s two tracks – and we fought really hard and got a fantastic facility with the VIS down there at Albert Park … it was a pretty good deal from a very low base.
“They were losing a million dollars at Olympic Park and it was falling down. And, I’ll tell you exactly what happened, Lachlan Murdoch walked in to Steve Bracks’ office, the Premier of Victoria, and hit the table and said: ‘Build me a stadium for my rugby league team and for rugby league, as you’ve promised, or else it’s on.’ And at that moment, the premier of Victoria rang me up and said: ‘You know how you’re pretty happy down there with your oval that you built next to the athletics track? Well we made it back.’ And that’s where it started from.”
“If people want to say I’ve played a major role in facilitating the best sports entertainment precinct probably in the world – and a second one down there in Albert Park – I’ll cop it.”
Olympian Tamsyn Manou says Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has a short memory when it comes to conflicts of interest.
McGuire launched on Geelong counterpart Colin Carter on Saturday, declaring his move from the AFL commission to the Cats boardroom was “the biggest conflict of interest I’ve seen”.
Carter had accused McGuire of being “hopelessly conflicted” in his football and media roles after criticising Geelong for not revealing the events surrounding Jack Steven’s stabbing.
But Manou said her sport had never recovered from Collingwood’s contentious 2008 takeover of the historic Olympic Park athletics stadium.
McGuire was a member of the Athletics Australia board, the governing body for Athletics Victoria, when the decision was made to relocate the sport to Lakeside Oval in Albert Park.
“I don’t like to call Eddie out because obviously he’s very powerful in the sporting world, but tongue in cheek I would say I think a bigger conflict of interest (than Carter’s) would be us losing Olympic Park,” Manou said.
“That was a huge conflict for people who were on the Athletics Australia board at the time that were very heavily involved at Collingwood.
“And you know what, well done to them because they got what they wanted, but we were stupid in track and field and didn’t stand our ground and fight harder to hold onto that track.”
Manou said the move to Albert Park had been disastrous.
“As a track and field athlete and somebody who is watching our sport slowly die, I know that part of the problem is that we don’t have Olympic Park anymore,” she said.
“Albert Park is a terrible track.
“It’s soulless compared to Olympic Park and because of the conditions, it’s next to impossible for our current day athletes to compete well.
“These days it’s closed a lot and not accessible to the public. During the middle of the domestic season when our athletes are preparing for either the Olympic trials or the World champs trials … it has to close down because of the Grand Prix.
“I was annoyed then and I’m still annoyed now because Olympic Park was our home, the home of track and field in Victoria.
“It was synonymous with our sport in Australia.
NMU
Don’t get me started on that old chestnut.
McGuire’s value as a President ended at the end of 2011. He has been a net negative for the last 9 years. Can you fucken believe it. 9 years! History may judge the back end of his tenure differently but this will be influenced by self serving journos and deluded supporters. You and I know it has been an unmitigated disaster.
That’s why I like Caroline Wilson. Like all of us, she has her foibles, but she does not allow him to bully her as he does with most other media people. Good on her.
Dickheads do as dickheads are, RFCM.
Can’t see a reduction in pay packets having any effect on their behaviour.
Riewoldt is going to be as big a sook on $300,000 per year as $750,000.
It’s a fine line between keeping dickheads like Degoey in line and stifling them. We don’t want all players to be robots like Hymie, but we are damned as a club having a complete dickhead like Fat Eddie running the show.
He is far too visible, makes too many stupid comments, is openly hostile to journalists as disparate as a Pies supporter in Tony Jones, through to opposition supporters like Wilson, and creates too many enemies.
He has open conflicts of interest which he blithely dismisses, and is far too quick to mouth off in the quest for ratings, only for it to come back and bite him – and the club – soon after. His comments on Jack Steven look foolish now with Degoey’s consistent bad behaviour now in front of the courts.
If we had a low profile President without any media connections – or, like Kelly, clear conflicts – we wouldn’t be such a target.
Have to agree Mungo.
Mind you DeGoey is not Robinson Crusoe by no means. Many of these self entitled overpaid “clearly can’t fart in the real world” players are being somewhat exposed for the wankers that they truly are. A good dose of reality in the form of significant permanent pay cuts might just do the trick.
Someone on EBW reporting Mihocek has foot soreness.
DeGoey – just another overpaid one inconsequentialed talented shitkicker.
White trash/bogan/chav.
Nuff sed.
Yeah he did it the Friday night then we went to the GWS and got smacked on the Saturday, beaten the week after v Richmond (albeit played well that game) then he missed the next 4.
Probably says a fair bit about where his head was at and his focus. And maybe even the impact these things have on the team when everyone is trying but one of your stars goes off reservation .
It’s just curious that it could have been heard at anytime in the past 6 weeks but crops up when we are back in training and 2 weeks away from resumption.
That’s from last year Rosco the hearing is listed for now.
DeGoey charged with driving while suspended and using a mobile phone while driving.
Sigh.
Cheers Mungo
A male golfer’s ultimate dream subject to the other 3 being under say 30 yo. “Tell him his dreaming.”
So this is post 2000 – and back to the pleasurable basics of male and female. Very apt.
Good creative thinking on the four(fore?)some, RFCM!
Mungo
You’re an old romantic from way back. Thanks pal.
Naturally I will click a “man looking for a woman” and hopefully our group also consists of a “woman looking for a woman”. What a foresome, if you know what I mean.
I note we didn’t get to play Melbourne in R3 as requested to still try and run the Big Freeze game.
Prediction – watch Essendon try and claim jump all over that fixture going forward on the basis Daniher played for them and coached Melbourne
Reading the posts of our golf enthusiasts yours truly detected a whiff of loneliness, so being a sport I took it upon myself to play cupid, and even set up the gender matchup.
NMU & RFCM, enjoy! (No need for thanks. That’s what mates do.)
https://www.meetlocalgolfers.com/c/gen/index.html?tpl=W45p&aff_id=goo_mob&aff_pg=PPU&aff_cp=SC+-+Meet+Local+Golfers+-+Discovery&aff_adg=Golfers+-+CIA+-+GSK+-+M%2865%2B%29&aff_src=disc&aff_plmt=&aff_tgt=&gclid=CjwKCAjwtqj2BRBYEiwAqfzurzELJ9YZsDMYbm1nrbYBQafIjjaFOSGkT55A8egE3DVcWe-kNt36TRoCBhYQAvD_BwE