The sun has only just set on ex-Collingwood president Eddie McGuire’s tenure at the top, but already Melburnians are contemplating his inevitable return.
Footage of Eddie McGuire beaming on the sidelines of the MCG at the end of the 1990 AFL Grand Final has been etched into the minds of those not even remotely interested in the Collingwood football club.
The Magpies of course won that match after a 30-year drought and it thrust McGuire into a media spotlight that has shone brightly ever since.
Eddie McGuire has been a regular on Melbourne radio since 1988
McGuire continues to host a popular game run that runs across Australia
Eddie McGuire had been resident of the Collingwood Football Club for more than two decades
On Tuesday, McGuire fell on his sword after two weeks of trying to deflect the muck from his disastrous reaction to the club’s racism report.
Die hard Magpie fans aren’t sad to see McGuire gone.
While his passion for the club could not be doubted, many believed he had become bigger than the club to it’s own expense.
In the 1990s, when Collingwood defeated Essendon to take home the flag, Magpie fans were classed as ‘toothless criminals’ by most of its rivals.
Fast forward to 2021 and McGuire would have you believe Collingwood fans get about in Audi’s and are the dentists.
He brought fortune to Collingwood, but only one premiership – in 2010 in what would be coach Mick Malthouse’s last year with the club.
Malthouse was replaced by former Magpie great Nathan Buckley in a controversial deal that in hindsight will blight McGuire’s legacy among fans more than his unceremonious exit from the club.
But McGuire still has a lot of support in the world of media, football and the general public.
On Tuesday night, die hard fans from rival clubs were hitting social media backing him as hard as the knockers.
Eddie McGuire had become the target of attacks over his comments on a racism report into the Magpies
McGuire retains many of his long-time fans who warn to his ‘knock-about’ persona
McGuire will continue to host Millionaire Hot Seat
Despite McGuire’s proud link to Collingwood, he has achieved a national profile due to his work on television’s Millionaire Hot Seat.
He has appeared in countless shows Australia-wide over the journey – not including his regular gigs on Fox Footy.
He’s on radio, television, print, events, sportsmans nights, weddings – you name it, McGuire has and continues to do it.
With the AFL football season about to go into full swing, McGuire is expected back in the hot seat calling games like every other year.
He’ll continue to host Millionaire and no doubt will be being courted back to Melbourne breakfast radio on Triple M.
He had hosted the station’s Hot Breakfast for 11 years before pulling the plug in November.
He has been a regular on the station since 1988.
Former Magpie Heritier Lumumba has been scathing of McGuire over allegations the club was racist
McGuire and old mate Sam Newman became a powerhouse on Australian television through The Footy Show
Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire hugs Josh Thomas in 2018. McGuire is both loved and loathed by the Collingwood faithful
Many fully expect to see McGuire back at the helm of The Footy Show, which cast him and mate Sam Newman into television history.
The show was never the same after McGuire departed.
Reports in 2016 suggested McGuire’s net worth could have been anywhere up to $55 million.
He lives in leafy Toorak in a $12 million mansion with his wife Carla McGuire.
McGuire is an astute businessman and former chief executive of the Nine Network.
Many a football identity have made the leap into big business.
Former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou went onto become a member of Crown Resorts’ board.
On the day McGuire quit Collingwood former Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin handed down a landmark report into the casino company that put Crown’s flagship Barangaroo project in Sydney at risk by finding the company was not suitable to hold a NSW casino licence.
Demetriou faces falling on his sword much like McGuire.
And McGuire has already been there and done that.
For a man that likes to control how he is perceived, his venture into big business didn’t end well.
When McGuire was the Nine Network’s CEO in 2006, his then News Director Mark Llewellyn alleged he spoke disparagingly on former star Jessica Rowe’s future with the team.
Jessica Rowe was famously ‘boned’ by McGuire while he was CEO of Channel Nine.
Some believe McGuire may make a return to The Footy Show after it was axed
Eddie McGuire’s name has been thrown repeatedly into the political ring, but few expect him to go that way now
‘What are we going to do about Jessica? When should we bone her? I reckon it should be next week,’ he reportedly said.
Those that know McGuire in media circles know all too well McGuire has two personalities – one in front and another behind the camera.
It is the one in front of the camera that McGuire no doubt feels comfortable with people believing in.
It is a trait that might see him do well in politics.
His brother, Frank McGuire, in a long serving Labor MP and Eddie has form for having strong opinions.
He was a leading campaigner for the Australian Republic Movement in 1999 and in 2012 told then PM Julia Gillard what he thought of her opposition to same-sex marriage.
In 2002, McGuire told the Sydney Morning Herald: ‘Politics is not something I harbour at the moment. But you never say never.’
Those that know McGuire think it unlikely he will turn to public service.
It is within the media that McGuire has made his name and his fortune and few doubt it is where he will return with perhaps an increased presence.