He reports this in such a biased manner, criticising Eddie for lableing the AFL "cheats", but also takes the time to throw in a couple of personal assults.
Now cheats is a pretty strong word, but for so long now the AFL have walked all over whom ever they wanted too, the ONLY way to get any compromise out of them has been to publically confront them. And this is what Eddie has done. And it's not just him, it's the other 13 "southern" clubs as well!
This is the article (AFL website)
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McGuire in hot water
By Mike Sheahan
Saturday, September 29, 2001
EDDIE McGuire will be censured and can expect to be sanctioned over the extraordinary ''cheating'' charge he levelled at the AFL on Thursday.
The Collingwood president will learn as soon as Monday just how much he has angered league officials when his club meets the commission for the annual update.
McGuire, who has been spoiling for a stoush with the AFL for a while**, finally has backed the commission into a corner from which it can escape only by trading blows.
Angered by what he sees as preferential treatment for Sydney and Brisbane, he said: ''The AFL are blatantly cheating against the rest of the competition, and we are getting sick of them.''
AFL chief executive Wayne Jackson said last night: ''I just think, on the eve of the Grand Final, I'm much more interested in the focus being on Brisbane and Essendon.''
In a measured response in which the anger was only thinly veiled, he added: ''Eddie's in the unique position of having a vehicle (The Footy Show) to express his views when he wants to.
''Regretfully, sometimes mine have to be much more considered and responsible.''
Jackson declined to say what he or commission chairman Ron Evans planned to say to McGuire on Monday, but rest assured it will be more than than small talk about Grand Final day.
McGuire is in hot water. His outburst undermines the integrity and credibility of the people in charge of the competition.
Calling them cheats is, in my view, far more serious than, say, a coach making a gesture towards an opposition player, suggesting the player had cut his own throat by one of his actions during a game.
It was a gesture that cost Kevin Sheedy $7500, and public humiliation.
Sheedy was guilty of nothing more than gamesmanship; McGuire has attacked the good name of the commission and the commissioners, and football operations manager Andrew Demetriou.
Yes, you may argue that the commission has gone too far with its draft concessions for the northern clubs, but a public ''cheats'' claim against the governing body is way out of line.
Jackson left club general managers in no doubt yesterday he and the commissioners were not amused by the McGuire outburst.
McGuire has threatened to go to the United Nations, one of the few organisations he doesn't run,** in search of justice on this one, but, if he has right on his side, he should work with those of like mind. In private.
Who else could score a headline for a political story on Grand Final eve?**
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** denotes times when Mike has swayed off the reporting track and onto the personal attack on a genuinly nice Collingwood man track. Unneseccary, especially considering the biased vein in which he has reported the information.
For my mind Mike is talking out his proverbial you-know-what (as usual) and is just dissapointed HE was never as sucessful as our President. It annoys me that he uses his position to do exactly what he has critisized Eddie for doing!
And that's my two cents.... thankyou for listening..
Pies for Premiers 2002, 3, 4, 5, 6....
