Do we like Eddie McGuire?
Our score: 4 out of 10. There's no campaign against any group, but a long run of apologised-for comments about women, an Indigenous player and a disabled woman, and not much verified good to set against it.
The Adam Goodes episode is the one that sticks. In 2013, days after a teenage Collingwood supporter called Goodes an ape, McGuire suggested on radio that Goodes could promote a King Kong musical. He said he apologised profusely and called the remark unintentional, but also compared his own media backlash to what Aboriginal Australians face daily. Plenty of people found that comparison a bit much.
In 2016 he and two co-hosts joked on Triple M about holding journalist Caroline Wilson underwater for charity, and he called her a black widow. He apologised on video and pledged a personal donation to support victims of domestic violence. The AFL boss condemned it but didn't sanction him, and Wilson accepted the apology.
In 2019 he joked on Fox Footy about fining coin-tossers who can't do it properly, not realising the tosser was double amputee Cynthia Banham. The Swans said they were incredibly disappointed, and he apologised on air at halftime. Then in 2021 he called the Collingwood racism report a day of pride, and told members at the AGM he'd got it wrong.
On the harm check, nothing turned up on trans people, climate or vaccines, so that's a gap rather than a pass. On LGBTQ+ issues, he has pointed to rainbow flags and the Pink Magpies group as proof he's an ally. Critics have pointed to his 2010 Olympics quip about male skaters, which the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board looked into. Campaigner Sally Rugg said he shouldn't hide racism behind pride matches.
The latest news is more about work than words. The advocacy group Mad F---ing Witches warned ARN that hiring him was risky, pointing to his repeated past transgressions. His co-host Stefanovic has since pulled out of the show after backlash over his own podcast interview. McGuire wasn't quoted, and a source close to him said the show was probably heading for the axe.
The good side is that he does apologise, sometimes tearfully, and he has put money behind apologies. But that's thin evidence of a person who has changed, when similar slips keep coming across 13 years. He isn't a campaigner for harm, and he isn't a clean slate either.