Culture

Over 25,000 People Went To The First AFL Women’s Match, But Eddie McGuire Wasn’t One Of Them

Even though his team was playing, the Collingwood president apparently had better things to do.

by Tom Clift  4 February 2017

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Australian sporting history was made last night, as Carlton and Collingwood fought it out at IKON Park in the inaugural match of the AFL Women’s competition. The place was absolutely chockers, with 24,500 footy fans packed into the stadium and several thousands more stuck outside.

Given the historic occasion, you’d imagine that the presidents of the two competing sides would have wanted to be in attendance. And to his credit, Carlton head honcho Mark LoGiudice was.

Collingwood’s Eddie McGuire, on the other hand, was in Adelaide hosting a boxing match between Danny Green and Anthony Mundine.

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McGuire’s decision not to attend the game, although likely a relief for the tens of thousands of people at IKON Park who didn’t have to be anywhere near him as a result, left many supporters of the nascent women’s competition feeling seriously unimpressed.

Last year, McGuire described feeling “pure optimism and joy” at the prospect of a Collingwood women’s team. Incidentally, this was around the same time that he made a joke on Triple M about drowning female football journalist Caroline Wilson. The latter remarks sparked heavy criticism and inspired one AFL side to temporary boycott the station.

Good to see he really learnt something from the experience though, huh.