TruBlueBrad wrote:
camelboy wrote:
TruBlueBrad wrote:
He was on SEN again this morning and explained again his comments on Wallace. What he said was that if they lose their next two games the media are going to be pushing for Wallace to be sacked and for Sheedy to take over. He didn't say thats what Richmond should do, just what the media will be talking about.
He made those comments as an SEN employee, not as Collingwood President.
Yes, but conflicts of interest are all about perception. Furthermore, Eddie rarely does anything to alleviate the COI problem.
If he was fair dinkum about his commentating role he would say that, as Collingwood President, it would not be fair or reasonable for him to comment on the coaching situation at another club and then move on to the next topic. For a person of his supposed intellect it should not be such a difficult concept for him to grasp. It is one thing to criticise a player, team or coaching move during a game, but another thing altogether to start a media witch hunt about sacking a coach at another club.
He gets cat bum lips and red in the face if anyone dares suggest how Collingwood should run their club, and yet, it is supposed to be okay for him to do likewise. Come off it Eddie!
Eddie is a wanker. It’s that simple. At some point he was a good thing for Collingwood and football. Now he is way past his use by date. And like Elliott and Sheedy before him, the longer he continues in his current role with Collingwood, the more he will become a laughing stock at how much of self made carciature he is.
Well you may as well ban anyone from the media having any involvement at club level then.
I can just imagine the outcry and claims of Eddie being gutless if he declined to comment on any issue.
That's not what I said, and you know it.
The point is Eddie's comments were deliberately inflammatory. At this point in time, Eddie is known, first and foremost, as the Collingwood President. Therefore, whether he likes it or not, anything he says will carry that extra burden.
It is no different to the expectation players are to behave themselves when they are in the public spotlight. Once a player accepts the “job” of a professional footballer and they hit the town with their mates they can no longer expect to be treated as a regular knock about bloke out for a good time. If they stuff up someone will notice and it will make news.
Of course, this doesn’t mean this public attitude or perception is right, but it is reality. You only have to look at the media saturation of recent times concerning Wayne Carey and Ben Cousins to see this is a simple fact of modern society.
So, when Eddie commentates a game of football, everyone is thinking he’s the Collingwood Pres and they watch his comments more closely than they would any other commentator. Sure, we know who most commentators support, but being a rank and file supporter is far, far removed from being a club president.
If Eddie shoots his mouth off about sacking a coach at another club, these comments are always going to interpreted as coming from that Collingwood President guy. It makes no difference who is paying his wage at the time, it is all about perception. In the past Eddie has asked his players to pull their heads in, it’s about time he did the same.