A troubled Eddie McGuire is confronted by radio presenter Neil Mitchell over his behavior to troubled AFL star Jordan De Goi.
Eddie McGuire blasted radio host Neil Mitchell for his behavior on troubled AFL star Jordan de Guy.
The altercation took place on Mitchell’s radio show on Thursday morning, with McGuire being fired by Mitchell as describing De Goay, who has ADHD, a “Bali requirement” a day earlier.
Mitchell said on Wednesday it could not be good for every AFL player in trouble to say “my dear, I have this mental health condition”.
“How does the faculty turn you into a half-witted, anti-Bali bam?”
McGuire reacted on Thursday, saying the blows were low and targeted.
“You met a person who came out and said he had a mental illness that he had been in for a long time,” McGuire said.
“(I gave) the most polite reviews last night, but you’re glad you came here when you know a child has mental health problems.
“You know the media do that, the piles, you know there were people who committed suicide on the backs of people who were just being pushed too far into these situations.”
McGuire, who was president of Collingwood from 1998 to 2021, said he came to the show to “discuss where the media leads us and then criticize people.”
“We were trying to find out, how does this guy get into trouble? “I do not defend him,” he said.
De Goey was fined $ 25,000 with a suspension from the Collingwood club this week after he was filmed imitating raw language gestures while partying at a Bali nightclub.
Days later he revealed a recent diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and was criticized for what he claimed was “ruthless persecution of athletes by the media”.
However, Mitchell told McGuire that he simply “no longer understands the media.”
“One thing I have in my life is my reputation. I’m not a liar. “I have the right to defend my integrity,” he said.
“You accused me of making fun of my mental health and I am not.”
Mitchell said McGuire had a long history of criticizing public figures through media comments.
“Remember this is Eddie himself who called Adam Goodes ‘King Kong’ and wanted to drown Caroline Wilson in the Big Freeze,” he said.
“To paraphrase Julia Gillard, this man will not give me lectures on decency.
“I would usually ignore a huge sleigh I got stuck on Eddie McGuire on TV last night, but I can not ignore it.”
McGuire responded by saying that Mitchell himself had led a list of people he would not name as “very dark places”.
The incident in Bali is the latest of 26-year-old De Goey in a series of scandals that last for many years.
In 2017, De Goey broke his arm during an incident at a St Kilda bar and initially lied to the club, telling staff he injured it while playing with his dog.
A year later he was suspended by Collingwood after he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and fined $ 10,000.
In July 2020, De Goey and another man were charged by Victoria Police with indecent assault, which resulted from an incident that allegedly took place with a woman in 2015.
However, prosecutors dropped the charge against the two men the following year and agreed to pay De Goey’s costs.
In October 2021, De Goey was arrested at a nightclub in New York and charged with assaulting a 35-year-old woman and assaulting a 37-year-old man.
The accusation of violent touching was rejected and he was offered a deal to downgrade the rest of the accusation of second-degree harassment in January 2022.