Eddie McGuire broke down in tears this morning on his radio program, having reportedly offered his resignation to the Collingwood board of directors last night in the wake of tremendous outcry from the community over his on-air comments yesterday. 

While talking about the promotion for the new Melbourne stage production of King Kong on Triple M yesterday morning, McGuire suggested that “they should get Adam Goodes down, d’ya reckon?”.

What was he thinking?

Considering the fact that Goodes had been called an ‘ape’ by a 13-year-old Collingwood fan only days before the comments were rightly condemned from all angles, including from one of Collingwood’s own players Harry O’Brien.

The Brazillian born O’Brien tweeted last night “It doesn’t matter if you are a school teacher, a doctor or even the president of my football club I will not tolerate racism, nor should we as a society,” O’Brien wrote on Twitter.

“I’m extremely disappointed with Eddie’s comments and do not care what position he holds. I disagree with what came out his mouth this morning on radio.”

O’Brien also condemned Australia’s “casual” approach to racism and said that he faces racial vilification in every aspect of his life.

Sydney Swans management and players were also left stunned by McGuire’s comments, with Swans chairman Richard Colless intimating that McGuire had hurt Goodes worse than the original incident ever had.

McGuire himself said this morning: “It’s hard to be portrayed as the opposite of what you are,” McGuire said.

“If I’m feeling it this morning, I can only imagine what Adam Goodes has felt all his life and Harry O’Brien…

“That’s why I’m not turning it into the wailing wall for me. This is about these guys.

“I’ve copped it and, you know what, maybe I’m getting a feel for what they cop every day of their lives.”

Even the grandmother of the 13-year-old girl at the centre of the weekend’s racism storm has called McGuire a ‘hypocrite’ and demanded he give her granddaughter an apology.

“He should offer an apology to (Julia) as well,” Lucy Reynolds said.

For some reason the Collingwood board of directors have given McGuire their full backing and have refused his offer to stand down. Vice-president of the club, Jack Kennedy even went so far as to say that the board “fully endorsed” McGuire in a statement given today.

As to my thoughts on the whole issue, I’d go with something along the lines of Richard Colless’ statement yesterday which said: “Eddie is going to have to live with this for a long time.”

To his credit, Swans champion Goodes has maintained his dignity in the face of such boorish and hurtful slander. In the wake of the initial ‘ape’ comment, Goodes pleaded with people not to blame the girl, going so far as to say “My care now is not just for myself, but also for my club and for that little girl.”

Goodes has not yet released a statement about McGuire’s moronic statement, indeed it’s not something that merits a response. Reports coming out of the Swans camp though have suggested that Goodes is so distraught that he is considering not playing in this weekend’s crunch game against Essendon.

McGuire has reportedly been told to undergo counseling by the AFL, but I’m not sure it’ll do any good. Deep down Eddie McGuire may well not be a card carrying, white neck racist but no amount of counseling is going to help him be any less of a dullard. 

Fingers crossed that under the Racial Discrimination Act of 1975, they’ll throw the turd in jail.

Image: Getty