NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Sport

Eddie McGuire's six most controversial moments

news.com.au
20 Jun, 2016 04:38 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Eddie McGuire goes down the slide and into the ice for Freeze MND during the round 12 AFL match between the Melbourne Demons and the Collingwood Magpies. Photo / Getty Images.

Eddie McGuire goes down the slide and into the ice for Freeze MND during the round 12 AFL match between the Melbourne Demons and the Collingwood Magpies. Photo / Getty Images.

TV personality Eddie McGuire's shocking comments about a female sports writer are the latest in a string of public gaffes from the Collingwood Football Club president.

The Channel Nine broadcaster last week "joked" on Triple M radio about drowning AFL journalist Caroline Wilson at the Big Freeze at the G, an event where celebrities plunge into icy water to raise money for motor neurone disease.

His remarks have caused outrage across Australia, with Wilson telling 3AW she didn't accept that his "vicious language" was lighthearted, as he has claimed.

McGuire has a history of getting into trouble for vocalising inappropriate observations, which have seen him labelled sexist, racist and homophobic.

Here are six of the worst:

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

1. 'KING KONG'

In 2013, McGuire was forced to apologise after making a comment on radio that Sydney Swans' footballer Adam Goodes could be used to promote the King Kong musical.
It came just days after Goodes was racially abused at the MCG by a 13-year-old girl, who called the player an "ape".

McGuire made the gaffe while chatting with Triple M co-host and former AFL player Luke Darcy, who was talking about the King Kong musical.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"What a great promo that is, for King Kong," Darcy said.

McGuire replied: "Get Adam Goodes down for it, d'you reckon?"

"No, I wouldn't have thought so," Darcy replied.

McGuire later apologised and said it was "a slip of the tongue", but Goodes was reportedly bitterly disappointed and said the remark had destroyed their friendship.

Discover more

Sport

Eddie McGuire accused of sexism and bullying

20 Jun 06:13 AM
Entertainment

Doco tells the human story of elite family

20 Jun 05:00 PM
Olympics

Calls for better security after Paralympian robbed at gunpoint

21 Jun 04:18 AM

There was further tension between the two last May when McGuire apparently criticised Goodes for a war cry celebration: "We've never seen that before and I don't think we ever want to see it again to be perfectly honest, regardless of what it is," said McGuire.

"If he feels it offended him I feel sorry for Eddie," Goodes hit back afterwards.

2. 'A BIT OF BROKEBACK'

Channel Nine faced a stream of complaints when McGuire made homophobic jibes about male figure skaters when hosting the Winter Olympics with Mick Molloy in 2010.

McGuire brought up fashion in ice skating, and Molloy replied that athletes in the sport "don't leave anything in the locker room".

"They don't leave anything in the closet either," McGuire said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He then remarked that one competitor's outfit was "a bit of Brokeback", in reference to hit movie Brokeback Mountain, which centres on a gay relationship.

3. 'TURKISH-BORN MUSSIE'

Last August, he called Victorian sports minister John Eren a "soccer-loving, Turkish-born Mussie" at an AFL meeting.

McGuire's comments at a Magpies function created a Twitter storm, with some labelling the sports mogul racist.

The Collingwood chief defended his comments on the Today show, saying his Muslim friends used the word as "a term of endearment".

"I checked with them again after the story came out to make sure I wasn't barking up the wrong tree and they laughed," he said. "They said they couldn't believe it and certainly John (Eren) has got no issue with it."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mr Eren told News Corp the remark was a timely reminder that leaders in the community needed to be careful about how they expressed themselves. But a day later, he said he did not take offence to the comment.

4. 'WHEN SHOULD WE BONE HER?'

While running the Nine Network in 2006, McGuire allegedly talked about "boning" presenter Jessica Rowe.

Former Nine News director Mark Llewellyn revealed that when discussing whether to let Rowe go, McGuire said: "What are we gonna do about Jessica? When should we bone her? I reckon it should be next week."'

Llewellyn, who defected to Seven, told Crikey in 2011: "Not only do I remember Eddie McGuire saying what he said, I remember how he looked as he said it. Including his smirk as he used the 'bone' word."

Rowe later attacked the Collingwood president on breakfast show Studio 10, saying McGuire "made her life hell".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"The way he allegedly used language against me in the past and the way he has used language to describe Adam Goodes ... It's highly, highly inappropriate, and then to try and explain it away as 'oh, that was a brain snap or a brain freeze' - no, that's not on," she said. "I think it is racist, I think it is offensive."

5. 'LAND OF THE FALAFEL'

McGuire was also labelled racist back in 2011 after he dismissed multicultural western Sydney as "the land of the falafel".

Speaking about Greater Western Sydney's young recruits getting tried of living in the area, he said: "I've just a put a team together of your 17-year-olds who'll be sick of living up in the land of the falafel in western Sydney playing in front of a 12,000-seat stadium that's still not put up."

He called the backlash over his comments on his Triple M breakfast show a "politically correct beat-up", saying he'd used the phrase as a term of endearment.

"These things just get out of control," McGuire told Macquarie Radio. "I don't know what's going on. If this is now seen to be abusive to the western suburbs, then I apologise to every person in the western suburbs.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Every time I pick up a Sydney newspaper they refer to Melbourne as bleak city. No one tears up their nightie. Relax."

6. 'KENNEDY SHOOTING'

McGuire defended Collingwood midfielder Alan Didak after the player was involved in his second drink-driving escapade.

Didak and teammate Heath Shaw jumped into a car after a night out and then crashed into a stationary car. Shaw, who was the driver, produced a breath-test reading of 0.14.
Shaw originally told the club Didak, who a year earlier had lied about his involvement in a drinking and shooting spree with convicted killer Christopher Wayne Hudson, was not in the passenger seat.

McGuire initially backed the pair, saying: "Didak will be accused of the Kennedy shooting next."

The players later both admitted to lying.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

-News.com.au

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Motorsport

'Leaking out both holes': Van Gisbergen overcomes illness for historic Nascar win in Mexico

16 Jun 12:23 AM
New Zealand

J.J. Spaun sinks monster putt to win dramatic US Open title

GolfUpdated

Watch: Spaun's mega putt wins US Open; Fox claims top-20

16 Jun 12:08 AM

The woman behind NZ’s first PAK’nSAVE

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

'Leaking out both holes': Van Gisbergen overcomes illness for historic Nascar win in Mexico

'Leaking out both holes': Van Gisbergen overcomes illness for historic Nascar win in Mexico

16 Jun 12:23 AM

Shane van Gisbergen's win has won him a spot in the Nascar playoffs.

J.J. Spaun sinks monster putt to win dramatic US Open title

J.J. Spaun sinks monster putt to win dramatic US Open title

Watch: Spaun's mega putt wins US Open; Fox claims top-20

Watch: Spaun's mega putt wins US Open; Fox claims top-20

16 Jun 12:08 AM
Rotorua Boys' High School haka

Rotorua Boys' High School haka

How one volunteer makes people feel seen
sponsored

How one volunteer makes people feel seen

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search