Eddie McGuire: Aussie Rules AFL club boss apologises for joking about drowning woman

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An Australian Rules football league boss and TV personality has apologised for joking about drowning a female journalist.

Eddie McGuire, who is president of popular club Collingwood, was criticised for saying he would pay $50,000 to see Caroline Wilson stay under a pool of iced water and describing Wilson as “a black widow” spider.

Wilson is the chief football writer for The Age, a leading daily paper published in Melbourne, and has been named the AFL Players Association’s football writer of the year.

McGuire made the controversial comments on radio station Triple M last Monday but the remarks only gained the attention of a wider audience after the recording was picked up on social media this weekend.

He commented on Wilson during the Big Freeze at the G, an event where celebrities plunge into ice water to raise money for research into motor neurone disease. McGuire proposed a different format for the fundraiser, saying it should be focused on Wilson next year.

“I reckon we should start the campaign for a one person slide next year. Caroline Wilson. And I’ll put in 10 grand straight away - make it 20 and if she stays under, 50,” McGuire said, prompting laughter from his fellow pundits, who indicated they were also “in”.

“I’ll actually jump in and make sure she doesn’t. I’ll hold her under, Ed,” Danny Frawley chipped in.

“I reckon we could charge $10,000 for everyone to stand around the outside and bomb her …,” McGuire continued. “She’ll burn you like everyone else mate, she’s like the black widow, she just sucks you and gets you.”

Although McGuire initially defended his comments, saying they were words spoken “in the spirit of the fun of the day”, he has now apologised and retracted the remarks.

He went on air on two Melbourne radio stations on Monday (20 June) to say sorry for his comments. Frawley has also apologised.

“I say from the bottom of my heart that I am so sorry that those comments have resonated that way. I am so sorry that anyone could even think that's what anyone was thinking,” McGuire told 3AW radio according to reports in The Age.

McGuire’s comments prompted criticism from Wilson who said he “crossed the line” and Labor frontbencher Penny Wong who said McGuire’s comments were out of line. He also stirred controversy on social media.