Eddie McGuire has vocalised his opinion on Adam Goodes ‘war dance’ again, saying the public should have been warned before the Swan’s player ran at the crowd on Friday night.
McGuire, who previously dubbed the war dance “violent” and “aggressive” told Karl Stefanovic and Today Show viewers this morning “I don’t like to see demonstrative demonstrations after a goal or anything else.”
“The disappointment to it for me was the fact that we had to have police, security guards and then somebody was kicked out of the game as a result of people not knowing what was going on.
“Had we known before the game what indigenous players were going to do some kind of war cry we could have been able to educate and understand the situation.”
In the opening match of the indigenous round, Goodes performed the indigenous war dance, running towards a group of Carlton supporters after kicking a goal.
“We’ve never seen that (Goodes’ war cry) before and I don’t think we ever want to see it again to be perfectly honest, regardless of what it is,” said McGuire in the Fox Footy commentators box at half time.
The Collingwood president this morning said the performance could have been seen as sinister by some in the crowd, while there are regulations in the AFL about political and demonstrative acts.
McGuire reiterated he is a supporter of Goodes, but thought the war dance should have been performed before the game and viewers were educated.
It’s not the first time McGuire has been involved in a Goodes-related controversy.
The Collingwood president publicly apologised to the Swans player after he said the producers of King Kong should use Goodes to promote the musical in 2013.
The comments followed an incident where a 13-year-old girl – and Collingwood fan – yelled at Goodes, calling him an ‘ape’ on the field, to which he stopped and called out the racial slur.
And for anyone interested in the score on Friday night, the Swans enjoyed a 10 goal win over Carlton – who had sacked coach Mick Malthouse days before – at the SCG.
