'Go home': Eddie McGuire blasts AFL WAG rule-breakers
Collingwood Magpies president Eddie McGuire has called for the AFL to individually fine partners and family members who breach the league’s biosecurity protocols.
The AFL handed fines to four clubs on Friday afternoon four varying breaches of the strict rules within the hub - North Melbourne, Carlton, Hawthorn and Richmond.
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The Tigers were fined $45,000, with $25,000 of that suspended, after captain Trent Cotchin’s wife Brooke visited a day spa.
McGuire has since argued if family members or partners break the rules, they should be held responsible - not the clubs.
“I think the people who breach the protocols should be fined personally, to be honest,” McGuire said on Fox Footy.
“You can get to the clubs in due course, I think the AFL’s set it out, but I think it’s got to be a personal fine.
“I think the point Gill McLachlan made during the week is 100 per cent right: we make a rule to keep the game going.
“From here until the grand final, there’s still about $250 million worth to be left on the table if this ends. It’d be a disaster, imagine if we don’t get to finish off the finals series now.
“So he says here’s the rules, and the great Australian tradition as we’re seeing through society at the moment is ‘OK, there’s a rule, but it doesn’t apply to me’.
“He’s saying ‘Right, OK, have you got it now? It applies to everyone’.
“That rule book is not how do we get around every rule, that’s the rule book you live by. And if you don’t like it, we’ll arrange for you to go home.”
AFL WAG’s fine after day spa visit causes outrage
In a since-deleted post on social media, Brooke Cotchin wrote of her ‘incredible experience’ at Queensland spa Esteem.
“The most incredible experience today…. My skin was in desperate need of some love,” she wrote.
“I knew I was in the right place as soon as I walked through the doors of Esteem.”
In announcing the fines for four clubs on Friday afternoon, AFL general counsel Andrew Dillon warned of harsh penalties, including being stripped of premiership points, for repeat offenders.
Dillon also said the fine for a second breach could be up to $75,000, plus the suspended $25,000 from the first sanction.
“Our primary focus, like everyone around the country, is to play our role in continuing to keep safe the communities in which we play,” he said.
“We know it is a privilege to be able to continue our competition which provides jobs for thousands of people around the country, and joy to millions of fans.
“The protocols are in place to not only protect players, officials, staff, and now their visiting families, but also the wider community in which we have been given the opportunity to train and play.
“We all have to modify our behaviours in order for the competition to continue in a safe manner.”
