Australian Football League side Collingwood President Eddie McGuire "has led the charge in labelling the push by the AFL players to play a first-hand role in the forthcoming broadcast negotiations as 'ridiculous,'" according to Caroline Wilson of THE AGE. McGuire said that the request from players' boss Paul Marsh to join the AFL at the negotiating table with media chiefs "was generally dismissed by the club leaders in unofficial talks immediately after Tuesday's annual general meeting of the league." And McGuire "is also understood to have questioned the role of the AFL Players Association following the league's AGM." McGuire: "Collingwood's position is pretty straightforward. That's why we have an AFL Commission. That's why Gillon McLachlan is well paid. You don't need a third voice at the table when you're negotiating with Kerry Stokes and Rupert Murdoch." McGuire pointed out that in the NFL, club owners "play a role in the talks." McGuire: "Having the clubs involved here would be as ridiculous as having the players involved" (THE AGE, 3/25).
