Ugly crowds not welcome, says Ed
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire says he is committed to stamping out bad crowd behaviour
COLLINGWOOD president Eddie McGuire remains committed to an advertisement campaign dedicated to discouraging bad crowd behaviour.
The Magpies will launch the advertising initiative soon, following what McGuire said on Tuesday was a collation of opinions from supporters who had expressed concern over "swearing, carrying on and drinking" among the footy crowd.
He said the issue should be viewed as minor, despite reports that Collingwood fans subjected St Kilda forward Stephen Milne to abusive taunts on Friday night, and the Pies' move to address it was to "nip it in the bud".
"What we're going to do is a series of campaigns, not just for this weekend and not because of any issues over last weekend, although it heightened the situation … to get people to remember why we love the football," McGuire said.
"Why we love going there where there's no segregation, no barbed wire, no rancour where you can get stuck into each other, and where most of the time, the worst result is that you have to buy a Tattslotto ticket or cop a barrage of text messages for a week.
"That's what we want to get to, and we don't want to get to this dehumanising of people on the ground.
"They're our heroes, they're the people we come to watch. It doesn't matter what side you barrack for; you have to look at the champions of all these teams and remember that without the opposition, you can't have a game."
McGuire agreed with Mick Malthouse's comments on SEN on Tuesday morning that it would be impossible to completely stamp out bad fan behaviour.
"You're not going to stop in a 70,000 [strong] crowd, 20 morons chanting or carrying on," McGuire said.
"What we want at Collingwood is for our supporters to be there when we're three goals down, [not just] when we're 10 goals up.
"Forget about the opposition and get the positive energy behind our players because we're going to need the Magpie Army in full voice for the next seven weeks if we're going to achieve what we're hoping and dreaming of achieving over the next couple of months."
McGuire added that the issue raised from Friday night's game, where the Collingwood cheer squad was reported to have chanted an offensive name towards Milne, was not in isolation.
However, he saw it as a minor blight on the game that could be discouraged.
"There was as much coming back over the fence at somebody like Luke Ball on the weekend as there was going over the fence in other issues," he said.
"What we have to do is everybody take a deep breath. It's not one club, it's not the football, and it's not even an issue at the moment.
"There's a great rule in life. It's called the grandma rule. Would you do it in front of your grandma?"
In April last year, Malthouse was fined $7500 by the League for his part in a verbal altercation with Milne, who was fined $3000 for his comments in return.
Malthouse said the issue between the two was "dead and forgotten", and while he was unaware of the details of the Pies' advertising campaign, supported the idea.
"As far as the ad goes for the club, anything that can be a positive for the crowd going to games of football, I'm all for," Malthouse said.
"I've got no control over the crowd. I'm a coach, I sit in the coaches' box and I wouldn't even know if anything took place, quite frankly.
"Anything that can be positive from the point of view of the club having advertisements or campaigns on TV, I'm all for."
Malthouse said he didn't expect to be called upon to be involved in the project but would help out if he was asked.
"Of course I would participate but it won't happen," he said.
"I think I've got greater issues to worry with three rounds to go and a finals series in front of us with a number of players injured. It would be the last thing on my mind.
"I'm sure the club will handle it the best way they possibly can without interfering with the player or coaching group."
Jennifer Witham covers Collingwood news for the AFL Website. Follow her on Twitter @AFL_JenWitham