Matt Rendell has responded to Collingwood CEO Mark Anderson over comments he made about outgoing Magpies list manager Ned Guy.
Rendell told SEN’s The Captain’s Run on Friday that he believes Guy, who will finish up as Collingwood list boss after this year’s mid-season draft, “didn’t watch much football” during his time in the role.
“My experience was that he didn’t watch much footy,” Rendell said.
“People are coming into the club in recruiting and list management, you have to love watching all sorts of footy. I watch AFL, VFL, women’s and under 18s, I’ll go to the local clubs and watch them play. Any grade of football I’ll watch them.
“I don’t think Ned was that keen on watching a lot of footy. From that point of view, I thought it was a really poor appointment by Geoff Walsh, to tell you the truth.”
Anderson hit back in a club statement on Saturday, labelling Rendell’s claim as “inaccurate” and that Guy is “reserving his right to further action”.
“Collingwood is deeply disappointed by inaccurate comments made by a one-time employee yesterday,” Anderson said.
“For the record, in 2019 Guy attended 137 AFL, SANFL, WAFL, TFL, NEAFL and NAB League matches. He travelled approximately 67,000 km to do so. On average he attended five matches a week.
“In 2020, Guy lived outside of Victoria for four months, and away from his wife and young children for two months, to escape the Covid-19 lockdown in place at the time. This enabled him to scout matches in Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and New South Wales.
“Guy flew approximately 37,000km on behalf of Collingwood in 2020 to attend 49 matches (a Covid-19 reduced figure) and interview potential recruits. Collingwood recruiting manager Derek Hine honoured a similar schedule.
“Guy has been an industry professional for almost two decades and has the widespread respect of his peers, many of whom are offering their support in light of the claims they know to be untrue.
“Given these facts, Guy is reserving his right to further action.”
But speaking on Footy SA, Rendell says his “informed opinion” has been “blown out of proportion”.
“It’s your opinion. I was there and that’s what I saw, and you have your opinion,” he said.
“To me, it was my informed opinion. I don’t regret the comments, it’s a simple opinion and the club has got a different opinion, which they put out.
“I think it’s been blown out of proportion to tell the truth.”
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Rendell then took aim at Collingwood over the handling of his exit from the club last year.
“Since I left after I lost my part-time job because of COVID, I haven’t heard from one person at the club – not from Mark Anderson after doing seven years there, not from Eddie McGuire, certainly not from 'Bucks' (Nathan Buckley) except for that text message after that game last year in the finals,” the ex-Pies recruiter said.
“Nick Maxwell (Leadership and Culture Manager) rang me in the middle of last year to see how I was going. After seven years of battling away trying to get the list into a position to challenge for the flag, I thought I at least deserved a text message, but nothing forthcoming.
“Some footy clubs are like that.”
