22 | theceomagazine.comT
here’s no question
Eddie McGuire has had
something of a charmed
run. If there was a
soundtrack to his life, it
would be Midnight Star’s
‘Midas Touch’. The covetous resent him
for it, and he is even targeted by factions
of the media and public who wait, fingers
hovering above their keyboards, for the
moment he has that rare slip-up.
Of course, he has caught the odd lucky
break, but his detractors would do well
to remember a popular aphorism that
champion golfer Gary Player made famous- “The harder I practise, the luckier I
get.” Eddie is testament to that, having
practised his craft from the tender age
of 13. His brother Frank, seven years his
senior, was a reporter with the Herald
in Melbourne. Sensing young Eddie was
enamoured by the magic of the media
world, Frank brought him into the fold.
“The media to me was always an
enormous part of life. Just watching the
television and reading the newspapers,
they were the comics of my life
as a kid,” Eddie tells The CEO
Magazine. “I’d read about these
superhero sportspeople, and
I also had a great love of current
affairs even as a young boy. From
my brother introducing me to
the industry, everything simply fell into
line. I loved the whole idea of newspaper
reporting. Catching the train between
Flinders Street Station and Richmond
Station, you’d go past the Herald Sun
building, as it is now, and then around
the bend was the MCG. These were iconic
buildings to me, and the combination
of media, sport and show business was
something I found exotic and exciting.”
Eddie sacrificed his weekends to
compile Aussie Rules stats for the Herald,
all the while keeping to himself the fact
that he was only in Year 8. “They didn’t
know I was 13, fortunately,” he grins.
“And the following summer, they needed
a district cricket reporter to file copy
for AAP [Australian Associated Press],
and they asked me if I’d do it. Clearly,
I missed out on socialising with my
mates, and I had to give up cricket,
which I loved playing, but I knew it
was too good an opportunity to pass up.
I mean, I was a kid in school, and I was
picking up the paper and reading my
own words. I didn’t make a big deal of
it around my mates because it wasn’t as
though I was getting a big by-line, but
it was still wonderfully exciting.”
By the time his age became known,
he was 15 and covering a cricket
international between England and
Victoria. “I’m sitting in the press box
at the MCG, next to legendary English
journalist and commentator Henry
Blofeld, surrounded by the greatest names
in Australian and British sports journalism.
These guys were like gods to me, and to
be sitting in the same room – I couldn’t
believe my luck. Then, by day two of the
match, they invited me down to join them
for lunch in the Long Room. They saw
a young bloke excited to be there, who
loved what he was doing, and they tookme under their wing, or at least offered
me the hand of friendship.”
Eddie certainly had no shortage of
influential figures around him as his career
took off. Sportscasters of the ilk of Bruce
McAvaney and Stephen Quartermain
helped hone his skills at Channel Ten. He
describes television executives Neal Miller,
Ian Johnson and David Leckie as “some of
the best media practitioners in history”,
and counts James Packer as a “mentor and
confidant”. But no-one has played more
of a role in shaping him as a media talent
than his big brother. Eddie even went as
far as to name Frank, alongside boxing“ It’s been an amazing journey. I mean, I’ve been
privileged to have a ringside seat to history.”