Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has slammed suggestions that the winner of this year's AFL premiership will have an asterisk next to their name.
McGuire's comments came after Essendon great Matthew Lloyd said that 15 games would be the minimum requirement for games needed for the season to not be an "asterisk".
"I just don't want to know about the asterisk premiership and all that sort of thing, I've got to a point where I feel like if it gets too late in the year and instead of cramming a lot of games in – can we span the season so it goes from a late 2020 to a late 2021 season with 34 games and byes," Lloyd told Sportsday.
"I think (a shorter season) becomes a bit gimmicky and 12 games for mine doesn't constitute a premier in this season."
However, McGuire thought different, saying that whoever wins the cup will be the deserved premier this year.
McGuire even took a thinly-veiled shot at Lloyd's former club Essendon who were found to have breached the AFL's salary cap by $514,500 between 1991 and 1996, a period in which it won the it's 15th VFL/AFL premiership in 1993.
"I'll tell you what, if you want to put asterisks up, we'll start with salary cap years and then I'd move through," McGuire told Triple M's Hot Breakfast.
"What do you do? Do you put the war years, the years where we didn't have a Grand Final, which was the Bombers' first win in the original season.
"I think once you set the terms of what the season is, that's the season and away you go.
"Every year we've ever played we've had a compromised draw since we went away from 22 games and 12 teams because teams don't play each other twice etc. It's nonsense.
"If the AFL gets a season away this year, that's the season. Whoever holds up the cup gets the cup (and) they're the premier of that competition."
McGuire's comments echoed that of Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley who said that his side would be "happy to have an asterisk next to (their) name" if they were to claim their 16th premiership this year.
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/afl/eddie-mcguire-slams-premiership-asterisk-talk-in-shortened-season/47ff5c85-62c4-477a-90c7-fdd72e18e6cb
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