Eddie McGuire has called on the AFL to look at ways of introducing a better work-life balance, but says it is up to players to buy into it.

It comes after the tragic passing of twin brothers Troy and Adam Selwood this year, which sent shockwaves through the sporting community and put an important focus on mental health.

Addressing the issue on the Eddie and Jimmy podcast, McGuire suggested that the players have too much time on their hands in the modern day, but added that it comes with a greater responsibility for them to use that time wisely.

“We’re getting to the point where the stigma (around mental health) is gone. I move quickly into results and how we try and come up with solutions,” McGuire said.

“I say this a lot, just because you get paid, doesn’t make you professional. I think there’s still an old-fashioned and well-meaning aspect to AFL football.

“Back in the day, people worked and played VFL football. My point is this, as full-time athletes, it’s far too long to be spending eight hours a day focusing on football.

“Now, the players have got to buy into this, because every time a club does a deal with a university, you lead a horse to water, and they all fudge their homework and laugh about it and go to the AFL Player’s Association so I can get a laptop so I can play Fortnite 24/7.

“We’ve got to get the dumb f—ery out of football and be serious and stop pandering to the lowest common denominator and to cliché.”

The former Collingwood president believes that the stigma around mental health is changing, and he wants to see it treated just as seriously as a player’s physical condition.

He wondered if more can be done at clubs to provide players with the chance to set themselves up for life after the game, to get greater day-to-day fulfilment and training.

“If we’re going to be absolutely serious about this, then we need to be absolutely serious about it. You have to put parameters on players,” he said.

“If I tell you that you have to have a skinfold of whatever it is, say 10, and you turn up with 11, then you know you’re in trouble.

“And it’s not until later in life where you go ‘geez, I should have learned Shakespeare instead of looking out the window and thinking about Mary Smith around the corner’.

“I think we need to get a far better football-life experience in the time players are at a club, with the proviso that we are paying you to play football.”

Buckley meets with Tassie Devils side over coaching role

Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley has revealed he still has the coaching bug and is intrigued by the prospect of joining the Tasmania Devils as their inaugural head coach.

Buckley coached the Magpies for almost a decade, leading them to the 2018 grand final before stepping down in 2021.

The 52-year-old, who has since moved into the AFL media, has met with Devils chief executive Brendon Gale to discuss a senior role with the expansion club.

Tasmania have a licence to enter the AFL in 2028 and plans to enter a team in the VFL next season.

“There’s a chance,” Buckley told SEN on Monday when asked if he could coach the Devils, adding he had met Gale twice last year.

“The initial one (contact) was from him and then the second one was from me to understand the challenge that the Devils faced and how they are going to build that club.

“To put my two cents’ in, I suppose, and then to learn as much as I possibly could about it.

“There’s a couple of really good football people I believe would go really well down there.

“I put their names forward and put them in front of Brendon.”

Gale this month made two key list management appointments, headlined by landing former Collingwood list guru Derek Hine as head of recruiting.

Experienced recruiter Scott Clayton was also made a part-time future talent consultant.

The Tasmania Devils foundation jumper is revealed. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Buckley is “still exploring” what the challenge of coaching Tasmania would look like.

“That coaching bug is still there, (but) I’m really enjoying what I’m doing at the moment,” Buckley said.

“An existing club versus the Devils; they’re two very different propositions.

“So to understand more about the Devils is to understand whether you think it fits and whether you’re energised by it.

“That challenge is so different to what I’ve experienced.”

Buckley is yet to taste the ultimate success as a player or senior coach at AFL level.

He twice captained Collingwood in losing grand finals against Brisbane (2002-03) and coached the Magpies in their grand final loss to West Coast in 2018.

Buckley was an assistant to coach on Mick Malthouse’s staff when the Pies won the 2010 premiership.

“If you go back into coaching you want to win a flag,” Buckley said.

“That may or may not happen with the Devils in their first four or five years.

“The pragmatic version would be, ‘No, that won’t happen, you’re setting it up to leave a legacy for generations down the track’.

“I understand that as well. That’s all part of it (the decision-making process).”

Hird ‘nearly fell off my couch’ over comeback talk

James Hird “nearly fell off the couch” when he watched a report claiming former Essendon chair Paul Little wants to get back on the Bombers board with him as coach again.

Hird was banned for the 2014 season over the performance-enhancing drugs culture that was uncovered at the club and didn’t last much longer the following year when he regained the reins and resigned.

Apart from a brief stint as a GWS assistant three years ago, he has shied away from the coaching ranks but a Seven report on Monday night suggested Little was keen to return to the boardroom and wanted Hird to head up the coaching staff.

“It’s news to me and I haven’t spoken to Paul Little for months,” Hird told Nine. “I nearly fell off the couch when I heard it.”

James Hird (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

AFL CEO to meet coaching critics

The Scott twins – two of the AFL’s most high-profile critics – flanked league chief executive Andrew Dillon as they arrived for a coaches’ dinner in Melbourne.

Essendon coach Brad Scott and Geelong sibling Chris walked into an inner-city Melbourne pub on Monday night either side of the AFL boss.

Given the commentary over the last few weeks, it made for eye-catching TV news vision.

The Scotts have been fierce in their commentary over issues such as the coaching soft cap and match review decisions.

It is understood that North Melbourne’s Alastair Clarkson and Melbourne’s Simon Goodwin were also at the dinner, which was a series of catch-ups that Dillon is having with the 18 senior coaches.

“It’s good to be here with the coaches, to talk through all things footy – a bit of soft cap, we’ll talk about the MRO and see what’s on the coaches’ minds,’ Dillon told the Seven Network.

“It’s great to sit down, talk, face-to-face. get a really good insight into what’s going on in the coaches’ minds.

“I’m sure there will be plenty of robust discussion.”

Dillon also spoke about the possibility of the AFL having a mental health round in the wake of the Selwood family’s latest tragedy.

West Coast premiership player Adam Selwood died on Saturday, just three months after his twin brother and fellow former player Troy also died.

“What we want to do is focus on making sure that all of our players – our past players, current players and future players – just have all the tools and the access to everything they need to make sure they’re okay,” Dillon said.

“How that plays out, that’s something we’ll take advice on from the experts.”

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