Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has attacked the media and the Essendon football club in the aftermath of the suspension and departure of his club's recently appointed football director Graeme Allen.
On his radio programme on Wednesday morning McGuire said Collingwood was not in crisis and contrasted Allan's decision to stand down with the drawn out scandal at the Bombers.
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Whitfield ban harsher than just six months
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"The bottom line is that it is what it is and both Craig Lambert and Gubby Allan and Lachie Whitfield fell on their respective swords yesterday and did the right thing by the competition, which I think is a big change up from two years ago with Essendon," McGuire said on Triple M. "So I think there is some good out of all the bad that has happened in all that situation.
"But what is going to happen and what I can see from one hundred miles, is that, papers, the cricket is no good and they want to get a story going and the story that they are all trying to rev up is that Collingwood, and disarray, and I'm under pressure etcetera. It is not happening. It is a made-up attack on the football club and me and it is as simple as that."
McGuire had worked hard to get Allan to Collingwood from GWS, a move that ultimately saw Neil Balme leave the club for Richmond.
Allan has apologised for his error of judgement in handling Giants player Lachie Whitfield who went to stay at at the home of welfare manager Craig Lambert to avoid drug testers in May 2015. Yesterday he accepted a 12-month ban and stood down from the Magpies.
McGuire said the move would not impact of Collingwood's plans going forward.
"It came from left-field, who knows what happens in life in those situations," he said. "But we've got contingency plans. Marcus Wagner is more than ready to step into the position there and we will make a decision on whether or not we will make an appointment in the next couple of weeks.
"I'll tell you when it happens, I will tell you [then]. We are not going to speculate. We know exactly what's going to happen. Marcus Wagner has worked for our club and looked after all our football operations and he is an up and coming star.
Asked if Wagner would assume the role, McGuire said: "At the moment yes."
"I would rather that Gubby is there because we appointed him because in the time that he has been director of football at Collingwood he has been fantastic. That is nothing against Neil Balme. I wanted Neil Balme. I, me, club, board, chief executive wanted Neil Balme to go into a specific role that we believe he was absolutely tailor made for and we wanted to broaden a role in the football department into other areas. All the people lined up, it was as simple as that."