'Phone was going off': Eddie McGuire defends Chris Scott scoop

Eddie McGuire has responded after Geelong coach Chris Scott suggested he 'made up' suggestions the AFL was tiring of his 'theatrics' in the coaching box.

The former Collingwood president made the suggestion on Channel 9 program Footy Classified last week, where the panel was discussing Scott's recent fine for approaching Brisbane Lions players during round two.

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An irritated Scott hit back at that suggestion on Easter Monday, claiming he didn't know what McGuire was talking about and added that he'd 'made that up'.

“I don‘t think Ed knows what he’s talking about, to be honest,” Scott said.

“There are some people I really respect at the AFL who are strong personalities and would pass that information on to me if they felt that way – and they certainly wouldn‘t pass it on to Ed without passing on to me.

“I‘ve got a lot of respect for Ed as well, but I think he just made that part up.”

Asked again about the controversy on Wednesday night's episode of Footy Classified, McGuire stood by his story, but insisted he had plenty of respect for the Cats coach.

McGuire added that, given the pair's strong and varied links to the league, that they simply were hearing from different sources.

“I agree with what Chris Scott said partly,” he said.

“He hears from Steve Hocking, who’s a very close friend of him, they work together. His brother (Brad Scott) works at the organisation. But that’s at that area.

“I speak to other people. My phone was going off, I didn’t go soliciting … from senior AFL people going: ‘Are you watching this? They’re going off again.’ So that was where I came from.

“And let’s not forget, those great friends of his still gave him a $10,000 suspended fine the next day.

“My point is, there’s no battle going on with these situations … I’ve got a lot of respect for Chris.”

Chris Scott furious after Eddie McGuire accusation

The AFL dished out a suspended $10,000 fine to Scott, after he had to be pulled away by his own players after confronting two Brisbane Lions opponents at quarter time of their round two clash.

Scott went on to defend his reputation as an AFL coach, rejecting the notion he was a 'hothead', while accepting there had been times where he'd done things he shouldn't have.

He said other incidents, such as the time he approached umpire Ray Chamberlain at half-time of their 2019 preliminary final against Port Adelaide and demanded he throw the ball up instead of bouncing it, had been made out to be more than what they were.

“I‘m invested in the game, there’s no doubt about that, and over the course of 11 years and almost 300 games, on two or three occasions I’ve done some things that I probably shouldn’t have,” he said.

“But those sort of interactions happen between coaches and umpires a lot. Some of them get caught on film, very few of them probably. That wasn‘t an example of me being hot headed it was ‘Ray throw the ball up’.

“I made a decision a long time ago in the box, in particular, from some advice from people in footy that I really respect that it‘s difficult to keep your calm for the whole day and you need to be you need to find a time to release and the coach’s boxes your sanctuary a little bit.

"I almost never, without some sort of method, lose my temper with the players, so the coaches box is kind of my release to an extent."

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