Eddie McGuire set for surprise return to AFL commentary in 2023

Eddie McGuire will return to the commentary box in 2023 after landing a role to call select games for 3AW radio. McGuire scaled back his commentary duties with Fox Footy before the start of the 2022 season, walking away from the role and not spending much time in the box.

But the 56-year-old will make a surprise return this season and call a number of games on the radio for 3AW. The role will not be full-time, but McGuire said he's looking forward to getting back behind the microphone.

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“Obviously I founded Triple M football, so that was a big time in my life, and in recent times I have done a bit of calling on the television, but I always enjoyed calling on the radio," he told the Herald Sun. “I am not going to do a whole lot (of calling) this year, because I have a lot of things going on.

"But it is nice just to keep your hand in and there are a couple of weeks that have been pencilled in. It will be really good to work with some different people. Tim Lane came over and said ‘are we calling together?’ which is good because we didn’t at Channel 9 as it turned out.”

The former Collingwood president will continue his role on Channel 9 program 'Footy Classified' and will also launch a podcast with Geelong Cats champion Jimmy Bartel. However it doesn't appear as though viewers will see him back on Fox Footy.

The news comes after a tumultuous few years for McGuire. He resigned from Triple M radio in 2020 after 11 years in the gig, before also stepping down as Collingwood president in 2021 in the wake of the club's racism scandal.

McGuire had always planned to resign from his role as Magpies boss, but stepped down earlier than expected after the 'Do Better' report found 'systemic racism' at the club. “I was really, really sad and it affected me greatly, but I’m OK because you get up, you dust yourself off and you go again," he later said on Footy Classified.

“It was the hardest day of my life outside of personal tragedies. It was something that meant so much to me. It was the right thing to do, I accepted the responsibility.”

Eddie McGuire's desire to spend more time with family

In announcing his resignation from Triple M in 2020, McGuire expressed a desire to spend more time with family. The former Collingwood president said he’d always promised that he would quit breakfast radio once his sons had both finished school.

“Those closest to me have always known that I continued with breakfast radio while my boys were at school and now my youngest has finished it’s time too for me to finish up a wonderful 11 year run with a 4am alarm,” he said. McGuire acknowledged that the early wake-ups had taken a toll on him and his loved ones.

“(Wife) Carla and the boys said to me at that stage, and they were very strong on this, ‘Enough. This is going to kill you’,” he revealed. “As much as I try to put as much into every working day, there comes a time where there’s a breaking point.

“I got too tired in the end. I would nod off in meetings, nod off at home, and I’d be zoned out at dinner. That’s part of life, that’s what every business person does. I’m not crying for help here. But in the end it was enough.”

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