Eddie McGuire tried to spin the Collingwood racism report, but missed his chance to inspire real change at the club

“This is a proud and historic day for the Collingwood football club.”

And so began one of the most astonishing sport press conferences in living memory.

Who else but Eddie McGuire could try to spin what demonstrably was not a proud day for Collingwood into a positive?

It was a defensive and combative approach that confirmed many of the accusations levelled at Collingwood in professors Larissa Behrendt and Lindon Coombes’s report into the club’s response to racism.

But this was Eddie McGuire; master salesman, king of Melbourne, Eddie…