McGuire said Pridham, who is in his first season in the role after replacing Richard Colless, had only been in the job for "five minutes", prompting this from Pridham. "Been on @sydneyswans for 13 years not 5 minutes. Perhaps Eddie has been around too long?" He angrily responded to McGuire's claim that the Swans had voted against the birth of Greater Western Sydney at a Commission meeting. "Eddie @sydneyswans voted for @GWS_Giants. I was at the meeting and voted. You must have been asleep in that meeting. Tell the truth." On his Triple M breakfast show on Monday morning, McGuire called for intervention from the AFL Commission.

"It's time for the AFL Commission to come and have a cup of coffee with a few people and let's get the war room going because you know what we have got to do? We have got to get back to having some fun. It's like going to the tax office at the moment," he said. "Remember when Richard Colless gave me the 'bird' on Four Corners at that time and everyone went around in circles ... and yet down the track suddenly everyone realises that the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) was a complete crock. "I am sorry but I signalled that 10 years ago. I know I lead with my chin sometimes and I need to walk away from fights rather than into them sometimes but the other clubs have got to start putting their hands up. Now they are all lobbying around the back of the room and the rest of it, no one will say anything, so I have to go up the front sometimes. "I am not playing martyr here. But I am getting a bit tired of it. "The AFL know this, and I know they are working on it so again I have got faith but then you work out what they (Swans) are doing ... it is a couple-pronged attack. They have wound up (Age chief football writer) Caroline Wilson to start running this campaign that I am the most powerful bloke in football and have too much to say and all the rest of it. I haven't been powerful enough otherwise we may not be where we should be at the moment.

"Then you get Pridham who starts attacking your integrity." Taking aim at what he feels is the Swans' propensity to target established players, with stars Kurt Tippett and Lance Franklin the headline signings in the past two years, McGuire said the Swans once "stood up at a presidents' meeting and said we have no interest in developing the game" in NSW. He re-iterated that no club fought harder against the inclusion of the Giants than the Swans. "They are the greatest protectors of their self interest of any organisation God has put breath into," he said. "These blokes haven't developed anything up there ... that's why Jarrod Witts is playing first ruck for Collingwood, that's why Lenny Hayes has been a superstar down at St Kilda. "They have let blokes march out of the joint because they have had no interest 'cause they open the chequebook up and go after everyone. They have been doing it since Gerard Healy went up there (during the Geoff Edelsten era)."

McGuire was also displeased with the artwork Sydney's Daily Telegraph had used, depicting him sitting on a wrecking ball with Palmer, the maverick MP. "Is that from News Ltd? I am glad I am the face of Fox Footy for them on Foxtel. That's good," he said facetiously. The accompanying story was written by the Telegraph's chief football reporter Neil Cordy, a former Footscray and Swans defender. McGuire even suggested the amiable Cordy was a cheerleader for the northern club. "That would be like 'Joffa' writing the match report for Collingwood," McGuire said. Loading

McGuire's frustration also extends to Sydney's academy, which allows clubs in non-AFL states to develop and coach young footballers and have first dibs on them come the national draft. Brandon Jack is the only player from the Swans' Academy to play in the AFL to date.