Former Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse has backed the AFL club's decision to retain Eddie McGuire as president in the wake of the Caroline Wilson controversy.
McGuire survived in his role after a board meeting on Tuesday night, despite the club potentially losing a major sponsor and public outcry in the wake of his disparaging on-air remarks about Wilson.
But Malthouse, who endured a number of McGuire controversies during his 12-year tenure at the Magpies, said he understood the difficult position placed on the club's administration.
"You've got to be very careful about if you minimise the impact of your president in this case, where he's really a one-man band in getting us to where we got to," Malthouse told SEN Breakfast.
"When I first arrived at Collingwood we were broke, we had very poor facilities, virtually forgotten. We hadn't been in the finals for a number of years.
"He didn't kick the football, but he did set up a number of things for the Collingwood Football Club."
Despite that, Malthouse admitted there were times he wished McGuire would keep out of the media spotlight.
"There were moments where you would just rather keep going with football," Malthouse said.
Malthouse said the AFL was right to make a statement against McGuire on Monday.
"The AFL and clubs have got to have a stance and live up to that stance," he said.
"It's a bigger organisation just then a football organisation."
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