Caro & Eddie's war getting ridiculous

I know Caroline Wilson and Eddie Macguire don't like each other very much.

But their personal little war is really starting to get silly, topped off by Caro's article today in The Age, where she has claimed that Collingwood is dragging down AFL crowds, wondering "why so many supporters have deserted Collingwood".

Given such a strong and emphatic statement by supposedly Australia's leading AFL columnist, I have undertaken some amazingly in-depth research (I googled Collingwood's 2008 and 2009 fixtures) to validate this very clear position being asserted.

Collingwood figures are apparently down around 14,000 per game on average or almost 100,000 in total.

Now Caro, you surely cannot be serious - or if you are, you are not a serious journalist.

Collingwood opened 2008 with 6 games at the MCG and one at the Gabba, compared to 2009 which has been 4 MCG, 2 Telstra and one at Gabba - so that mean that at this time last year the Pies had had 50% more games at the MCG (kind of important).

Caro tries to counter this by saying that at the MCG crowds are down almost 11,000.

So who have the Pies played? In 2008, they drew Essendon, Carlton, Richmond, Hawthorn, North, and Freo. So 4 of the 6 massive games, and 2 small ones (or 2/3's big, 1/3 small) at the 'G.

2009 - Pies have played Essendon, Geelong, Melbourne and Adelaide. So 2 massive games and 2 small ones - or 50% big, 50% small.

The big games would average 70-80+, the small ones 30-40 - so of course the Pies' MCG crowds are down substantially - they are two "big" games behind for the same time, so its completely reasonable that their average crowds are significantly smaller.

This is really poor journalism. Wilson is allowing her personal issues with Eddie to affect her writing, and this is not on for a journalist of her standing and experience. She needs to be the bigger person and let go of her emotion, as more articles like this will destroy her credibility