COLLINGWOOD president Eddie McGuire has pleaded with his players to toe the line this season and avoid public incidents like the one involving Carlton forward Brendan Fevola.
Speaking at the club's season launch and Hall of Fame dinner on Monday night at Melbourne's Crown Casino, McGuire asked the Magpies to ensure they stay out of trouble this year.
"The media is on footballers 24-7," McGuire said.
"That does mean at 25 past four on Saturday morning in Greville St (where Fevola was caught on CCTV urinating on a bar window).
"For the VFL boys as well, you are not invisible. This is the club that has the magnifying glass on us more than any other. Look after yourself when you're out there on the streets.
"We always say, 'If trouble comes, protect yourself', but don't get yourself into any trouble. We're playing with big stakes."
McGuire also appealed to the club's recent acquisitions set to fill the Magpies' stand-alone VFL side. The team, which includes the recently-retired Paul Licuria, former Bulldog Tim Walsh, and Scott Pendlebury's brother Kris as a rookie, was asked to treat their new jumper as if it were a senior strip.
"You'll wear our famous guernsey, fellas; it's not a VFL or seconds team," McGuire said.
"You know how hard we fight for that guernsey and what it means to us. We don't have an alternate strip because there is no alternate to the black and white stripes.
"When you do pull it on, just as Scott Burns does, we expect the same determination when you play for Gavin Brown in the VFL."
Having recently returned from a two-year stint in Sydney where he filled the chief executive's role for Channel Nine, McGuire said he expected the club to flourish this year under his close watch.
"We're very proud of the Collingwood Football Club, but I make a commitment to you tonight that in the last two years I've been out of town, out of business," he said.
"But, not only am I back in town, but so too is the Collingwood Football Club, back and open for business again, because other clubs, every time I pick up the paper, I hear the Bulldogs and Hawthorn or somebody else is building the new Lexus Centre to put us into the shade.
"But, I'm here to tell you that we have reloaded here at Collingwood and we are going forward again with a renewed passion and determination to put as much distance between us and the opposition as possible.
"You'll find in the next couple of weeks, some amazing developments that have been seven or eight years in the pipeline will make you all very proud."
McGuire also couldn't resist having a second swipe at the club's mortal enemy, Carlton, as he prepared to help coach Mick Malthouse hand out the guernseys and the players' individual medallions for season 2008.
"The players will receive the Collingwood jumper – the black and white stripes tonight," McGuire said.
"It's the guernsey that every person who has pulled it on has spilt blood and fought hard for every time they've run out onto the ground.
"Never has there ever been any allegation of tanking at this football club, and nor will there ever be."
