https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au The complete history of Australia's greatest sporting club Tue, 30 Jan 2024 23:13:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.21 https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/babes-for-the-woods/ Tue, 22 Mar 2016 21:29:52 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10316 By: Glenn McFarlane, Herald Sun journalist and Collingwood historian. Lou Richards enjoyed an afternoon nap one mid-March afternoon ahead of what was going to be a big 64th birthday party that night, but when he woke he felt as if his world had changed. It was same sort of feeling that many football fans felt on the eve of the 1987 VFL season. Change was not only in the wind, it was blowing up a storm. And it seemed as if the football landscape was going to be changed forever. In Richards’ case, it came in the bombshell decision from his employer Channel 7 – the long-standing network partner of Australian football – to opt out of the VFL broadcasting rights, seemingly silencing ‘Louie The Lip’ and allowing the ABC to take over the broadcasting for the season ahead. “It’s a very sad day, I’m sad to be out of it,” Richards said before heading off to his party which he humorously called ‘The Last Supper’. By the end of the month, he had joined the Nine Network. But the change was not just coming on our television screens. The 1987 season would be a landmark one in Australian football, and few would be unaffected by the impact of those changes. The near-bankrupt Melbourne clubs finally agreed to bring in two new franchises, West Coast and Brisbane, eager for the revenue that the licence fees would bring about. But the Eagles and the Lions were not the only new things. The inaugural draft happened a few months earlier (Collingwood’s first pick was West Adelaide midfielder Grantley Fielke); and a salary cap was implemented for the first time (it was $1.25 million for that first year). About the only thing that hadn’t changed was the level of distrust between some clubs and league headquarters. Before the first round of that season – one that pitted Collingwood against Sydney – a group of concerned VFL clubs gathered at Victoria Park under the hint of darkness to discuss “league issues”, concerned with the direction in which the game was taking. Change had come to Collingwood in a football sense, too. In the lead-up to the season, it seemed as the Magpies had been cursed by injuries. Leigh Matthews, about to enter his second season as coach, couldn’t believe the club’s misfortune. Each practice match – a loss to Richmond at Donald, a win over Fitzroy at Parade, and a loss to Footscray at Western Oval – seemingly brought about fresh injuries and it left the club dangerously short of players ahead of the season-opener. STATS: Review every Collingwood match since 1987. Stress fractures in his right foot – caused by wearing sandals – ruled Peter Daicos out. Shane Morwood, who was hoping to be there for his brother Paul‘s first game in Black and White, suffered a knee injury. Newly appointed captain Tony Shaw insisted he would be right after hurting his back in the match against the Lions and spending a week at home in a traction device. In the lead-up to the Swans’ game, he ran 10 laps on the first night and 12 the following night before proving his fitness on the Thursday night before the clash at Victoria Park. Denis Banks and Darren Millane flew to Adelaide that same week to meet with surgeon James Hyde for an assessment of groin complaints. Both were cleared of any need for surgery, though Millane was told he had to rest for the next few weeks. Ron McKeown had stress fractures; Shane Kerrison could not be considered due to a hamstring complaint, while Russell Dickson and Mark Beers were also ruled out. So what’s a coach meant to do when confronted with such an imposing injury lost? Pick a bunch of kids and a few interstate recruits, and hope for the best. As luck would have it, the Magpies had an abundance of young hopefuls to choose from, including a number of players who had played in the 1986 under 19s premiership side. Still, it was no easy task. Matthews hadn’t made up his mind on selection deep into the Thursday night’s training session, and Collingwood’s round one team to take on Sydney wasn’t processed to media until 10pm that night. Channel Seven’s League Teams, which had featured Richards, Jack Dyer and Bob Davis, had been axed along with the rest of the footy coverage, so the lateness of the selected Collingwood team didn’t matter too much. But it was filed through to The Sun News-Pictorial in time for the metro editions of the newspaper. The headline said it all: ‘Babes for the Woods’. Looking at the team – there would be nine new faces – the headline might well have said ‘Babes to the Woods’, for Richards’ Kiss Of Death preview of the game said Collingwood could expect a good old-fashioned hiding from the more experienced Swans. “I’m all for giving the youngsters a go, but this is ridiculous! Dejected fans have already christened their heroes “Magpies Anonymous’,” Richards wrote. “Coach Leigh Matthews isn’t giving a pre-match talk; he’s welcoming the new boys to the club and introducing them to each other.” Despite all the injuries, the reigning Copeland Trophy winner, ruckman Wes Fellowes, was relegated to the reserves, deemed unworthy of selection. Fellow ruckman David Cloke would play his 250th VFL match that day. Two of the new Magpies had come from other clubs – former Swan and Saint Paul Morwood and former Hawk Glenn Howard. Two were from Western Australia – Craig Starcevich and Michael Christian – while Fielke had come from South Australia. And four of the new faces were from the successful under 19s side – the previous year’s ‘thirds’ best-and-fairest winner Neil Brindley, Athas Hrysoulakis and a couple of other likely lads in Gavin Brown and Gavin Crosisca. Brindley, 19, recruited from Greensborough, received a phone call from Matthews on the Friday night before the game, informing him he would shadow star Swan Barry Mitchell for the game. He recalled: “It was a bit of a shock to be picked … I debuted with a number of under 19s players and also some recruits who came across (from interstate).” “It was a very, very new side … I think it was the start of the building block for the 1990 premiership.” Four of those nine new faces would be there three-and-a-half years later when Collingwood on the 1990 premiership, but that must have seemed like a pipedream then for the 17,129 fans who attended Victoria Park for that March 28, 1987 game against Sydney. The Swans were too good, from start to finish, setting the scene with five goals to nil in the first term and never looking challenged. By half-time the difference was 73 points, and it had bloated to 95 at the last change. Collingwood managed to outscore Sydney in the final term, kicking six goals to five, but the Magpies still went down by 91 points. Sydney forward Warwick Capper kicked nine goals for the game – seven in the first 41 minutes and only two fewer than the Magpies. Each time he scored, he gave an insulting gesture to the crowd, and at half-time there was almost an ugly scene when one frustrated Collingwood fan confronted Capper as he came off the field. Swans coach Tom Hafey took Capper off towards the end of the game to avoid any further trouble, which perhaps cost him from kicking more double figure goals. The first person to congratulate Capper in the dark and dank visitors’ rooms was Australian Prime Minister and Sydney Swans supporter Bob Hawke. Hawke had reason to celebrate the moment – the score line of 25.15 (165) to 11.8 (74) was, and still is, Sydney’s biggest score against Collingwood, and 91 points remains the Swans’ greatest winning margin against the Magpies. Four members of Collingwood’s 1990 premiership team (Gavin Brown, Michael Christian, Gavin Crosisca and Craig Starcevich) made their senior debuts in the club’s 91-point loss to Sydney in round one, 1987. Hafey was realistic after the game, saying: “It’s good to have a first up win, but it is a different Collingwood side from what we’ve seen in the past, mainly because of all the recruits they’ve got.” Matthews told reporters: “Athas Hrysoulakis and Craig Starcevich were probably the two plusses for us off the top of my head. But they were small mercies really when you’ve been beaten so badly.” “But we have no choice other than to play the inexperienced players and there’s nobody in the reserves, apart from Wes Fellowes, that are likely to come through in the immediate future.” Mitchell had had 35 touches and kicked three goals, which made for a busy afternoon for Brindley in what was his only game in black and white. “I managed to play the whole four quarters without being rested … I didn’t get picked the following week,” Brindley recalled. It was a tough call on 19-year-old Brindley, who was an exceptionally good footballer, and a quality individual, as Mitchell was one of the most exciting players in the competition at that stage. Matthews admitted as much later. Brindley would later return to the Diamond Valley Football League, where he had a long and distinguished career with Greensborough. He deserved another chance, but sadly didn’t get it. But the winds of change were blowing. As the Magpie fans trudged home from the game that night, they had taken a glimpse into the club’s future. The skinny kid with raw courage wearing the No.26 jumper, Gavin Brown, had 21 touches; 18-year-old Gavin Crosisca had 19 disposals; Craig Starcevich kicked three goals; and Michael Christian showed he had a future. Craig Starcevich kicked three goals from 21 disposals on debut against the Swans in round one, 1987. So, too, did the Magpies. From one of the darkness of the club’s worst ever round one loss – 91 points – it would lead to one of the most illuminating of moments. One hundred and four games on, and before a crowd of almost 99,000 at the MCG, four of those nine fresh faces from 1987 were among the 20 players who helped to end one of Australian sport’s long-running and most embarrassing droughts. All played key roles in Collingwood’s drought-breaking 1990 flag. Brown was knocked out during a quarter-time melee, but returned in an inspirational effort during the third term. Crosisca kicked two critical goals. Starcevich kicked a goal and was in the running for the Norm Smith Medal before he was concussed by Terry Daniher, the same Bomber who had earlier struck Brown. And Christian played a steady but important hand deep in defence. The ‘Babes’ of Round 1, 1987 graduated swiftly; and Collingwood’s 14^th VFL-AFL premiership – which was almost 12,000 days in the making – was the reward for long-suffering Magpie fans in 1990.]]> https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/nathan-buckleys-debut-in-black-and-white/ Fri, 01 Aug 2014 00:26:09 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=4090 March 26, 1994 Buckley played his first match in Black and White after a much-publicised move to Collingwood following a brilliant debut season with the Brisbane Bears in 1993. And while Buckley’s Magpie debut game was more a workmanlike performance than displaying the wonders that would come not too much later, it was the start of a relationship that still has at least three seasons to run. Buckley, the player, would become one of the greatest in the club’s history, stretched out across 260 games in Collingwood colours. Buckley, the coach, is still very much an unfinished product, with much promise and the certainty that he will run through until at least the end of the 2016 season. Incredibly, there have been only two years of the past 20 that Buckley has not been at Collingwood – the two seasons he spent in the media and at the AIS Academy in 2008 and ’09. Not even those former Magpie officials (chief among them, Graeme Allan) who fought so doggedly, and to the borderline of AFL rules, to secure him, could have imagined Bucks’ stay would be so long. There had been some collateral damage in the Buckley trade. Collingwood had to compile a list of 10 “untouchables” who were off limits and the rest of the playing list was effectively on the table. That meant the Magpies ended up relinquishing the popular Craig Starcevich and promising young player Troy Lehmann as well as their first draft choice for the readymade star. In hindsight, two decades on, it looks to be one of the trades of the century, even if then coach Leigh Matthews later conceded the zeal with which the club chased Buckley left a sour taste for some players. Buckley had even been heckled by Collingwood players a year earlier when he played against them in Round 12, 1993, especially from Graham Wright, Tony Francis, and, of course, Tony Shaw. “‘Wrighty’ was yelling out ‘I hate you, I hate you’,” Buckley recalled before his first game with Collingwood. “That’s part of the game. It’s business, and out on the field you’ve got no friends on the opposition side.” But the intensely driven young footballer desperately wanted to play for a traditional Victorian club. And while there were suitors aplenty armed with chequebooks ready, willing and able, many suspected it had always been Collingwood who was at the head of the negotiations. As Patrick Smith wrote on the eve of Buckley’s first game: “Distraught wooers of Nathan Buckley, their hearts broken and cheques torn up, will tell you that under the centreman’s Brisbane Bears’ jumper last season beat a heart of Black and White.” Buckley’s recruitment to Collingwood was one of the trade stories of the 1990s. After one season playing for the Bears, he was always going to head to a Victorian club in 1994. What’s more, he wanted to play for a team steeped in history, and the Magpies fitted the bill perfectly. He gave a succinct explanation of his mindset in a “Hero Poster” published in the Herald Sun on the day of his first game, against Fitzroy (who would merge with Brisbane within a handful of years). Asked by Oula, 11, from Spotswood Primary School, why he had left Brisbane, Buckley answered: “I chose to change because I was keen to play for a Victorian club with tradition.” And he gave an indication of his confidence and ambition when he answered questions from Lauren, 12, and Jamie: “Life’s a competition, and once I had the chance, I felt compelled to do it. It’s something I do well.” Buckley wasn’t worried about the pressure or the expectations that would have weighed down others, nor even the suggestion from some that he alone would put the Magpies back in the flag frame. With refreshing honesty that some saw as over-confidence, he would say: “I’ve said 100 times before that the expectations I have of me can’t be outweighed by whatever other expectations might exist. I like to win. “I’m excited with the prospect of playing for a club that has such a tradition of playing important games every week, playing in games when something is riding on it and your reputation has to be proved every time.” His former Brisbane coach Robert Walls predicted Buckley would thrive on the challenge: “He’ll love the big games; the big crowds; the MCG; the 90,000 fans; it will bring out the best in him.” The first time he wore the Collingwood No. 5 jumper wasn’t at the MCG nor were there 90,000 fans in attendance. It was Victoria Park, and 25,602 fans, including this reporter, went to cover the first chapter in Buckley’s life as a Magpie. The chapter would end on a winning note, but only after a bitter struggle against an old rival. If Buckley wanted footy tribalism, this walk down footy memory lane would be right up his alley. He had played earlier in an intra-club at Glenferrie Oval, matched up at centre-half-forward on Michael Christian. There were other non-official games – one against St Kilda in what was Nicky Winmar’s return to Victoria Park after the racial storm from a year earlier, a Foster’s Cup clash with North Melbourne (another team that desperately wooed him), and a clash against Aboriginal All-Star team in Darwin, where he had played some of his junior footy. By the time he ran out for his first official game, the fans were excited by what they had seen in the pre-season and what they could expect to see in the coming decade or so. Members of the so-called “Collingwood unofficial selection committee” – grass roots fans who went by the names of Alf, Brian, Lou, Jack, Bruno and Johnny – were clearly excited, telling one newspaper reporter that “Boom recruit Nathan Buckley’s been a fantastic get. We’re talking Brownlow Medal this year for him. Best recruit since Phil Carman, and a nice bloke with it.” Who knows if it was them, or others, who launched a Brownlow plunge on Buckley that month, backing him to win $55,000, cutting his quote from 25/1 to 14/1? He wouldn’t win the Medal, but he would more than win over Collingwood supporters and his own teammates in the coming weeks and months. Even before that first game, the Herald Sun’s Mike Sheahan forecast that Buckley and Saverio Rocca would become Collingwood’s “most lethal combination” since Barry Price and Peter McKenna in the 1960s and ’70s. Matthews would say of Buckley leading into that first game – “He is not the perfect player. He knows that…that’s what he works at all the time.” Buckley would be overshadowed by an unlikely figure in that opening game for Collingwood, kept relatively quiet by a kid called Tom Kavanagh, who was the son of Brent Crosswell, who had caused his own share of trouble for Collingwood in two Grand Finals – in 1970, for Carlton, and in 1977, for North Melbourne. Fitzroy coach Robert Shaw took the punt on Kavanagh playing on Buckley, and for at least for three quarters, it paid dividends. Collingwood had only played seven of its 1990 premiership team that day. A number of them had moved on, or been moved on, while others were nursing injury and form concerns. One of them, the ever popular James Manson, had transferred to Fitzroy and was playing his 18th game for the Lions. Manson’s unusual kicking gait sometimes proved a frustration to Magpie fans, but nowhere near as much as his 50m-plus goal (yes, it really did happen) for the Lions against Collingwood that day. It was one of the most enjoyable goals he would kick in his footy career. One of the Pies’ 1990 heroes was making a brave comeback from a debilitating illness that day. Graham Wright was playing his first game since being diagnosed late in 1993 with Guillain-Barre syndrome, which had brought about a short-term limited paralysis and a loss of 11 kilos. And on a day that reached more than 30 degrees – prompting Magpies fitness conditioner Mark McKeon to call on the AFL to institute night or twilight matches in early season games – Leigh Matthews wondered post-game whether it had been the right thing to play Wright. He said: “You shouldn’t say it, but I suppose if it’s over 25 degrees, we really shouldn’t play him.” The Fitzroy team had two future senior AFL coaches in their side that day – Paul Roos and Ross Lyon – while the Magpie team would produce Buckley and Tony Shaw as future coaches. Buckley wasn’t the only first time Magpie that day. Jon Hassall played his debut match, while Brett James, Jon Ballantyne, and Stephen Ryan, recruited from Norwood, Footscray and Richmond, also turned out in Black and White for the first time. A kid called Andrew Tranquilli was buttering up for his second game, and he would make it a memorable one, kicking a goal. It was a strangely fluctuating match of many twists and turns. Collingwood led by two points at the first change after a scrappy first term, then Fitzroy responded with seven goals in the second to lead by 14 at half time. Midway through the second term, it looked as if there would be a big upset in the offing, with the Lions leading by as much as 26 points. Then the Magpies edged into the margin, and by three-quarter-time had cut it back to a more manageable, but still difficult 14 point deficit. As the Collingwood team gathered to hear Matthews’ final speech just in front of the Ryder Stand side wing, the Collingwood crowd began to chant and urge the home side onto a special final term. Almost on cue, Buckley began to break clear of his tag, and some outstanding play from the recruit saw him kick the first goal of the final term after only one minute had elapsed. The chant got bigger, and fans were pleased to see the new boy was earning his keep. If there were two turning points, one of them came from Matthews and the other from some undisciplined play from Fitzroy forward Darren ‘Doc’ Wheildon. The first one came in the third term when the coach switched Jason McCartney from centre half-back to centre half-forward, He responded with one of his best performances in a Black and White jumper. The second was when Wheildon “flattened” James after he had taken a mark and the resulting 50m penalty saw James fire the ball off to McCartney, who kicked one of his three goals of the final term. Fitzroy didn’t throw in the towel, though. We should have expected nothing less from a team The Age described as: “a team that refuses to be bowed by defections, disasters, and dire predictions of financial destruction.” McCartney’s second goal 12 minutes into the final term finally gave the home side the lead for the first time since the eight-minute-mark of the second quarter. And then Paul Williams’ fifth goal came from a free kick and it extended the lead to nine points. But the Lions gained one back when the busy Matthew Armstrong set up Ross Lyon for a goal. But Collingwood’s most effective player, Mick McGuane, swept the ball away from the next centre bounce and McCartney outpointed Roos and kicked the sealing goal from outside 50m. The Magpies held on to win the match by 11 points, all due to a seven-goal final term that was partly inspired by Buckley’s best quarter for the match, and some brilliance from Williams and McCartney. Matthews said: “They (Fitzroy) started well and we just never quite picked them up to the very end. We were just fair today, just reasonable.” That might have summed up Nathan Buckley’s game, though it was said a lack of opportunity was as much a cause as the close checking of Kavanagh. It was a start, however, and his 18 touches and 1.3 gave those there that day a glimpses of what was to come from Buckley. And even now, 20 years on, there is still more to come from him at Collingwood. Round 1 1994 Collingwood    3.1, 6.5, 10.10, 17.12 (114) Fitzroy             2.5, 9.6, 13.6, 16.7 (103) Goals Collingwood: Williams 5, McCartney 3, Rocca 2, Ryan 2, Buckley, McGuane, Richardson, Shaw, Tranquilli Fitzroy: Armstrong 3, Boyd 2, McGregor 2, Sartori 2, Hogg, Lyon, Dunstan, Manson, Wheildon, McCarthy, Sporn Disposals Collingwood: Brown 24, McGuane 21, Buckley 18, Fraser 15, Watson 15, Williams 15 Fitzroy: Roos 27, Armstrong 26, Boyd 22, Sartori 18, McCarthy 18 Crowd: 25,602 at Victoria Park on Saturday 26 March, 1994]]>