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/collingwoods-rising-stars/ Sun, 02 Sep 2018 07:41:14 +0000 https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=12926 1. Saverio Rocca, Round 13, 1993 One of Collingwood’s best forwards of the 1990s, Sav Rocca‘s four goals in a losing game against West Coast prompted his nomination after his 22nd game. But his career went into overdrive the week after.  In that game – his 23rd overall – Rocca kicked a bag of 10 goals against Richmond and a fortnight after that he booted another 10 against Footscray on his way to 73 goals for the year. He never got a look in for the overall award though, with the likes of Nathan Buckley, James Hird, Shane Crawford, Glenn Archer, Scott West, Matthew Richardson, Dustin Fletcher and Mark Mercuri making it one of the strongest years on record. 2. Kent Butcher, Round 8, 1994 Twenty disposals in Collingwood’s big win over St Kilda in Kent Butcher‘s 10th game were enough to win the weekly gong. He arguably had a better game the following week, with 26 touches against North Melbourne, but the running backman would manage only another 12 games in black and white before transferring to Sydney, where he did not play a game. 3. Jon Hassall, Round 22, 1994 One of five Magpies to be forever frozen on 50 games with the club, Hassall played 23 games in his debut season with the club in 1994, leaving his Rising Star nomination until round 22. He had 18 touches in the club’s heavy loss to North Melbourne. It was his 20th AFL match and the run-with defender would win the club’s best first year player that season. He would end up playing a further 44 games with Hawthorn from 1997-99. 4. Andrew Schauble, Round 7, 1996 A consistent player in his early years at Collingwood, Andrew Schauble came under notice in his 10th game when nominated for a 14-disposal, one-goal performance in a loss to St Kilda in 1995. It would be the best statistical year of his five seasons – and 79 games – with the Magpies. After a trade to Sydney, he won the Swans’ best-and-fairest award in 2000. 5. Mal Michael, Round 18, 1997 Mal Michael was a three-time premiership player, but sadly not with Collingwood. He won his gong in only his ninth game, after a great defensive game against St Kilda in late 1997, in his debut year. He would manage only 61 games in four seasons in Black and White before his successful move to Brisbane, where he won his flags. Two of them came against Collingwood, which hurt those who fondly remembered him in the No.48 jumper. 6. Nick Davis, Round 5, 1999 Essendon staved off a fast-finishing Collingwood in the 1999 ANZAC Day clash, and while Mark Mercuri would eventually be adjudged the ANZAC Day Medal winner, Nick Davis got his own tick for a strong performance in only his fifth AFL game. Nineteen-year-old Davis had 18 touches and five inside 50s in the eight-point loss and such was his efforts that he was nominated a few days later as the Rising Star of the week. He, too, would be off to a new club after four seasons, heading to Sydney, where he would play in the 2005 flag side. 7. Paul Licuria, Round 18, 1999 After 10 games across two seasons with Sydney, Paul Licuria craved a return to Melbourne and to the club he barracked for as a kid. He got that in 1999, and after only his ninth game with his new club – and 19th overall – he received a Rising Star nomination with a 28-touch effort against West Coast – wearing the unfamiliar No.32 before switching to No.18 the following year. 8. Damien Adkins, Round 3, 2000 Magpie fans wondered if they were witnessing the birth of a new star in Damien Adkins‘ first few games in Mick Malthouse’s first season as coach. He kicked two goals on debut against Hawthorn and a further two and had 19 touches in round three against Carlton, for which the 19-year-old copped his Rising Star nomination. Injuries and inconsistent form cruelled his career and he was gone within three seasons, before being traded to West Coast for Andrew Williams. He played in the Eagles’ 2004 Elimination Final side, but missed selection in the 2005 Grand Final. 9. Josh Fraser, Round 6, 2000 Collingwood’s only No.1 draft selection, 18-year-old Josh Fraser made an instant impact, winning the Rising Star nomination for his Round 6 effort against North Melbourne. He had 17 disposals in the game, kicked a goal and played forward and shared the ruck duties with Steven McKee. 10. Ryan Lonie, Round 4, 2001 Ryan Lonie had a fine debut year for Collingwood, winning a Rising Star nomination in only his fourth game, against Richmond in 2001. He not only ended up playing 21 games in that debut season, his hard-running and long kicking even saw him poll 11 votes in the final tally won by St Kilda’s Justin Koschitzke. 11. Jason Cloke, Round 6, 2002 Collingwood’s massive 83-point win over St Kilda was good enough for Magpie fans, but it got even better on the Monday afternoon when the AFL announced Jason Cloke as the Rising Star nomination for the week after only his fifth game. The defender had 17 touches and five tackles, in a debut season which finished with a heartbreaking suspension in the preliminary final. 12. Mark McGough, Round 10, 2002 You would probably assume that Mark McGough‘s Rising Star nomination would have come from his Anzac Day dominance in only his second game. It didn’t. The 17-year-old school boy had to wait until his seventh game to get the AFL honour, after he had 16 touches against Sydney in round 10. McGough would be a comet flashing before Collingwood supporters’ eyes in only three seasons before moving briefly to St Kilda. 13. Alan Didak, Round 16, 2002 Alan Didak gave a few hints of his brilliance in his five games in 2001, but that just kept escalating in the years to come. In his second season, and in his 16th game, the skilful forward had 13 touches and kicked two goals as a sure sign this kid was going to be a star. And that performance won him a Rising Star nomination. 14. Richard Cole, Round 17, 2003 In his second season at the club, and in a one-sided game against the old enemy Carlton, Richard Cole put his name forward for a Rising Star mention when he had 17 touches and kicked a goal. Frustratingly, his four seasons at Collingwood, and his two at Essendon, did not yield what anyone would have wanted, despite the fact that he polled well in the 2004 Copeland. 15. Matthew Lokan, Round 22, 2003 An unlikely success story for Collingwood in his debut season of 2003, Matty Lokan played every game (including the Grand Final), playing across half-back, won the club’s best first year player and received the final Rising Star nomination that year. Struggled to make an impact after that, but made the most of his AFL career. 16. Guy Richards, Round 9, 2004 The ruckman enjoyed a solid 2004 season, playing 12 games, winning the club’s best first year player, and receiving a Rising Star nomination after having 15 touches, kicking a goal and having 13 hit outs against Adelaide. 17. Travis Cloke, Round 10, 2005 Six games into his AFL career, Travis Cloke won the Rising Star nod for his 15-disposal, six-mark and one-goal performance in the club’s win over Hawthorn. 18. Dale Thomas, Round 2, 2006 His first game produced a screamer and two goals; his second yielded 20 disposals and no goals but won him the Rising Star weekly prize. 19. Heath Shaw, Round 5, 2006 Heath Shaw polled 32 votes – and was third – in the overall count of 2006. He won his nomination in round five, in his 10th game, when he had 23 touches and nine rebound 50s in the clash with Port Adelaide. 20. Scott Pendlebury, Round 4, 2007 Surprisingly, Pendles didn’t get the Rising Star nomination out of nine games in his first year (2006), but he wasted little time in getting the recognition in his second. In round four – his 13th game – the star midfielder had 20 touches and kicked two goals against the Power. Pendlebury polled 37 votes, only seven votes behind the eventual winner Joel Selwood. 21. Marty Clarke, Round 13, 2007 A week after his stunning debut against Sydney, Marty Clarke won the Rising Star weekly tick in only his second game, with a three-goal 19-disposal effort against Hawthorn that had plenty of people talking about the Irishman. 22. Tyson Goldsack, Round 21, 2007 Tyson Goldsack‘s Rising Star nomination in only his 13th game for the club also produced what is still his best disposal count. He had 25 touches against the Swans, and it’s still his personal best for a game. 23. Nathan Brown, Round 10, 2008 Consistency in defence in his first 10 games proved the key to Nathan Brown‘s Rising Star nomination in a 100-point win over West Coast in his first season. 24. Jaxson Barham, Round 4, 2009 Jaxson Barham had the dream start to what would ultimately be a brief AFL career. Wearing his father Ricky’s old No.43, he had 28 touches on debut against Brisbane in round four, 2009, and won the Rising Star nomination from his first game. But not much else followed. He holds the record with St Kilda’s Brodie Atkinson for the least amount of career games for a Rising Star nominee – seven. 25. Brad Dick, Round 11, 2009 Who could ever forget Brad Dick‘s five-goal haul against Melbourne on Queen’s Birthday, 2009, in only his 11th game? But for a few other flashy moments, he never reached those same heights, held back by injuries. He would end up playing 27 games for the club before heading to West Coast where he failed to play a game. 26. Dayne Beams, Round 17, 2009 Two goals and 21 disposals in a big win over Carlton showed Collingwood fans just how good Dayne Beams would become. 27. Ben Reid, Round 12, 2010 He made steady progress during his first three years, but Ben Reid had a memorable 2010 season for many reasons, predominantly the premiership. But he also won a Rising Star nomination after his 17th game. 28. Alex Fasolo, Round 22, 2011 Nineteen disposals, two goals and a Rising Star gong – that all came for Alex Fasolo in round 22, 2011. He had kicked five goals three week earlier but it was not deemed to be his moment. The judges were never going to let that happen this time around, and he capped off a strong debut season by playing in a losing Grand Final side. 29. Ben Sinclair, Round 11, 2012 Playing his 15th AFL game, Ben Sinclair received his nomination for his three-goal effort against Melbourne in Round 11, 2012. It was a perfect Queen’s Birthday for the blond haired man in the No. 28 jumper. 30. Marley Williams, Round 18, 2013 Just five days after his 20th birthday, Marley Williams got a belated present – a weekly nomination for the Rising Star. It was after his good form in round 18, 2013, when he had 16 touches against GWS. 31. Brodie Grundy, Round 22, 2013 Brodie Grundy not only ousted Darren Jolly out of the ruck role in late 2013, he won a Rising Star shout-out for his performance in Round 22, against West Coast. But he only got one vote in the tally at the end of the season, which was won by Jaeger O’Meara (44). 32. Tom Langdon, Round 7, 2014 Tom Langdon won his Rising Star recognition in his seventh game in 2014, when he had 23 touches in Collingwood’s win over Carlton. 33. Tim Broomhead, Round 11, 2015 Twenty five disposals and a goal was enough to lift Tim Broomhead to the Rising Star nomination in round 11 this year. 34. Jordan De Goey, Round 20, 2015 Jordan De Goey got his nomination for his gutsy performance against Sydney at the SCG, when he had 18 touches and kicked a vital goal. 35. Darcy Moore, Round 19, 2016 Darcy Moore played just 34 per cent of the match against West Coast at the MCG. But it was enough for him to kick three goals and two behinds from six marks before injury ended his day. 36. Tom Phillips, Round 9, 2017 The 21-year-old collected 24 disposals, four rebounds and laid three tackles during Collingwood’s thrilling comeback win over Hawthorn. 37. Sam Murray, Round 3, 2018 Months after being traded from Sydney, Murray made his league debut against Hawthorn in round one, and by round three, courtesy of his 21 disposals, seven marks and four tackles against the Blues, found himself on the receiving end of a Rising Star nomination. 38. Jaidyn Stephenson, Round 4, 2018 At just 19 years of age, Stephenson, playing his fourth game, kicked five goals to spearhead Collingwood to its first win in South Australia since 2012. At the end of the season he would go on to become the first Collingwood player ever to win the Rising Star award, with a record count of 52 votes.]]> https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/a-night-of-hellos-and-goodbyes/ Wed, 11 May 2016 01:17:03 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10447 By: Glenn McFarlane, Herald Sun journalist and Collingwood historian. It was a match that seemingly had everything. There was a bold beginning and a farewell of sorts. There was a 23rd birthday, a milestone of longevity and some past demons buried. There was an unusual career-best effort from a club champion, as well as a victory crafted from adversity, owing to a quartet of injuries – one of them which proved career-ending. There was even a banner held up in the Cheer Squad which may have summed up the feeling of many Collingwood fans, but caused some angst among MCG officials. It was round 10, 2006, and it is match worth revisiting. Collingwood took on its nemesis, the Brisbane Lions, that June Saturday night before a crowd of 54,280 fans. Those in attendance and those watching at home on television were in for a real treat. Let’s start with the beginning. It belonged to an 18-year-old young gun called Scott Pendlebury. Wearing the No. 16 jumper – he didn’t switch to No. 10 until 2007 – the No. 5 draft pick from Sale had his first pre-season rudely interrupted by glandular fever, but showed enough form in the VFL to be elevated for his first senior game against the Lions. And it was a beginning of great promise. Pendlebury would join the “first goal, first kick” club that night, having 11 touches, including eight contested possessions. It was a sign of what was to come in the future. Scott Pendlebury takes possession during his first senior game in round 10, 2006. The farewell centred on 29-year-old Blake Caracella, though no one knew it at the time. He was playing his 187th game – and his 27th in a Collingwood jumper – and it came against his former side, with whom he had won the 2003 premiership, against the Magpies. This would be his final match, with an incident bringing about a premature end to his successful career. He was the player to wear the No. 10 immediately before Pendlebury took it on the following year. The demons undone that night in 2006 were directly related to that 2003 Grand Final. The Magpies hadn’t beaten the Lions since the 2003 Qualifying Final, and the mental of scars of what happened in the Grand Final that followed, and in the years after, still plagued some of the Collingwood players. It was time to exorcise some of the Lions’ demons. The 23rd birthday was Nick Maxwell‘s. An incident with Jonathan Brown early in the match would provide him with the sort of gift that no one wants – a broken leg, and six weeks on the sidelines. The milestone was Mick Malthouse‘s 700th VFL-AFL game as both a player and a coach – 174 as a player for St Kilda and Richmond, and 526 as coach of Footscray, West Coast and Collingwood. More milestones were ahead. And the banner? It was held aloft by ‘Joffa’ Corfe and read: ‘P— off Brisbane”. Many Magpie fans clearly agreed with the sentiment, even if the ground’s security didn’t have the same regard for it. The unusual career-best came from Nathan Buckley, and it was interconnected with the injuries. Aged 34 and playing his 263rd game, Buckley was shifted forward to provide a target, given the numerous injuries suffered. The Magpies’ midfield maestro would produce a night to remember, kicking a career-best six goals, including his 250th in a Black and White jumper. Robert Walls, who had coached Buckley in his one season with Brisbane in 1993, predicted the Magpies would break their drought against the Lions in a column he penned in The Age on the morning of the match. Blake Caracella leaves the MCG for the last time after injuring his neck during Collingwood’s win over Brisbane. “Tonight will be the start of ‘payback time’ for Collingwood,” Walls explained. “Over the past five seasons, the Lions have felt superior to the Pies, physically and mentally. (But) it’s Collingwood’s time.” The opening to the game was as hard-fought and ferocious as the rivalry between these two teams demanded. They didn’t like one another, and it showed. The past was very much dictating what was happening in the present, and this time around Collingwood was determined to make sure they would not give an inch. When Paul Licuria mistakenly gave off a handball to Ash McGrath, and the Lion kicked the first goal, the bad blood was on show for everyone to see. Some scuffles followed and more than a few Lions mouthed off. In one passage of play, Brown crashed into Maxwell, and the Lions forward emerged with blood on his forehead. But the birthday boy fared worse. He had put his body on the line, and never flinched, even when one of the toughest players in the competition was coming at him. By quarter-time, Maxwell’s night was over. But the injuries kept coming. Dane Swan, 22 and playing his 40th game, suffered a hamstring injury. He, too, was out of the game, while Josh Fraser was also injured, but he managed to hobble back on late in the game to kick an unlikely goal. No one was prepared for what happened next. Early in the second term, Caracella’s career changed forever. Fortunately, his life didn’t, but it was a close call. The two-time premiership player went for a ball that came in short, and then appeared to lose his footing. His former teammate Tim Notting slid into him, with his hip inadvertently crashing into the Magpie’s head. As Notting swept the ball away, Caracella was unmoved. No free kick was awarded, and almost as disturbingly, the play carried on as trainers rushed to Caracella’s aid. One reporter noted: “A motionless body and a stretcher are among the two things you never want to see on a footy field.” At least with the stretcher being called, the game was temporarily halted. An eerie feeling went around the MCG, with fears as to what had happened to the likeable Magpie who just couldn’t get up. Caracella would later explain to Buckley in an exclusive interview in the Sunday Herald Sun: “I just got hit in the side of my head. Then I slowly rolled over and tried to get up.” “If you look at the video, you can see my head raised, but my arms and legs don’t do anything. That was me being paralysed for a split second. The doc asked if I could move my feet and I could just wiggle my toes a bit. Within 30-40 seconds, he asked me to move my legs and I did a bit. I got worried because I could see he was worried. “At the same time my arms were really sore. I actually said to the doc to take me through the interchange bench, but he said that wasn’t an option.” Caracella was taken immediately to hospital. He had suffered a fractured vertebra and bruising to the spinal cord. Subsequent X-rays revealed that he had a pre-existing flaw in his spine. The game was important, but Caracella’s welfare was infinitely more so. Again, there was a strange mood in the Collingwood rooms at half-time – when the Magpies led by seven points – as the seriousness of Caracella’s injury began to sink in to his teammates. Many in the crowd felt as if the Magpies’ hopes of winning ended with the limited interchanges they would have for the rest of the game. Jon Ralph explained in the Herald Sun: “Enter Buckley. Pushed forward instead of resting on the bench as he normally would, he dragged the Pies back into the game.” The Magpies kicked five goals to three in the third term, opening up the break to 21 points, and closed the game out with five more goals in the final term to secure a resilient 26-point victory. Buckley had 29 possessions. But for once it was his goal tally which was more important than the disposals. He kicked six goals for the game, his highest tally in AFL football, but the four premiership points felt better. “I’m happy to rotate through the forward line,” Buckley said after the game. “I think Mick was going to use the goal square as an opportunity to rest guys through the midfield because we didn’t have an opportunity to rotate through the bench. “When I went down there late in the third quarter it was to take that rest opportunity and it was good to get on the end of a couple of great passes. “I know what forwards mean when they talk about getting good service because that was basically what I was able to get on the end of.” Buckley won the three Brownlow Medal votes that night – the last of 34 BOGs he would awarded across a stellar career. Malthouse described the victory as “an excellent win, an absolutely terrific win, and a very, very good win under the circumstances.” “We’ve taken another step today . . . are we growing as a football team? Today I thought we grew a bit more. “I think we’d lost our third player by the five-minute mark of the second quarter, or thereabouts, and under the circumstances, I thought the boys were just terrific.” The relief of winning was satisfying, but there was relief too when it emerged that Caracella had narrowly dodged a bullet in terms of how the injury could have been infinitely more serious. A leading sports physician Peter Brukner later detailed how Caracella was “very close” to becoming permanently incapacitated – “he is a very lucky man.” Collingwood President Eddie McGuire agreed: “He’s lucky in his unluckiness, if you like. There doesn’t seem to be any permanent damage. (But) it was a close thing.” All smiles again: Blake Caracella walks to the Collingwood coaches box four weeks after sustaining his neck injury against Brisbane. Caracella retired two months after the incident, explaining: “I’ve seen a specialist … and I’m at an increased risk of doing further damage to my spinal cord and possibly being paralysed (if he played on).” “I’ve seen all the specialists and … it was guaranteed that it was too dangerous to play again, so I was obviously very disappointed.” One of the first phone calls Caracalla took in the days after the incident came from Notting. Another was from Neil Sachse, a former Footscray player, who had become a quadriplegic in a match in 1975. That put into context just how lucky he had been. Caracella said later: “The CT scan showed the arteries that go through the vertebrae . . . there are holes in the back of the vertebrae where they go through and are held in place and I actually cracked the rim of the hole. “So if that bone had gone backwards or splintered a bit and cut the artery, it was pretty much goodnight. “You can see on the scan that there is a bit of bruising in the spinal cord behind C5. I said, ‘Does that happen very much when it comes to these types of injuries?’ He said, ‘No, not really, normally there is no bruising or it snaps in half.’ Amazingly, I didn’t snap it. I have been incredibly lucky in that sense.” Fortunately, he was never going to be lost to football. Caracella became a Collingwood assistant coach (2007-2009) and has been an assistant at Geelong since 2010. And many good judges think he has what it takes to become an AFL senior coach one day.]]>