Collingwood Forever

Despite carrying a name that would become famous 40 years later through a newspaper comic strip, our version of Charlie Brown was the classic quiet achiever. He was a vital part of one of the club’s most successful eras, one that saw the club play five Grand Finals in six seasons, but rarely attracted the kind of attention that fell to some of his flashier teammates.

That’s understandable when your teammates included guys like Dick Lee, Charlie Pannam Jnr, Bill Twomey Snr, Con McCarthy, Percy Wilson and more. But make no mistake: Charlie Brown was a lynchpin of our defence in the late 1910s and early 1920s, and one of the first names Jock McHale would have pencilled into his team each week.

Charlie first appeared in Magpie colours in the opening round of 1916, having previously played with Balmain in the Victorian Metropolitan Football League. He’d only played footy for two years, and before Balmain had been with the 63^rd Senior Cadets, where he played as a forward.

Against Richmond on debut at Punt Road, however, he was played in defence. The Football Record wrote: “Collingwood have secured a promising recruit in Brown, from the Balmain. He was tried on the back line, where he acquitted himself well, marking in grand style. In fact, one effort in the third term was a ‘dazzler’. He was a skilful performer, fast and certain in everything he essayed to do.”

That debut performance set the tone. He played all 13 games Collingwood played that season, in a year shortened by the First World War, and would almost certainly have won the best first year player award if one had been given.

He continued where he left off in 1917. The Football Record said he did not play a poor game all season. “He is a lad with a sure pair of hands and great dash,” it said. “Brown takes his marks in a style that is really fine to watch. He rarely makes a mistake.”

This was true. He quickly became a superb centre half-back: majestic in the air, strong at ground level and hard for any key forward to beat. He was rarely beaten in one-on-one contests. He missed only one game in his first two seasons, and was one of the club’s best players throughout the 1917 Premiership season, forming a wonderful defensive pairing with Harry Saunders. “Brown, in just his second year, is developing into a star, with superb marking and judgement and perfect ball-handling,” wrote one newspaper.

His standing continued to rise, and by 1919 The Weekly Times felt moved to publish a special feature on him. It read in part:

“There is no more important position on the field than centre half-back, and probably no player in the metropolis more capable of filling it than Charlie Brown, of Collingwood. A man’s football class may be accurately determined by seeking the general opinion of his club following. Tested in this way, Brown is a defender of absolutely the first order of merit. If ever a local crowd had confidence in a man it is the Collingwood folk with regard to their centre-back.

“Young Brown is a finished footballer, and a highly attractive one at that. His play is as free from the faults of the apprentice as it is from the blemish of unfairness. While only three years since the Collingwood man emerged from a brief junior schooling he has pretty well perfected himself in the business of football defence.

“A tip-top centre half-back wants just the qualifications that are so desirably evident in Brown’s case. His marking should be good. Brown’s is positively magnificent. He seems to be able to take the ball no matter how crowded or confused the situation.

“Your centre half-back must be at once cool and quick. Did anyone ever see Brown either rattled or sluggish?

“When in possession, Brown knows how and where to kick. His faculty for locating the half-forwards, and of finding them with a great kick, is a conspicuous feature of his play. He has speed enough to keep pace with the next man. His weight is ample to force an opening when occasion requires. His reach is aided by his generous height, and his staying power is appropriate to a well-trained athlete of 23.

“In preparation Brown is conscientious, without being faddy. The trainers have no trouble in keeping him up to necessary work. He feels fit to defend the club goal against all-comers, while confident that his club-mates can carry the citadel of any other side often enough to bring the pennant to Victoria Park.”

Despite such heady praise, Brown retained a surprisingly low profile. Even so, his absence from the 1919 finals series through disqualification was widely declared a disaster Collingwood, and it was to everyone’s relief that the Pies prevailed nonetheless.

Also a very good cricketer, Brown’s form on the footy field tapered off a little as the decade changed. He actually trained with Port Melbourne, then Northcote, early in 1920, but returned to Victoria Park. After a couple more solid seasons, he flagged an early retirement from the VFL in 1923 and said he was going to coach Heidelberg. Again he changed his mind, and when he played his first game back in June he was given a huge ovation. He was best on ground against Richmond late in August and looked to be returning to his earlier high standards.

But that performance proved to be his last hurrah. He developed appendicitis soon after that and missed the rest of the season, then in May of 1924 was taken to St Vincent’s to have an operation after complaining of feeling ill. That unspecified illness would keep him out for the entire season. There’s also no sign of him having played in 1925. He would later resume playing with the Victoria Brewery team.

It’s a pity that the serious illnesses he suffered late in his career denied Charlie Brown a proper farewell from the game. Instead his career pretty much petered out. A player as good as he was deserved so much more.

– Michael Roberts