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/collingwood-cult-figures-phil-carman/ Wed, 06 Jul 2016 00:05:23 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10564 By: Michael Roberts, Collingwood Historian. When Phil Carman arrived at Collingwood in 1975, many were quick to brand him the most exciting and talented footballer to wear the Black and White jumper in 20 years. But he also proved to be every bit as exasperating as he was brilliant. And that combination has ensured, to this day, his standing as a fan favourite – but a favourite who could, and should, have achieved so much more. Carman first came to the attention of Collingwood talent scouts in 1965, when the Magpies played a practice match in his home town of Edenhope against a combined League representative side. Carman was only 15 at the time, and was in just his first season of senior football with Edenhope. His performance against Collingwood that day was good enough to earn him an invitation to train with the club for a week during his school holidays. But Norwood, in South Australia, offered to put him through college to gain his leaving and matriculation, and Carman jumped at the chance. Collingwood refused to clear him (Edenhope was in their zone), but his family moved to Adelaide and the Australian National Football Council issued him with a permit anyway. After half a season the permit was revoked and Carman had to stand out of serious football for the next two-and-a-half years. As the ban dragged on, Norwood became increasingly angry at Collingwood’s obstinacy, and the Pies eventually granted a clearance on the condition that if Carman ever played VFL football it was to be with Collingwood. Over the next five years Carman’s name lingered tantalisingly in the background at Victoria Park. He was always going to be coming “next season”, but he never did. Any time Collingwood made an offer Norwood matched it, so Phil stayed in South Australia. By the time he felt he had outgrown South Australian football and was looking for new challenges he was 24 years old. Scrapping with Carlton great Alex Jesaulenko. After all the years of waiting, Collingwood was abuzz with expectation. Could he possibly live up to the hype? You bet. Despite the burden imposed by such expectations — and a substantial price tag — Carman took the VFL by storm. His performances in that first season exceeded the expectations of even the most optimistic Collingwood supporters, and immediately stamped him as one of the League’s true superstars. He played just 15 games but still won the Copeland Trophy and would almost certainly have won the Brownlow Medal too but for the games he missed (he eventually finished only three votes behind Footscray’s Gary Dempsey). Carman was a football freak; at his best there was nothing he could not do. At 188cm (6ft 2in) he was tall enough to hold down key positions like centre half-forward and full-forward, yet he was agile and quick enough to play his best football in the centre. He had a huge leap, sure hands, was superbly skilled on both sides of his body, superfit and had a penchant for the spectacular. He was also flamboyant, loved getting in opposition faces, and was responsible for the emergence of white boots. Collingwood went “Fabulous Phil”-crazy in 1975. He instantly became the biggest and most popular Magpie, and one of the biggest stars in the game. After just 10 games he was chosen to play for Victoria, but broke his foot during the game. Collingwood’s fortunes plummeted without him, but his return to the field late in the season was something extraordinary, even by his standards. In his first game back he donned the famous white boots for the first time and kicked 6.8 against Essendon in a superb performance. The next week at Moorabbin he simply tore St Kilda apart. In a one-man rampage that will never be forgotten by anyone who saw it, he bagged 11 goals. In its aftermath Lou Richards branded Carman “the most exciting footballer ever to play with Collingwood … and possibly the best”. At the end of 1975 it seemed that only injury could stop Philip John Carman from dominating the VFL for the rest of the decade. He was in the prime of his football life and was already regarded as the most exciting footballer in the League, and had a talent that would not be matched again until Gary Ablett Snr hit his straps in the 1980s. On the fly during his brief but brilliant 66-game career. But the “Phil fever” that had hit the competition in 1975 had disguised a few weaknesses. He was undisciplined, had a poor attitude to training and little regard for team disciplines. He suffered more than most from the infighting that plagued the club in 1976, and later admitted that he “couldn’t be bothered” with it all that year. He was something of a loner who ran his own race, and would sometimes leave training early when he felt he’d done enough (he was a fitness fanatic who was almost always first on the track). Internally, resentment towards him grew. “I was irresponsible and undisciplined,” he said in 1991. “I just lost interest — I’d train to maintain my fitness and do what I thought was enough and then I’d sort of wander off. I hated the team meetings and that sort of stuff because they became so repetitive.” Carman admits his problems were largely of his own making, but he also believes that other players were reluctant to accept him from the start, possibly because of the publicity surrounding his arrival. Carman found it hard to shake himself out of the bad habits he’d got himself into in 1977, even with new coach Tom Hafey at the helm. But he still became a key to the team’s success that year. He played good football, became a far better team player and remained one of the few Magpies capable of single-handedly destroying an opposition side. But he whacked Michael Tuck in the Second Semi-Final against Hawthorn and was rubbed out for two games – missing both the Grand Final and the subsequent replay. Many Collingwood people, including Hafey, believe his absence made the difference in those epic contests against North Melbourne. Those same people found it hard to forgive him for that indiscretion, and he was traded to Melbourne after a disappointing end to the 1978 campaign. After that he went to Essendon and North, but he never again exhibited his 1975 form. In fact his most noteworthy post-Collingwood performance was when he headbutted boundary umpire Graham Carbery in 1980 while at Essendon (for which he copped a 16-week suspension). After he left the VFL, Carman headed bush — but he could not escape controversy. Every so often reports would drift back about another tribunal appearance, going AWOL from his country team or some other incident. He also spent time back in the SANFL with Sturt, where he achieved great things with a young Sturt team. Soaring above a Hawk in the 1977 Second Semi-Final. In 1991 he reflected on the opportunities he’d wasted. “Certainly I look back and think I didn’t make enough of myself,” he said then. “If I had my time over again I would have changed my attitude completely; I would have stayed at training, been prepared to do all the right things and become a real part of things. I’d just conform a little bit more.” But the fact that he didn’t has helped make the legend of Phil Carman what it is. He remains an almost mythical figure, largely on the basis of that one extraordinary season and all the bizarre incidents that followed. There are still some who label him the best player they’ve seen at Collingwood – after just 66 games. The fans have long forgiven him for the indiscretions: what they have are memories of a freakishly gifted footballer who could have been anything. This is an edited version of the story that appeared in the club’s centenary book, A Century of the Best.]]> https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/collingwood-cult-figures-ron-wearmouth/ Wed, 11 May 2016 00:08:11 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10441 By: Glenn McFarlane, Herald Sun journalist and Collingwood historian. Think Ron Wearmouth, and the Collingwood rover’s trademark features immediately spring to mind for those Magpie fans who remember him fondly. His blond, flowing locks; his energetic bursts from contests; his cheeky on-field manner that could sometimes get him into trouble; and a knockabout nature that endeared him to teammates and those in the terraces. If a measure of a footballer’s popularity comes from such trademarks, Wearmouth was surely one of the club’s great characters, not to mention a player of serious note. He could well have played his league football elsewhere. His father, Dick, played 100 games for Footscray in the 1940s and early 1950s, and his son could have followed him under the father-son rule. Fitzroy was also an option for a young Ronnie Wearmouth, as it controlled the zone around Terang, where he played some senior football in 1968. But Dick was happy for his son to play with Collingwood, the club controlling the zone for Noorat, the tiny town where Ronnie played his first senior football, and where his family ran a dairy farm. Part of the reason for choosing Collingwood was that the club’s vice-president and 1936 premiership player Jim Crowe had coached Wearmouth’s father at Footscray. “Dad suggested I play at Victoria Park because of its stronger and more stable administration,” Ron would recall. He joined Collingwood in 1969, and it is no surprise his hairstyle drew as much attention as his football ability in first year. As detailed in Michael Roberts’ A Century of the Best, one night at training Magpies coach Bob Rose “came out, pinned him to the ground and gave him ‘one of the best basin cuts you’ve ever seen'”. Des Tuddenham recalled saying to the teenager from Noorat: “You can’t look like a girl, son, if you’re going to play a man’s game.” Wearmouth wouldn’t listen. He grew his locks back as soon as he could. Wearmouth made his VFL debut in round 14, 1969, against Melbourne, wearing the No. 48 jumper, having 11 disposals. Doug Gott was the other debutant in the Magpies’ two-point victory over the Demons. It would be his only senior match that season. He wasn’t surprised, saying later: “To be honest, I was a little out of my depth. I wasn’t conditioned and I was skinny and not ready for a game of senior football.” Wearmouth was demoted to the supplementary list for a period in 1970, with concerns over his capacity for hard work and training. But, now wearing the No.35 jumper, he won his way back into the seniors for six games in the second half of the season, though he lost his place for the finals. Inconsistency and a lack of discipline at times cost him in his early years at Collingwood. A few suspensions earned him the reputation of being a “hothead”, but he was at least elevated to the No. 5 jumper for the 1972 season when Neil Mann took over as coach. He rejected the advances of other clubs, with his father urging him to stay. Wearmouth decided to knuckle down as best as he could. The arrival of Murray Weideman as coach brought another transformation for Wearmouth. In some ways, he was a kindred spirit to the coach, and he was given more time on the ball as rover, and less time in the forward pocket. While the two seasons Weideman coached Collingwood proved to be a tumultuous time, Wearmouth established himself as one of the club’s most consistent and determined players. He played 11 games in Weideman’s first year in 1975, but flourished the following year as one of the few highlights in what was a gloomy season. He finished third in the Copeland Trophy in that wooden spoon year. Wearmouth took his game to a new level when Tom Hafey joined the club as coach in 1977. He said: “Hafey put consistency into my game and under him I played something like 70 to 80 games in a row.” He became fitter and seemingly more explosive under the strict training regimen. He may not have had the aesthetics of some of his more gifted teammates, but he more than made up for it with grit and determination. He missed only one game in 1977, with one of his finest performances coming with 31 disposals and a goal in the Second Semi-Final win over Hawthorn. He was a solid performer in the two Grand Finals that season, but the fairytale that Collingwood fans had been hoping for sadly didn’t eventuate. After a drawn Grand Final, the Magpies were no match for North Melbourne in the replay. Sadly, for Wearmouth, and his team, there would be more heartache to follow. The 1978 season ended in the Preliminary Final; and two more Grand Final losses followed in 1979 (by five points) and 1980 (81 points). Injuries cost him the chance to make a play for another Grand Final slot in 1981. He played only eight games in his final AFL season, with his final game coming against Richmond in round 20. It was his 186th and last VFL match, with his career closing only a month after his 30th birthday, and after 13 seasons in Black and White. His greatest regret, as expected, was never winning a premiership: “We came close that many times but could never manage to win one.” He played for and coached a number of clubs in country Victoria and Queensland, losing further grand finals for Port Fairy and Western Districts. “For a while I thought it was me who was jinxed. But I finally broke the drought when I played for Caloundra in Queensland,” he said in 1990. No one would have begrudged him finally tasting premiership success, even if it was at a local level. For everyone seemed to love Ronnie Wearmouth. He has remained in touch with some of his Magpies teammates, who adored his personality and love of a good time. Just as strong has been his bond with the Collingwood army, who still fondly recall him to this day.]]> https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/collingwood-cult-figures-dannie-seow/ Wed, 27 Apr 2016 05:04:49 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10418 By: Glenn McFarlane, Herald Sun journalist and Collingwood historian. When Leigh Matthews took over as Collingwood coach less than a month into the 1986 season, he promised to unveil a host of young players in the quest for that elusive 14th flag. One of the players he had in mind was a teenager from Montmorency, who had originally been recruited to the club as a 14-year-old, and who had not only undoubted talent, but also an interesting back story. His name was Dannie Seow, and he would become a firm Magpie favourite, even if his time in black and white was all too brief. Back in the mid-1980s, Australia’s cultural diversity was nothing like it is today, and Collingwood fans were attracted to Seow as much for his heritage as his capabilities in Black and White. Seow had been born in Singapore, to a father with Chinese heritage, and a mother with Scottish, Spanish and Irish family links. By the time he was five, though, he was not only growing up in Australia, but doing so as a young Collingwood supporter who wold come to have a natural affinity with the VFL football. He thought it was a joke when Magpie scouts picked him out as a teenager playing for the Montmorency Junior Football League, in the Collingwood stronghold of the Diamond Valley. But after gaining permission from his mother, he took the club up on the offer of trying out in the preseason. That meant getting the train from Montmorency Station and heading into Victoria Park, but it wasn’t long before Seow was playing in the Under 19s and the Reserves as his progression in Black and White rolled on. He made representative teams, playing Teal Cup and touring Ireland with an Australian Schoolboys’ team that included the likes of Ross Lyon, Garry Lyon, Stephen Silvagni and another young bloke named Ronnie McKeown. Seow made his VFL debut in Matthews’ fourth game as senior coach, in round seven, 1986. And while he wouldn’t be a part of that famous day four-and-a-half years later when the Colliwobbles were finally expunged, he would still be remembered fondly by Magpies fans long after he left the club. Explaining his link to the Collingwood supporters in an interview with the Coodabeen Champions in March 2016 – almost 30 years from that debut game – Seow said: “The Collingwood supporters were really great, especially because I grew up there. They were fantastic to me … after training you could be coming out the rooms and they would always be there waiting for you, to sign an autograph or tell you something.” “It is amazing how Collingwood supporters helped the team get through games to win. Just that sound coming from the Collingwood supporters really helped us back then.” His first game came against arch rivals Carlton at Victoria Park, but not even the supporters that day could get the team over the line. Seow, recruited as a forward but who turned out to be a defender, started on the bench, but came on to play on Peter Dean. Instantly, he realised the pace of the game was faster than it had been in the reserves. He had 11 touches, and former Richmond star Kevin Bartlett wrote in The Sun two days’ later: “(Michael) Gayfer, Seow and (Shane) Kerrison are holding down pressure defensive posts with enthusiastic play.” He established a firm position within the team, mainly in defence, but he showed enough flexibility to switch forward at times. In the corresponding clash with Carlton – this time in a Sunday clash at the MCG in front of 72,000 fans – he had a number of goals kicked on him by his one-time touring mate Silvagni. So Matthews shifted him forward, and Seow would end up with four goals for the game, his best return. But his season ended in round 21 when he was suspended for two weeks for striking Richmond Michael Pickering, despite a plea for mercy from chairman of selectors Ron Richards. “Dannie had been training to prepare for punching the ball away,” Richards told the VFL tribunal. “Leigh Matthews’ method is that the backman must always punch and he emphasised that.” “Dannie’s fault was that previously he was getting too far back to do it.” Seow maintained he was trying to punch the ball: “I was watching the ball … and went to punch. I looked to see if the ball was over the boundary line and then thought ‘I’ve punched him’.” Fourteen games in his debut season saw the 19-year-old win the club’s Best First Year Player, and there was great cause for optimism Seow was going to have a long and fruitful career for Collingwood. But something happened in one of the early practice games of 1987 that would change everything, even if Seow and Collingwood didn’t realise it at the time. He explained recently: “I hit heads with another guy, and I was actually told to keep playing, so I kept playing. Over the weeks after that, I thought I had flu or something like that.” “I was playing fine and then we went into the season and we played Hawthorn (in round three). I was fine until maybe 15 or 20 minutes into the first quarter. Then suddenly I had pressure on my brain, I couldn’t breathe, I was short of breath and had nausea and blurred vision. “I asked Leigh to take me off, but then I looked over and we already had two guys on the bench who couldn’t come on for the rest of the game. So I had to stay on … I was holding onto Russell Morris’ jersey.” A portrait of Dannie Seow in 2016, as shown on his website, bodyation.com Seow played only one more game in Black and White – a round 10 clash with West Coast – but he was determined to find out what was wrong with him. He told the Coodabeen Champions: “I kept playing when I shouldn’t have … I ended up getting scans myself. The CAT scans didn’t show anything, but the EEG showed I had abnormal electrolysis in the brain. “That really caused me to stop playing.” His Collingwood career was over after 18 games and before his 21st birthday. But that wasn’t the end of the Dannie Seow story. He secured a place at a school in Lynchburg, Virginia, before winning a scholarship to the University of North Carolina – four years after Michael Jordan graduated from there. Just as incredible given his head knock from the previous year, Seow became a defensive player on North Carolina’s gridiron team. But AFL football was still calling, and Melbourne drafted him as the No. 13 selection in the 1989 Pre-Season Draft. Seow played seven games for the Demons in 1989 and 1990. After his professional football career was over, he went onto acting and modelling roles, and would work in, and set up, a number of companies abroad in media, entertainment, and massage and health/wellbeing businesses. Seow lives in Washington DC, in the US. He still has a fondness for the Magpies three decades on from his brief time as a cult figure that might have lasted longer other than for that nasty head knock.]]> https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/collingwood-cult-figures-rene-kink/ Tue, 22 Mar 2016 21:06:30 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10310 By: Michael Roberts, Collingwood Historian He was built so strongly that he was nicknamed “the Incredible Hulk”, but was quick enough to burst through traffic and away from flailing opponents. He could fly for big marks, kick long goals with his left or right boot with casual nonchalance, and tackle so hard that you wondered how his victim ever got up. He advertised oranges. And he had a starring cameo as Magpie strongman Tank O’Donohue in the film version of David Williamson’s The Club. No wonder so many Collingwood fans loved Rene Kink. Almost from the moment he burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old in 1973, Kink was a crowd favourite who carried the burden of expectation that he could be the excitement machine Collingwood so desperately wanted. In the years that followed he thrilled and tantalised and frustrated in equal measure. Born in Sydney to an Estonian father and Latvian mother, Kink grew up in Ararat and got his early taste for Australian football kicking a plastic footy around the streets of Ararat with his mates. He became fanatical about the game (he barracked for Melbourne, having been attracted by Mike Williamson’s calling on television of unusual names such as Hassa Mann), and soon discovered he had extraordinary natural ability. He won several competition best and fairest awards and in his last season in the under-16s kicked 137 goals from 12 games, including one haul of 22.15 from centre half-forward. Kink was invited down to the club for the 1973 pre-season training. He turned heads by kicking seven goals during one of the early intra-club trial games, and ended up passing through all three grades in the Collingwood ranks in that single year. The first of his senior matches was against Fitzroy, and Kink came off the bench at half-time to kick two goals on legendary Lion Kevin Murray. But it was his first full senior game that year that really brought Kink to prominence. It came in the preliminary final, when he was preferred at full-forward to the most popular player in football, Peter McKenna. That would have been a tough assignment for any player, let alone a kid yet to start a VFL match. But Kink came through with flying colours, kicking 3.4 against the great Dick Clay and acquitting himself well enough to suggest that Collingwood had found one of the game’s most exciting prospects. In many ways that is what he remained right up until his retirement. For despite 11 years, 154 games and 240 goals at Collingwood, Rene Kink never consistently performed at a level anywhere near that which his talent demanded. He became one of the game’s larger-than-life personalities, and one of its most exciting players. The trouble was that it was an excitement based more on promise, on what he could do, rather than on what he had done. Rene Kink fires out a handball during the 1978 Qualifying Final between Collingwood and Hawthorn at the MCG. He struggled to become a regular senior player until Tom Hafey arrived in 1977, and even after that he was one of the great enigmas of League football. At his best he was virtually unstoppable. He was immensely strong, with bulging biceps, massive thighs and a barrel chest that led to Lou Richards dubbing him “The Incredible Hulk” (after the TV character of the time who turned into a green, muscle-bound strongman whenever he became angry). Despite his size he was also remarkably agile, fast and well skilled on both sides of his body. He also possessed the ability to do the exceptional; to kick the miracle goal from the boundary line, or spread-eagle a pack while gathering the ball. You only had to see him do something like that to understand the hype that buzzed around him. Collingwood fans loved him when he was on song. Unfortunately that rarely happened regularly enough – or for long enough. Years later, Kink admitted he had major problems with motivation. “People have said that I used to play a quarter or a quarter-and-a-half then turn off,” Kink said in 1991. “And I’ll be perfectly honest, I did. I just wasn’t interested. I don’t know if it’s right to say I got bored but … there were times when I played and I’ve looked at the scoreboard or looked at the situation and thought ‘This is giving me the shits’. I wasn’t dirty on the players or on the coach, I just thought ‘I’m not interested in this’.” “I wasn’t getting anything out of it, there was no challenge to what I was doing. I just turned off, shut up shop for the day. The biggest criticism of Rene Kink has always been that I was an enigma, but that is me as a person. You just don’t know what to expect from me — and that’s how I played football. I’d be out there playing and the next minute I’d just think ‘Stuff this, I’m not enjoying myself or I’d lose interest or find myself thinking about something else.” Kink’s inconsistency led to accusations of laziness, or an alleged tendency to believe his own publicity. But he wasn’t lazy, and always maintained he never bought into his public profile. He didn’t blame the ‘Hulk’ tag either. “The Hulk image didn’t make things any more difficult. It was just a name which I was given. It didn’t make me think I had to go out and play like the Incredible Hulk. As a player you’ve just got to live with those kinds of tags. Sometimes it’s not easy.” Kink was a regular presence in the seniors from 1977 to 1980. He played some brilliant games, and some brilliant quarters of football. But rarely did he string together a succession of good, solid matches in which he played consistently for the full four quarters. Despite his unpredictable form selectors were loathe to drop him, knowing what a match-winner he could be. Off the field he was amiable, easygoing and well liked, but the hot and cold nature of his on-field performances became increasingly frustrating. His fortunes dived from 1981. He had a bad run with injuries, Hafey was sacked and he struggled to adapt to the coaches who followed him. Motivation became an even bigger issue. Eventually, nine weeks into the 1983 season, new coach John Cahill told him he was no longer needed at Collingwood. He then spent time at Essendon (where he established a record for having played in more unsuccessful grand final sides – six – than any other player in League history) and St Kilda. In the end, Rene Kink’s career was one of flashes of brilliance but an overall sense of unfulfilled expectations. Maybe those expectations were unreasonable – though anyone who saw him at his best would disagree. A fan favourite from beginning to end, we all expected that one season Kink would just walk out on to the field and dominate the competition. But it never happened – and that is football’s loss.]]>