More than two months on and it still seems scarcely believable: we won the Premiership. But not just that. We won the flag after finishing on top, and after being the best home-and-away team for the best part of two seasons. This time there was to be no heartbreaking twist, no last minute ‘what ifs’, no series of unfortunate events to go alongside so many Grand Finals between 1964 and 2018. We just did what had to be done.

And even better, we won a close one. That hasn’t happened since 1903. In fact, we won three close ones, our combined margin in September totalling a nerve-shredding 12 points.

I don’t know how many times you’ve watched the replay, but in my household, the answer is ‘lots’. Plus, the other finals. And the games throughout the season. Fair to say that summer viewing is well and truly sorted for this year.

Given what happened in September, things have been pretty crazy. But while the team has been making history, there has been much else going on in that area too, including the opening of our Museum. So, catch up with our end-of-year snapshot below – and then head back to the TV or iPad and watch some more of this year’s highlights.

What a time to be a Magpie supporter. Have a great holiday break, and we’ll see you at the footy for the flag unfurling next year!

Carna Woods!
Michael Roberts

Season highlights
There has been so much to unpick from this year, but here are 10 of our favourite quirky stats and highlights. Special thanks, as always, to AFL stats guru Col Hutchinson, sidekick Stephen Rogers and the ever-fascinating @Sir Swamp Thing for their input.

• We have now won a very even-handed eight Grand Finals in September and eight in October;
• We have now won eight Grand Finals in even numbered years and eight in odd numbered years;
• The last time England changed monarchs was 1953. We were Premiers that year too;
• We have now been minor Premiers and gone on to win the flag on 10 occasions;
• This was our first premiership against an interstate club;
• Our final score of 90 points was our fourth highest score in a Grand Final;
• Collingwood have had two drawn Grand Finals. On each occasion we followed up by winning the flag 13 years later (1977 to 1990 and 2010 to 2023);
• In 2010 the #10, Scott Pendlebury, won the Norm Smith Medal. In 2023 it was the #23, Bobby Hill;
• In total, a staggering 1,675,972 people watched our matches this year. That’s an average of 64,460 over the 26 matches;
• We set a new AFL record for members – 106,470. Thank you Magpie Army!!!

GF added bonus
The Grand Final win was our 1600^th victory in VFL/AFL competition since 1897. The next best is Carlton with 1472 and Essendon with 1421. Just get your head around that for a second: we have won nearly 130 games more than the next best. That’s incredible.

A father-son Copeland!
It was great to see Josh Daicos walk away with the Copeland this year – he’s had a brilliant season. In doing so, he and his dad Peter became the only father-son combination in Collingwood history to have both won a Copeland! With Nick finishing joint second, it was also only the second time in our history (and the third in the AFL) that brothers quinellad their club’s B&F (Wayne & Max Richardson were the other Magpies to do it in 1974).

Checkers a Champ
We could do stories on every one of our Premiership heroes, but a quick shoutout to Brody Mihocek, who might just be the most underrated gun goalkicker in the AFL.

Only five players have kicked more goals than him since he debuted in 2018: Tom Hawkins, Jeremy Cameron, Charlie Cameron, Tex Walker and Jack Riewoldt. All of those have, deservedly, been lauded as stars.

Checkers rarely gets the same level of credit. Yet there he is, always delivering goals when it counts. Rarely kicking a big bag but rarely going dry either. 

In 2023 he became just the 31^st Collingwood player to have kicked 200 or more career goals – a staggering feat given he didn’t start until he was 25. Most of the other 30 on that list, by comparison, started their Collingwood careers as teenagers. Only three started in their 20s (Brian Taylor, Nathan Buckley and Craig Davis), and all were younger than Checkers. 

Indeed, there’s only three other 25-year-old debutants who have gone on to kick even 100 goals. One of those, Archie Smith, was back in the VFA days, while the others are Paul Medhurst and Mason Cox.

That puts into context just how extraordinary Checkers’ achievement is. It shows how quickly he started performing, and how consistently he has performed since.

It was more of the same in 2023. A career-high tally of 47 goals, including his first bags of five, and a fifth straight leading goalkicker award. Plus one of the Grand Final’s great goals, screwed around his body late in the first term.

Underrated? By the rest of the football world, probably. But at Collingwood, no way.

Pendles & Sidey – again
We always seem to have plenty to say about these two and it’s no wonder: they keep clocking up the records seemingly every week.

Now, of course, we’re all still focused on their great games in the Grand Final, especially Sidey’s 65m bomb to seal the game, and Pendles’ extraordinary last quarter. But it’s worth remembering that Steele reached the 300-game mark this year (as we noted in our last newsletter), while Pendles broke the AFL’s all-time career disposals record with an otherwise innocuous short kick against the Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium. He then followed it up by finishing fifth in the Copeland – his 15^th Top 5 finish in his 18 seasons.

Pendles and Sidey have now played together a staggering 286 times. This is the eighth highest in VFL/AFL history, and in 2024 they’re on track (injuries permitting) to become just the fourth pair of teammates to play 300 games together.

There’s a great story about Pendles and his disposals record here:
https://www.afl.com.au/news/964960/smart-selfless-relentless-pendlebury-on-verge-of-history

The Magpie Museum is open!
September was obviously a huge month for all of us at Collingwood, but it was extra special for those involved in the history side of things. Because at long last we have our very own Museum!

It was opened, along with Reception and the shop again, when the redevelopment at HQ finished late in August. Which meant thousands of Magpie fans got to see it for themselves during that glorious September campaign. And it was absolutely awesome to see everyone taking in the different exhibits, especially when they would share them with different generations.

The display of fan paraphernalia has proven a particular favourite, along with displays on our guernseys, Victoria Park, the Machine team and much more. There was a great tribute to our 300-gamers, though by the time you read this that will just about have been replaced by a special tribute to our 2023 flag!

So check it out next time you’re in at HQ. We’re pretty proud of it. And if you’ve got anything you’d like to see on display, please let us know!

Trevor Steer drops in
And speaking of the Museum, it was great to see 1965 Copeland Trophy winner Trevor Steer and his wife Jill drop in to have a look – especially at one of the jumpers that he’s loaned to us. Always great to see our Past Players back at HQ!

John Wren album comes back to Collingwood
John Wren was a near-mythical figure in Collingwood’s history. A local boy who made good via his entrepreneurial interests in boxing, horse racing, media and more, Wren was a long-standing and generous supporter of the club and its players. 

He was famous for gifting money to players who had played well in big games (Gordon Coventry was a particular favourite), and he was also a great supporter of the poor and needy in the suburb of Collingwood.

In 1937, the club presented him with a magnificent photo album as a memento of the 1936 Premiership. It contained special studio photographs of players and officials, plus all Collingwood Premiership photos to that point. It is a magnificent piece, and the inscribed dedication says much about how highly Wren was valued inside the club.

In July of 2023, the Wren family decided to return the album to the Collingwood Football Club. We cannot thank them enough for doing so. It is currently on display at our Museum, in the cabinet near Reception.

The nuggetty, snowy-haired Bennett was one of the heroes of our fabled 1958 Premiership triumph, kicking two goals on Grand Final day and being named in our best players. He’d always been something of a fan favourite since debuting while he was still at school the previous year, and the gutsy rover maintained that status throughout his 56-game career with the Magpies.

And now his family have ensured his legacy will live on, by donating his No.33 guernsey and a personal scrapbook to the football club’s Archives.

The guernsey is a classic of the time, made of thick wool, with a collar and the pronounced pin-striping of the time. 

The scrapbook is a thing of beauty, maintained by family friends and taking in his career until just after the Premiership. It contains many wonderful photos, including some we’ve not seen before, as well as an original 1958 WEG poster and lots of clippings from Ken’s early days with Dandenong and Collingwood.

The Collingwood Football Club thanks Ken’s daughter Rebecca, and son Clem, for their generosity in donating these wonderful items to us. They will remain part of our collection forever.

The jumper will be on display in our museum shortly, in the Archives cabinet near reception.

And so strong are those memories, and that pull, that he’s been able to recreate on canvas his childhood recollections of a day at Victoria Park nearly 70 years ago.

It was March of 1954 when a seven-year-old Wayne emigrated to Melbourne from England with his parents. He went to school at Wales Street School in Northcote, and the family lived most of the time in Ivanhoe.

Wayne had an aunt who lived in Melbourne with her Australian husband, Uncle Harry, who as fate would have it turned out to be a huge Collingwood fan. It was Uncle Harry who would introduce both Wayne and his father to what then seemed “the rather mysterious” game of Aussie Rules.

“I fell in love with Aussie Rules as soon as I saw it,” Wayne says today. “And in particular Collingwood. My hero was Thorold Merrett and I used to wear the black and white guernsey to school with No 17 on my back. Uncle Harry also introduced me once to Ron Todd – I still remember his enormous hands!

“I was entranced by the physicality of Aussie Rules … I remember seeing Lou Richards having a punch-up with South Melbourne opponents. I thought was great entertainment!

“We used to get to Victoria Park mid-morning to watch the reserves play and then I would be treated to a ‘four n twenty’ pie for lunch before the first team came on in the afternoon. It was also great fun for me, at age seven, hearing all the swearing from the grandstand – much of it from the ladies! These are very special memories for me.”

Unfortunately for his football-following, Wayne’s parents decided to return to England in August of 1957. So little more than three-and-a-half years after falling in love with Collingwood, he was gone again. And one memory of his farewell still lingers with him.

“I remember we sailed away from Melbourne on the SS Stratheden and my Dad and I took a radio to the back of the ship so we could listen to the commentary of Collingwood playing against Fitzroy. We listened and listened until the commentary slowly crackled and faded away as we moved further away from Melbourne … it almost brings a tear to my eye remembering that.”

Wayne has only been back to Australia once since then (as fate would have it, it was Christmas of 1982, so he got to see Ian Botham’s dismissal of Jeff Thomson to seal a famously dramatic Test win), but his love affair with Collingwood has remained. 

That wasn’t always easy, because Australian football was not shown on TV in the UK for many years after his return there. But he watches the games these days, and still has a Collingwood jumper (with No.17 on the back, of course) in his office.

A skilled artist, Wayne decided a few years ago to commit to canvas his memories of the happy days with his father and uncle at Victoria Park in the 1950s. So he identified a game – against Footscray in 1955 – and found a footy record from the game so he could determine who would have been playing. He looked at team photos to decide who would have been wearing short or long sleeves. And he even tried to calculate if the St Patrick’s Cathedral spire would have been visible from Vic Park back then.

All that work paid off, and he has now sent the club a high quality print of his splendidly detailed painting. It’s superb.

“The painting was truly a labour of love,” he says, “and I tried hard to get all the detail right. And if you look at the grandstand … you might just pick out a little boy standing up wearing a black and white guernsey. That is me, flanked by my father and my uncle.

“I am so grateful to have these wonderful memories. Australia and Collingwood will always be in my heart.”

I have no idea how we’ll be able to follow up all the thrills and spills of last year, but if the first two rounds are any indication then we’re going to be in for another memorable season. 

In the meantime, here’s our first newsletter of the year to kick things off. As always it looks like being a BIG year on the history and heritage front, with some potentially exciting developments on the cards. We’ll keep you posted.

See you at the footy.
Carna Woods!

Michael Roberts
CFC Historian

The Cats in Rd 1
If you experienced a sense of déjà vu about our opening round encounter against the Cats, you weren’t imagining things.

This was the 17^th time we have faced the Cats in the opening round of a season, which is significantly more than any other team. And following that heroic win, our win-loss record in those games now stands at 11-6. 

Our next most common Rd 1 opponents are Hawthorn and the Swans (14) and Richmond and Fitzroy (13). We’ve never played GWS or Gold Coast in the opening round, and have only played West Coast once. The rarest Rd 1 opponents of the ‘traditional’ crop of teams is St Kilda, with four.

The other slight statistical oddity is that, of all those games v Geelong, this is the first time since 1933 that a Rd 1 game against Geelong hasn’t followed a Collingwood Grand Final appearance! Yet another reason to be annoyed with the heartbreaking loss to the Swans in the prelim.

Pendles not tossing the coin
If there was a sense of familiarity about our opponents in Round 1, there was definitely something new about the guy tossing the coin.

With Darcy Moore now our new man in charge, it’s worth reflecting again on Scott Pendlebury’s extraordinary reign as skipper. Here are a few highlights:

• The first time he captained the team was in 2010, Rd 13 v Sydney;
• Appointed full-time in January 2014 and served nine years in the role;
• Spent 206 games as captain or acting captain, which is a club record. It’s also seventh on the all-time VFL/AFL list;
• He recorded 111 wins, 94 losses and one draw while in the role, for an overall winning percentage of 53.88%
• The 13 seasons in which he acted as captain (either acting or permanently) is the second longest in VFL/AFL history, behind Ted Whitten’s 14.

Thanks Pendles – you will be a hard act to follow!

Early takeaways…
We know it’s only been two rounds, but already the landmarks have started to pile up. Here’s a few from the first fortnight of the season:

• As we know, Darcy Moore started out his captaincy with a cracking win against the Cats. In doing so he broke a mini-trend, which had seen our last two skippers, Maxy and Pendles, lose their first games in the job. He’s also the first Magpie to start out his captaincy with a win over the reigning Premier since Peter Daicos did it while acting captain in 1989. 
• And while we’re on that game, we also managed to stop Geelong’s 16-game winning streak. Shades of 1953 perhaps?
• Plus according to stats guru Sir Swamp Thing it was the first time since 1961 that a reigning Premier has been held goalless in the final term of a season opener. 
• Our 19.11.125 in that Geelong game was our highest score since 2018. And of course we promptly went out and did even better against Port!
• Our 71-point win over Port was our first 70+ point win since 2016!
• The 60,744 who turned up to that Port game made it our largest ever home-and-away crowd against Port, easily eclipsing the 51, 833 in Round 1, 1997 – Port’s first ever game in the AFL.
• We had 14 different goalkickers in the game against Port – just the fourth time that has happened in our history, and the first time since Richmond in Round 4 of 2015 (when we had a record 15 different goalkickers)
• That Port win was also significant because it was the 164^th win that Steele Sidebottom and Scott Pendlebury have ever played in – the highest by any Collingwood combination.

(as always, thanks to stats guru Sir Swamp Thing, the stats team at the AFL and our own research team for these little oddities!)

Crispy and Steele
If the footy gods are kind to us, then there are two big milestones on the cards for season 2023. 

Everyone’s favourite Shepparton product, Steele Sidebottom, is on track to become just the fourth player in our history to reach the 300-game mark. And Jack Crisp has the chance to break Jock McHale’s club record of 191 consecutive games – a mark that has stood since 1917! He could also become just the SIXTH player in VFL/AFL history to have played 200 consecutive games.

Fingers crossed for both boys!

1917 Premiership Medallion
We were beyond stoked when the grandson of former Magpie skipper Con McCarthy, Graeme Moffatt, got in touch recently to donate Con’s 1917 Premiership medallion back to the club. There were some other nice pieces with it too. Read all about it here. Thanks Graeme!
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1289014/a-skipper-s-prized-premiership-medallion

Other donations
We’ve picked up lots of other interesting items during the off-season too, including a wonderful collection of memorabilia from Faye Marks, a superb autographed 1930 itinerary and a print of an original artwork all the way from England! So check out all our latest acquisitions here – and remember to get in touch if you have anything you’d like to donate.
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/club/history-and-heritage/latest-acquisitions

Vale George Hams
We were saddened to learn of the passing of 1953 Premiership player George Hams in February. He had been one of the last few survivors of that wonderful Premiership team.
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1268461/vale-george-hams-am

Looking for team photos
This is a bit of a long shot, but we’re looking for team photos of clubs and teams that are associated with Collingwood, but not necessarily of our senior team itself. So we’re looking for:

• Collingwood District Football Club (1908-39)
• Collingwood Juniors Football Club
• Collingwood Reserves
• Collingwood Under-19s
• Abbotsford Football Club (pre-1950s)

If you have items like this, or know anyone who does, please get in touch with us at forever@collingwoodfc.com.au

So the National Draft has been and gone for another year, and already we’re thinking about next season and what it might bring.

But I tell you what: 2023 will have to be something special to top what we turned on during this year. A heady mix of exciting game style, emerging talent, new coach and the most unbelievable run of close finishes (almost all of them victories) the game has ever seen. It all added up to a season for the ages.

And I’m not ready to let it pass into history just yet, so here’s our take on the best of 2022, together with the usual wrap-up of all that has been going on in the world of Magpie history. As ever, there’s been a lot going on.

Before I go for the year, a quick shout-out to all those who have joined the Magpie Faithful over the past couple of years. We love having you on board.

And special thanks to our volunteers at the Archives, who do so much work with research and in preserving and cataloguing our collection. Great work guys!

In the meantime, have a wonderful summer break, and we’ll see you at the footy again in ’23.

Carna Woods!

Michael Roberts
CFC Historian

What a Season!
We broke so many records during our crazy, unbelievable 2022 season that it was hard to keep track of them all. So we’ve done it for you. Check out our summary of one of the greatest seasons ever.
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1249259/the-season-that-was-2022

Nick Daicos – young star
For once, all the hype was justified. Nick Daicos turned in one of the greatest rookie seasons in Magpie history – probably only second to Des Fothergill in 1937 (who broke into a Premiership team and won the Copeland). He won the Rising Star – unanimously – and set all kinds of records along the way. But more importantly he just looked at home right from the start, influencing games in a way few rookies can manage. Watching him over the next decade and more is going to be fun.

And how good is it that he’s going to be doing it in the No.35 guernsey too? That’s just the icing on the cake.

Pendles – not-so-young star
We could pretty much devote all our newsletters to Pendles, such is his extraordinary consistency and ability to keep breaking records. This year he became the first ever Magpie to reach 350 games, and finished second in the Copeland, giving him a staggering 14 podium finishes in 17 seasons. That is the equal second best in VFL/AFL history. 

He also amassed another 555 disposals, giving him 9315 for his career – second only to St Kilda great Robert Harvey. He’s had the most handballs in AFL history, the second highest number of tackles and the third highest goal assists. Plus he’s also moved into outright second place for the most finals played by a Magpie.

Oh, and he was among the first players back at pre-season training too, even though he didn’t have to be. What. A. Champion.

Check out some more of his left-field achievements that we put together for his 350^th:
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1170673/10-stats-you-might-not-know-about-scott-pendlebury

Sidey – the quiet achiever
Everyone’s favourite Shep boy, Steele Sidebottom, quietly slipped into outright fourth place on our all-time games tally during 2022. He currently has 289 games. And he and Pendles have now played together 267 times – the most ever by a Magpie pairing.
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1159644/sidebottom-reaches-4th-all-time-games-holder-for-collingwood

Season gongs
Jordy Allen claimed her first AFLW crown in the second of the two AFLW seasons played this year, as well as being named in the All-Australian squad of 40 (along with Chloe Molloy and Lauren Butler) and the AFL Players Association’s 22Under22 side. What a great season, and all the plaudits thoroughly deserved.

Amongst the men, Crispy went back-to-back at the Copeland – yet another tribute to his extraordinary consistency. Brayden Maynard was our only All-Australian, while Nick Daicos, Jack Ginnivan and Isaac Quaynor were all named in the under-22 side.

Thank you Billy!
In a season full of magic moments, it’s hard to pick just one. But Jamie Elliott’s goal after the siren to beat Essendon would have to be right up there. Perhaps its only real competitor would be Jamie’s goal to sink Carlton at the death in the final round. Either way – wonderful memories that will be celebrated forever.

But even better (at least from our perspective) is the fact that Jamie was kind enough to donate to the Collingwood Archives the boots he was wearing when he kicked that post-siren goal against the Bombers. We also grabbed the ball, which means we’ll be able to tell the story of that moment for decades to come. Thank you Billy – for everything!

And while we’re on donations, thank you to everyone who has donated items to the club over the past 12 months. Check them out here – there are some absolute rippers! Especially the 1910 tea and coffee set presented to skipper George Angus. We just love this stuff!
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/club/history-and-heritage/latest-acquisitions
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1221116/a-treasured-premiership-memento-comes-home

Farewell to a favourite
It’s still hard to believe that Billy Picken is gone: for those of us who were around to watch Collingwood in the 1970s and ‘80s, he was such a huge figure, and one of the most popular Magpies of all time. So there was a huge outpouring of emotion when news filtered through of his shock passing back in July. Relive his career at Forever:

More goodbyes
Early in the year we also said goodbye to 1958 Premiership hero Ken Turner, a brilliant but underrated wingman who was either best-on-ground or close to it in the Miracle of ’58. Ken was, of course, father to 1990 Premiership player Jamie, and our hearts go out to him and all the family, especially Ken’s wife Therese.

On the same day that Billy Picken died, we also lost a stalwart of those great Bobby Rose teams of the 1960s and ‘70s, Con Britt. He was initially a tough and aggressive half-forward, before later becoming a tough and aggressive defender, his career eventually cut short by a knee injury.

During the year we also lost the man who had been our oldest former player, Ray Jones, a wonderful man and one of the country’s most renowned architects. Plus just a few weeks ago news came through that 1950s ruckman Dave Little, from Korumburra, had passed away.

You can read all about these Magpie greats at Forever:

I said in our pre-season newsletter that these would be exciting times, but I don’t think too many of us realised just how exciting it would be – or how quickly it would feel this way! The new game plan is brilliant to watch, the players are obviously loving it and footy is back being fun again. Plus we’ve beaten old foes Essendon, Carlton and Melbourne, which always feels good. Let’s hope we carry on in similar fashion for the remainder of the season.

As always, we’ve been plugging away on the history front, so here’s our latest update on all that’s been going on. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions. 

In the meantime, we’ll see you at the footy.

Carna Woods!

Michael Roberts
CFC Historian

Pendles & Sidey
The last men standing from the 2010 Premiership, Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom, have now played together 255 times (up to the bye) – making them the most prolific teammates in Magpie history (the previous record belonged to Len Thompson and Wayne Richardson). At a League level the record is held by Adelaide’s Andrew McLeod and Tyson Edwards with 307, but Pendles & Sidey could crack the top 20 by year’s end if injuries permit. And the way both are playing, there would have to be a good chance to add to the tally next year.

Checkers loves a four-goal haul
And speaking of unusual records, our much-loved Brody Mihocek – is there a harder-working footballer going around? – brought up his own piece of history against Melbourne on Queen’s Birthday. That was the 12^th time he’s kicked four goals in a game – but somehow he’s never made it to five. He is now equal with North Melbourne’s Jim Krakouer with that claim-to-fame (another Magpie, Leon Davis, did it 10 times without ever making it to five). Thanks to Col Hutchinson at the AFL for his work with this statistical oddity.

Pendles reaches 9000 career stats
During the Round 12 game against Hawthorn, Scott Pendlebury became just the fourth player in history to reach 9000 career disposals. He sits behind Robert Harvey, Brent Harvey and Kevin Bartlett in the all-time list – but with a higher per-game average than all of them. And he’s a fair chance to be in second spot overall by the end of the season. Well done skipper!

‘Harry’ Lauder still the King
After Melbourne’s shock loss to Freo in Rd 11, our Machine team member Albert ‘Harry’ Lauder is STILL the only player to have wins in his first 18 games as a player! The Demons’ Jake Bowey was going to equal Lauder’s record that day but the loss put paid to that. Harry played 36 games overall across six seasons, and only experienced four losses. You can read his story here:
https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/players/albert-lauder/

The Collier legend lives on
And while we’re talking about The Machine era, it’s been great to see Harry Collier’s great grandson, Jack Raines, running around in the seconds this year. You can read his story here:
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1135012/this-collingwood-life-jack-raines

This Collingwood Life
Jack Raines is just one of the Collingwood identities we’ve featured in our This Collingwood Life series so far this year. Check them out – and let us know if you know of anyone you think we should feature in the rest of the year.

Our All-Oz Girls
Big congratulations to Jaimee Lambert and Ruby Schleicher, who were selected in the AFLW All-Australian team earlier this year. That made it back-to-back gongs for Ruby, and also a second selection for Jaimee, who was first chosen in 2020. Two absolute guns, and we couldn’t be happier for them!
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1095829/two-pies-earn-all-australian-honours

And our AFLW Young Guns
And more congratulations, this time to Jordyn Allen and Lauren Butler, who have been named in the Players’ Association ‘22Under22’ for a second consecutive year. The selections were decided by popular vote, and Jordy polled 70%, placing her in the top 10 most popular players in the side. Jordy and Wiz have been huge over the past two years, and they deserve all the accolades coming their way.

Phil’s Trivia
Who has worn the Collingwood jumper in more than 300 games for the club?

I know. At first glance that’s too easy (Pendles, T Shaw, G Coventry). But what we’re looking for is those who have played 300 or more across all three grades – seniors, reserves and under-19s. That makes it a bit trickier. There are six on it (and a sneaky seventh). See the names at the end of this story!

Another Magpie First
And finally, congratulations to former Magpie Tony Armstrong, who just took out a Logie for Best New Talent. Think he might just be the first ever Magpie Logie winner!

Donations
Check out our latest bunch of acquisitions, including a jumper worn by Geoff Raines in his first season with the club in 1983! Thank you to EVERYONE who donates to us!
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/club/history-and-heritage/latest-acquisitions

Phil’s Trivia Answer:

Name                       1sts      2nds     3rds            Total

Tony Shaw               313           41        0               354
Scott Pendlebury* 346              0        0               346 (as at bye)
Len Thompson       268            29      14               311
Gordon Coventry   306              2        0               308
Wayne Richardson 277            30       0               307
Peter Daicos            250            35      19              304

* Pendles also played a further 10 games with our seconds when they were affiliated with Williamstown. So technically that would push him above Shawry overall. But he wasn’t wearing the Collingwood jumper then so we’re not counting them in this list!

Plus, Dane Swan played 258 games with the seniors + 42 whilst our seconds were affiliated with Williamstown. Which also brings him up to a nice even 300.

As always, it promises to be a big year on the history front too, and we’ll do our best to keep you informed of everything that’s going on.

As always, get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions. In the meantime, we’ll see you at the footy!

Carna Woods!

Michael Roberts
CFC Historian

Round 1 History
This year was only the fourth time we’ve played St Kilda in the first round of a season, and every one of them has been historic in its own way.

• Round 1 1897 – the first ever game we played in the newly formed Victorian Football League
• Round 1 1962 – St Kilda ended a Victoria Park hoodoo stretching back to 1919! It was only their second win at the ground in 59 attempts
• Round 1 1965 – the first ever game played by St Kilda at Moorabbin, the game drawing a staggering crowd of 51,370 (a number that would never be exceeded). This was also Peter McKenna’s debut.
• Round 1 2022 – Craig McRae’s first game as Collingwood senior coach. He now joins this list of post-war coaches to have started their coaching careers with a win: Mick Malthouse, Leigh Matthews, Bob Rose (twice), Jack Cahill, Mick Erwin, Tom Hafey and Murray Weideman.

The Daicos family
You might have heard a whisper that a kid called Nick Daicos has joined his brother Josh at Collingwood. When he ran out against the Saints on Friday night he became the 45th father-son to have played for the club, and he and Josh became the 47^th combination of brothers (104 siblings in all). Plus father Peter became just the eighth former Pie to have produced multiple Magpie offspring, joining Bill Twomey Snr, David Cloke, Brian Beers, Syd Coventry, Charlie Pannam Snr, Ray Shaw and Gavin Brown.

And while on the subject of Nick’s impressive debut, it also won him bragging rights around the dinner table. When Peter made his debut in 1979 (also against the Saints), he had 19 kicks and 7 handballs, so 26 disposals in all. Nick ended last night with 27, edging out his old man by one! But they both had debut kicks they’d rather forget: Peter’s first apparently sailed out on the full, while we know what happened with Nick’s! 

A ‘new’ ANZAC
With ANZAC Day fast approaching, new research has uncovered that former player Jim Keogh was also among those who fought in the First World War. You can read his story here  – and it’s a quite remarkable one.
https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/players/jim-keogh/

Vale Ken Turner
We lost our third 1958 Premiership player in just over a year when the wonderful Ken Turner, who was just about BOG on that day in ’58, passed away suddenly in February. Read more on the sad news here
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1060150/vale-ken-turner

This Collingwood Life
We’ve launched a new series of articles on the club’s website, telling the stories of a variety of people whose lives have become entwined with Collingwood one way or another. It’s called This Collingwood Life – stories about us. Check out the first of them here, and keep an eye out for others on the website. And even better, if you know of anyone who’s got a great Collingwood story to tell, please let me know about it!
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1058014/this-collingwood-life-june-bradbury
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1076302/this-collingwood-life-rohan-bownds

Tell us how you fell in love with the Pies
And while we’re on the subject of great Collingwood stories, we’d love to know how and why you started following the Pies, and what made you fall in love with them. Submit your entry here:
https://tradablebits.com/tb_app/470471

Great pic finds
We’ve unearthed some rare pics of two Collingwood legends, Albert Collier and Jack Ryder. Read all about it here.
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1078198/before-they-were-stars

Robin Murphy
We lost one of our longest serving and most loved members of the Archives just before Christmas. We miss you Murph.
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1056289/vale-robin-murphy

Foyer displays – get in quick
We have a new cabinet display in the foyer celebrating the life of Murray Weideman. And we’re once again keeping the 2010 and 1990 displays in place, simply to give people a chance to see them. But the foyer will be being redeveloped at the end of the season, so they’ll be taken down before then.

Phil’s Trivia
This issue’s trivia question from Phil Taranto (no relation to Tim):

Which guernsey number has the most goals in Magpie history? We reckon you’ll probably guess the first one, but we want a top 5!

# 6 (1843 goals)
# 9 (1327)
# 1 (1319)
# 5 (1298)
# 7 (1190)

Donations
Check out our latest bunch of acquisitions, including some wonderful 1920s ephemera, Peter McKenna scrapbooks, a great collection of seasons tickets and a box of superb scrapbooks from the 1980s/1990s. Thank you to EVERYONE who donates to us!
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/club/history-and-heritage/latest-acquisitions

Well, thank goodness 2021 is over. It really wasn’t the best season to be a Magpie fan, but we’ve been through worse and we know we’ll bounce back again – and soon. As fans with a keen interest in history, you’ll know we’ve done it before, and we’ll do it this time too.

In the meantime, read our wrap of the season, and all that’s been happening in the history space.

Stay safe, and we’ll hopefully see you at the footy again in 2022! 

Carna Woods!
Michael Roberts
Collingwood Historian

Welcome to the club Crispy!
Jack Crisp became just the 53^rdMagpie to win a Copeland Trophy when he pulled off a thoroughly deserved victory at the best-and-fairest count in early October. He really has been Mr Consistent since he crossed from Brisbane, and he rarely puts in a bad game.

Even better, he rarely misses one either. His streak of successive games now stands at a remarkable 163 – six with the Lions and 157 with us. That gives him the longest streak of any current player in the AFL, and he’s closing in on Jock McHale’s Collingwood record of 191.

Good luck Crispy – keep it going!

And a nod to the bloke in third
While it was great to see Brayden Maynard grab the J J Joyce Trophy for runner-up, it was even more remarkable to see Scott Pendlebury grab yet another podium finish. That gives him 13 top-three finishes in his 16 seasons, the most of any current AFL player and the equal third highest of all-time, level with Swans icon Bob Skilton and behind only Footscray and North Melbourne ruckman Gary Dempsey (15) and Fitzroy legend Kevin Murray (14). 

He would almost certainly have had another top-three finish in 2017 too, when he led the count until a finger injury sidelined him for the last six rounds. He’s also now sixth in the all-time AFL list of career Brownlow votes, with 213 votes. Simply staggering.

VFLW champs thwarted
A big shout-out to our VFLW team, who went through the regular season undefeated 16-0 (their third straight year as minor Premiers) but were denied the chance to add another Premiership to their footballing CVs when COVID prematurely ended the season before the Grand Final could be played. That’s such bad luck – but they’re still the overall Premiers in our eyes!

Plus we had four players – leading goalkicker Imogen Barnett, full-back Jasmine Ferguson, Caitlin Bunker and Matilda Zander – as well as coach Chloe McMillan, named in the Team of the Year. A magnificent season by all involved.

The Murray Weideman Collection
As you know, The Weed passed away back in February, but his family has since donated his memorabilia – including his three Copeland Trophies and his 1953 Premiership trophy – to the club’s Archives. A huge thank you to his son Mark, wife Victoria and the whole family for their generosity. Read about it here.

A footy with a story to tell
Another great donation this year came from John Elmore in Albury, with this 1930s football. 

Other donations
By the way, if you want to keep track of the items that people are donating our way, we’ve introduced a new section to our History & Heritage hub where we showcase both the items and the lovely people who have donated. Check it out here. If you want your name up in lights too, you know what you have to do!

Ray Jones
And a belated Happy Birthday to our oldest living player – and renowned architect – Ray Jones, who turned 96 during the year. He actually made it over here for the ANZAC Day game in April, which was a great effort by the former navy man. You can read about his career here

Phil’s Trivia
Phil Taranto, from our research team, is quite the nerd when it comes to Collingwood facts and figures (and we love him for it!) So each issue of this newsletter we’re going to post one of the quirky stats he’s dug out along the way. The first question is: Which jumper number has been worn into battle most often in Magpie history?

The answer is at the end of this article. 

History resources
Just a reminder to check out our new History & Heritage Hub to keep up with all the latest news in the field.

Vale Mike Delanty
Mike Delanty, part of the famed 1958 Premiership team, sadly passed away back in July. You can read our tribute to him here. Mike’s Premiership teammate, Murray Weideman, died in February, and Ray Thomas in May. 

Milestones
Congratulations to Steele Sidebottom, who notched up his 250^thgame in the black-and-white during the season. He currently sits on 264 games, seventh in the all-time Collingwood list, and with normal fortune should be in fourth spot by the end of next season. And similar plaudits to the great Geva Mentor, who registered her 200^thgame of top flight Australian netball during last season. Well done to you both!

Donations
As always, keep those donations coming – we love getting new boxes of stuff to sort through! Or even just ask us if you’re not sure what to do with stuff you have – we’re happy to help.

Phil’s Trivia Answer:
The guernsey numbers worn most often in CFC history are:
# 1 (1627 times)
# 5 (1584)
# 22 (1565)
# 26 (1467)
# 3 (1461)

But none have ever suffered a more tragic fate than a youngster named Henry Eslick, way back in 1895. Eslick, then 19, died while having a training run at Victoria Park with his new teammates just days before he was due to make his debut.

William Henry Eslick was born in 1875 in Sandhurst. He had two brothers, but only one survived to adulthood. The family moved to Bendigo, and then to Abbotsford, taking up residence in Lulie Street itself.

Henry was a talented sportsman who would play district/pennant cricket with North Melbourne. At 17 he was playing football with a local lower level club called Collingwood Excelsior and in 1892 was reported to have kicked four goals in one game. That same year he won a gold scarf pin for “best forward play”. He continued with Excelsior in 1893, but by 1894 he was on the radar of both Fitzroy Juniors and Collingwood Juniors, named in match day squads for each in successive weeks.

The Pies obviously kept an eye on him throughout 1894, when it is believed he played with Fitzroy Juniors. After Collingwood lost to South Melbourne on June 1, 1895, the entire VFA competition was scheduled to take part in a charity fundraising day the following Saturday. It included some novelty events and a one-hour game between fierce foes Collingwood and Fitzroy. The Pies would go on to name a full-strength side. (It is not completely clear from the newspaper reports whether Eslick was chosen for this game, or for the ‘real’ game against Carlton the following week, though it sounded like the latter.)

On the Tuesday before the charity game he took some time off from his job at the Yarra Falls Flour Mills and was having a kick on the Victoria Park oval with some other players when, according to The Age, he walked to the fence and sat down.

“A few minutes afterwards some boys near him called the attention of the players to him, and he was found to be in a dying state. Before he could be taken from the ground to his home … he was dead.”

The newspaper described him as “a strong, well-built young man” and said his death could not be explained. They also noted that he had been chosen for Collingwood’s next game. But an autopsy the next day revealed that he had suffered a ruptured hydatid cyst on his liver while trying to mark a ball. “The deceased was a splendid football player,” noted The Ovens and Murray Advertiser, “and it may be said of him that he literally finished his earthly career on the football field.” The Weekly Times said: “The loss of such a fine, strapping young fellow on the threshold of manhood must occasion keen and general regret.”

The Collingwood Mercury said he was “generally respected by those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance.” He has been in the habit of a playing with a junior team and on a recent occasion kicked four goals for his club. This attracted the attention of the senior team, and the result was that Eslick had been selected to play with the Collingwood footballers on Saturday next. Death has put an untimely end to this intention.”

Members of the football club attended the poor boy’s funeral, where they were joined by representatives of the other local organisations he’d been involved with, and there was considerable dismay at his passing. That dismay was worsened when it was learned that the many floral tributes on his grave were disturbed a week or so later by thieves wanting to steal the ribbons around the flowers.

That was the final insult to add to what was already a lamentably sad tale. Who knows what sort of career the young man might have had? He could have been a star, or he could have been a one-game wonder. Either way, to be denied the chance to fulfil his destiny and play even one game with Collingwood in such tragic circumstances seems beyond cruel.

– Michael Roberts

Well, you can’t say the first phase of the season hasn’t been eventful! Disappointing results, our coach gone, off-field rumblings, more key injuries … and then we go and pull off a remarkable victory over the ladder-leading Demons to give Bucks a fairytale send-off. Football hey? You couldn’t write the scripts sometimes …

In amongst all that, we’ve kept our history activities ticking along nicely, as you’ll see below. And here’s hoping we have a big end to what’s been a fairly dramatic 2021.

Carna Woods!

Michael Roberts
Collingwood Historian

Thank you Bucks!
It’s hard to put into words what Nathan Buckley means to this football club.

As a player he was one of the few reasons it was worthwhile going to the footy in the 1990s. He played at a consistently elite level never bettered by anyone in our club’s history. As a coach he gave everything to the cause, even reinventing himself along the way to become a more caring, empathetic version of the highly-driven figure he had first been. And as we all know only too well, he went within a couple of minutes and one freakish West Coast chain of possessions of bringing us home another flag.

In the end he enjoyed 117 wins as a player from 280 games, and 117 wins as a coach from 218 games (winning percentage 54.13). There’s a lovely symmetry in that.

Throughout a sometimes tricky time at the top, he carried himself with a grace and class and dignity that you don’t always find among coaches in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of AFL footy. He was a great ambassador for the club, right to the very end.

What many of you might not know is that he also had a great respect for our history. He was interested in what we did at the Archives, interested in the displays we produced and the presentations we made, and even on occasions involved us in pre-match or other activities.

Put simply, Bucks got Collingwood. He loved the place, and hopefully still does. And that last game at the SCG? Well, that was the stuff of fairytales. But no more than he deserved.

So our parting message to Bucks is exactly the same as that he gave to his own players at three-quarter-time of that last game:

Thank you.

Bri Davey you star!
It was a big year for Brianna Davey, who became just the third Magpie to win the senior competition’s peer-voted MVP award (Darren Millane and Dane Swan being the other two). Bri was also named captain of the all-Australian team (where she was joined by teammates Brit Bonnici, Ruby Schleicher and Chloe Molloy), and grabbed the Collingwood B&F too.
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/910634/aflw-davey-joins-magpie-royalty

Our women make history
Our AFLW team registered its first ever finals win, and also became the first senior Collingwood team to everhost a final at Victoria Park before it eventually bowed out in a preliminary final. Our VFLW team was also crowned minor Premiers for the third straight season just before our latest lockdown. We’ve got our fingers crossed for the finals to come!

Pendles: King of the MCG
Our skipper has now officially played more matches on the MCG than anybody, having passed Kevin Bartlett’s old record of 200 games early this season.
https://www.afl.com.au/news/579264/move-over-kb-it-s-time-to-crown-a-new-king-of-the-mcg

Beating the Blues
Our win over Carlton in Round 2 meant that we eased ahead of them on the win-loss count in the VFL/AFL (128-127, with 4 draws) for the first time since 1981! Though as I always like to point out, we’re five in front if you count our matches in VFA days too. Fingers crossed for the rematch in a few weeks.

Bruce Andrew’s memorabilia collection
The family of the former Machine team member and TV panellist Bruce Andrew, well remembered by many footy fans of a certain age, has donated some wonderful old memorabilia to the footy club. Read all about it here:
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/904708/bruce-andrew-s-remarkable-football-life

A Noble story 
Gutsy running defender John Noble made his own piece of history when he achieved the rare feat of facing up against his father coaching the opposition side, when we beat North Melbourne back in Round 8.
https://www.afl.com.au/news/607768/history-predicts-clear-winner-in-rare-father-v-son-blood-battle

New History Hub
If you get a chance, check out our new History & Heritage hub on the main club website. It’s the place where we are going to gather all the bits and pieces of history news from here on (such as acquisitions, functions etc), leaving the Forever website to act solely as the repository of historic info, stories, stats and records. And because it’s on the main site, we’re hoping it will make our History activities a little more visible, and provide a stepping-off point to other destinations. We hope you like it!
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/club/history-and-heritage

Stay in touch
That’s it for now. As always, yell out if you have any queries, you have anything you want to donate or you just have a suggestion for us. You can always get us at forever@collingwoodfc.com.au

See you at the footy (hopefully)!