Neil Brindley – Collingwood Forever 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 Seeds of the future https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/seeds-of-the-future/ Tue, 27 Sep 2016 01:09:06 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10799 By: Glenn McFarlane of the Herald Sun Mick McGuane remembers it as the moment his Collingwood under 19s team was linked to the man who would ultimately determine their destiny, Leigh Matthews. It came in April 1986, in the days after Matthews replaced Bob Rose as senior coach, and McGuane credits it with part of his future success, and the bridge between the young up-and-coming Magpies and the man in charge of the club’s direction. McGuane was 18 at the time, having come to the club from Sebastopol, and already displaying good potential alongside some highly-rated teenagers in the club’s “thirds”, as the under 19s were sometimes called. Among the group was a skinny kid from Templestowe devoid of fear (Gavin Brown), a big lump of a lad from Woori Yallock (Damian Monkhorst) and a resolute left-footer from Queensland (Gavin Crosisca). Other likely lads brought together under the coaching of Keith Burns came from all parts of the state. Plenty of them came from the fertile recruiting grounds of the northern suburbs, including captain Jason Croall, and Damian Keating from Bundoora, Athas Hrysoulakis from Lalor, Terry Keays from St Marys, Neil Brindley and Paul Smith, from Greensborough, as well as John Mrakov, from Preston Wanderers. “We were a very close group (in the under 19s) and we felt as if we really connected to each other, and connected to the Collingwood Football Club,” McGuane said. “The first time that I felt really connected to the club, and a part of Collingwood, was when Leigh Matthews got the whole club together in the one room at Vic Park.

LIST: View profiles of those who won an under 19s best-and-fairest while playing for Collingwood.

“It was the whole club, too, and that included the under 19s. We all felt connected because we were included in it. “He spoke about what he expected from us. He told us that, as an outsider looking in, he thought there were too many egotistical bastards in the room, and he was prepared to name them. It didn’t matter that we were in the under 19s. We knew we were a part of what was happening at the club then and in the future.” Fast forward five months, to September 26, 1986 – 30 years ago this week – and the highly-rated Collingwood side defeated North Melbourne to win its fourth VFL under 19s premiership as the first game of a big day of football at the MCG, culminating in the Hawthorn-Carlton VFL Grand Final. Coached by Keith Burns, a great tutor of young footballers, this Magpies under 19s team would prove to be one of the most celebrated, with four players going on to play in the first AFL Grand Final four years later on a day where Collingwood broke a 32-year premiership drought. All four – Brown, Monkhorst, McGuane and Crosisca – played important roles that day in 1990, and had long and distinguished careers in black and white. Others from that 1986 under 19s side had solid careers with the Magpies, 11 of the Grand Final team represented the club at senior level, and a number of them were very stiff not to play a league match, given how strong the competition was. Many of them are still connected to the club – and to each other – as evidenced by the 30-year reunion alongside their former mentor Burns in early September. “We’ve always been pretty close,” Paul Smith, one of the team’s best defenders, said. “We’re all still close 30 years on.” Burns has always had the philosophy that developing players was more important than wining flags, but he knew this particular under 19s side had the talent and the temperament to achieve the ultimate success. “We knew we had a good side, and we had a great year,” Burns said recently. “We tried a lot of young players out that year and tried to develop them as players.” “We used to send them up to the seconds when they were ready to go. But the seconds that year (in 1986) weren’t going to make the finals that year. We still sent some boys up to the seconds (Mark Orval and Paul Tuddenham), but we knew we were a chance to win the under 19s flag, so we kept a lot of the group together.” Incredibly as the season would later pan out, Collingwood’s under 19s side started 1986 slowly, winning only three of the first nine games. Two of the early defeats – one of them to North Melbourne – were floggings. But somehow they clicked, and with Matthews keeping an eye on the young charges, and with Burns polishing their skills and their commitment, the Magpie thirds stormed home to finish third on the ladder, giving them the double chance by 0.01 per cent.

PREMIERS: The records of our under 19s team.

Better still, they knocked off Denis Pagan’s highly-rated Kangaroos in the second semi-final, launching themselves in the premiership playoff. Monkhorst admitted he was “a bit wild” in those days, but Burns was able to chisel off some of his rough edges. One of those times came in a match against North Melbourne earlier in the year when the ruckman took offence at an opposition player having a go at him. Burns laughed when he recently recalled: “Monky was about to kill him, and I had to take him off just to settle him down.” The big man said he loved being a part of that side, saying: “I was just going out there having some fun … We had a really good side.” “Mick McGuane was the greatest football brain I ever played with. Browny was the bloke you would just look at and admire as he was a really competitive bugger.” “But there were other guys in the team who should have been destined for long VFL careers, but for whatever reason, didn’t get the chance. But some of them went onto really good careers in the suburban leagues.” McGuane credited Burns as the man who set the standards for that under 19s side, saying he taught them about professionalism. “Burnsy was ruthless in his approach to get the best out of you,” McGuane said. “And that was even more so for the country boys … Burnsy was really hard on a lot of the country boys, and he was the making of us. “I still love Keith dearly for what he did for us.” Smith, who would later go on to play reserves with Collingwood and Richmond, agreed: “Even after all these years, you realise Burnsy was the best coach I ever played under. He was hard, but he was fair, and he called a spade a spade. You knew where you stood.” McGuane added: “They were all champion blokes in that team – Browny, ‘Croally’, Greg Faull, Paul Smith, ‘Bolts’, Damian Keating, all of those boys.” “We just really connected as a group. We trained hard as a group, and that was an extension of Burnsy’s demands. He just helped us evolve as players.” Burns was also confident after defeating North Melbourne in the second semi-final that the same result would follow in the Grand Final. His confidence was undented, even when the Kangaroos shot out to an early lead. A massive brawl erupted before the first bounce, which centred on David Stagg, who had formerly played with North Melbourne, and who had penned Pagan a letter (not a complimentary one) before the Grand Final. But the young Magpies reeled the Kangaroos in as the game wore on. “We had a good rivalry with North Melbourne, but we always felt confident we would win it,” Burns said. “We got far enough in front in the last five or so minutes, so we put an extra player in the defensive zone, and there was never going to be a chance that we would lose that game, I don’t think.” McGuane agreed: “North Melbourne had Denis Pagan as coach and Mick Martyn, who had kicked a hundred goals that year (and three goals in the Grand Final), so they were a tough side to beat. But here was the opportunity that I had dreamt of since I was a kid. I had black and white running through my veins.” The Kangaroos never gave in, but the Magpies held on to win by 16 points – 12.11 (83) to 9.13 (67). The young Collingwood side celebrated wildly on the MCG, had a victory lap and chaired Burns off the ground. They were even given a guard of honour as they went back to the Collingwood Social Club for “a few beers” that night. But what came next was more important than what happened on that day 30 years ago. In 1987, as the Magpies had an injury epidemic at the start of the season, Matthews had to look at the group of young talent from that under 19s side for senior selection. Four of the nine new faces for round one, 1987 had played in the under 19s premiership six months later – the previous year’s ‘thirds’ B&F winner Neil Brindley, Athas Hrysoulakis, Gavin Brown and Gavin Crosisca. Brindley, 19, received a phone call from Matthews on the Friday night before the game, informing him he would shadow star Swan Barry Mitchell for the game. He recalled: “It was a bit of a shock to be picked … I debuted with a number of under 19s players and also some recruits who came across (from interstate).” “It was a very, very new side … I think it was the start of the building block for the 1990 premiership.” Mitchell had had 35 touches and kicked three goals, which made for a busy afternoon for Brindley in what was his only game in Black and White. “I managed to play the whole four quarters without being rested … I didn’t get picked the following week,” Brindley recalled. It was a tough call on Brindley, who was an exceptionally good footballer, and a quality individual, as Mitchell was one of the most exciting players in the AFL. Burns said of Brindley: “They (Collingwood) crucified him a bit, didn’t give him much of a chance.” Hrysoulakis showed great promise, but never produced the consistency that once saw him touted as a future star. But Brown, Crosisca, McGuane (who debuted later that year), and Monkhorst (who played his first senior game in 1988) would make their mark on football’s biggest stage. Four years on from that under 19s premiership, those four were among the 20 players who helped to end one of Australian sport’s long-running and most embarrassing droughts. And Burns, for one, felt exceptionally proud of the role he – and the under 19s side of 1986 – had played in that.]]> Babes for the Woods https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/babes-for-the-woods/ Tue, 22 Mar 2016 21:29:52 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10316 By: Glenn McFarlane, Herald Sun journalist and Collingwood historian. Lou Richards enjoyed an afternoon nap one mid-March afternoon ahead of what was going to be a big 64th birthday party that night, but when he woke he felt as if his world had changed. It was same sort of feeling that many football fans felt on the eve of the 1987 VFL season. Change was not only in the wind, it was blowing up a storm. And it seemed as if the football landscape was going to be changed forever. In Richards’ case, it came in the bombshell decision from his employer Channel 7 – the long-standing network partner of Australian football – to opt out of the VFL broadcasting rights, seemingly silencing ‘Louie The Lip’ and allowing the ABC to take over the broadcasting for the season ahead. “It’s a very sad day, I’m sad to be out of it,” Richards said before heading off to his party which he humorously called ‘The Last Supper’. By the end of the month, he had joined the Nine Network. But the change was not just coming on our television screens. The 1987 season would be a landmark one in Australian football, and few would be unaffected by the impact of those changes. The near-bankrupt Melbourne clubs finally agreed to bring in two new franchises, West Coast and Brisbane, eager for the revenue that the licence fees would bring about. But the Eagles and the Lions were not the only new things. The inaugural draft happened a few months earlier (Collingwood’s first pick was West Adelaide midfielder Grantley Fielke); and a salary cap was implemented for the first time (it was $1.25 million for that first year). About the only thing that hadn’t changed was the level of distrust between some clubs and league headquarters. Before the first round of that season – one that pitted Collingwood against Sydney – a group of concerned VFL clubs gathered at Victoria Park under the hint of darkness to discuss “league issues”, concerned with the direction in which the game was taking. Change had come to Collingwood in a football sense, too. In the lead-up to the season, it seemed as the Magpies had been cursed by injuries. Leigh Matthews, about to enter his second season as coach, couldn’t believe the club’s misfortune. Each practice match – a loss to Richmond at Donald, a win over Fitzroy at Parade, and a loss to Footscray at Western Oval – seemingly brought about fresh injuries and it left the club dangerously short of players ahead of the season-opener. STATS: Review every Collingwood match since 1987. Stress fractures in his right foot – caused by wearing sandals – ruled Peter Daicos out. Shane Morwood, who was hoping to be there for his brother Paul‘s first game in Black and White, suffered a knee injury. Newly appointed captain Tony Shaw insisted he would be right after hurting his back in the match against the Lions and spending a week at home in a traction device. In the lead-up to the Swans’ game, he ran 10 laps on the first night and 12 the following night before proving his fitness on the Thursday night before the clash at Victoria Park. Denis Banks and Darren Millane flew to Adelaide that same week to meet with surgeon James Hyde for an assessment of groin complaints. Both were cleared of any need for surgery, though Millane was told he had to rest for the next few weeks. Ron McKeown had stress fractures; Shane Kerrison could not be considered due to a hamstring complaint, while Russell Dickson and Mark Beers were also ruled out. So what’s a coach meant to do when confronted with such an imposing injury lost? Pick a bunch of kids and a few interstate recruits, and hope for the best. As luck would have it, the Magpies had an abundance of young hopefuls to choose from, including a number of players who had played in the 1986 under 19s premiership side. Still, it was no easy task. Matthews hadn’t made up his mind on selection deep into the Thursday night’s training session, and Collingwood’s round one team to take on Sydney wasn’t processed to media until 10pm that night. Channel Seven’s League Teams, which had featured Richards, Jack Dyer and Bob Davis, had been axed along with the rest of the footy coverage, so the lateness of the selected Collingwood team didn’t matter too much. But it was filed through to The Sun News-Pictorial in time for the metro editions of the newspaper. The headline said it all: ‘Babes for the Woods’. Looking at the team – there would be nine new faces – the headline might well have said ‘Babes to the Woods’, for Richards’ Kiss Of Death preview of the game said Collingwood could expect a good old-fashioned hiding from the more experienced Swans. “I’m all for giving the youngsters a go, but this is ridiculous! Dejected fans have already christened their heroes “Magpies Anonymous’,” Richards wrote. “Coach Leigh Matthews isn’t giving a pre-match talk; he’s welcoming the new boys to the club and introducing them to each other.” Despite all the injuries, the reigning Copeland Trophy winner, ruckman Wes Fellowes, was relegated to the reserves, deemed unworthy of selection. Fellow ruckman David Cloke would play his 250th VFL match that day. Two of the new Magpies had come from other clubs – former Swan and Saint Paul Morwood and former Hawk Glenn Howard. Two were from Western Australia – Craig Starcevich and Michael Christian – while Fielke had come from South Australia. And four of the new faces were from the successful under 19s side – the previous year’s ‘thirds’ best-and-fairest winner Neil Brindley, Athas Hrysoulakis and a couple of other likely lads in Gavin Brown and Gavin Crosisca. Brindley, 19, recruited from Greensborough, received a phone call from Matthews on the Friday night before the game, informing him he would shadow star Swan Barry Mitchell for the game. He recalled: “It was a bit of a shock to be picked … I debuted with a number of under 19s players and also some recruits who came across (from interstate).” “It was a very, very new side … I think it was the start of the building block for the 1990 premiership.” Four of those nine new faces would be there three-and-a-half years later when Collingwood on the 1990 premiership, but that must have seemed like a pipedream then for the 17,129 fans who attended Victoria Park for that March 28, 1987 game against Sydney. The Swans were too good, from start to finish, setting the scene with five goals to nil in the first term and never looking challenged. By half-time the difference was 73 points, and it had bloated to 95 at the last change. Collingwood managed to outscore Sydney in the final term, kicking six goals to five, but the Magpies still went down by 91 points. Sydney forward Warwick Capper kicked nine goals for the game – seven in the first 41 minutes and only two fewer than the Magpies. Each time he scored, he gave an insulting gesture to the crowd, and at half-time there was almost an ugly scene when one frustrated Collingwood fan confronted Capper as he came off the field. Swans coach Tom Hafey took Capper off towards the end of the game to avoid any further trouble, which perhaps cost him from kicking more double figure goals. The first person to congratulate Capper in the dark and dank visitors’ rooms was Australian Prime Minister and Sydney Swans supporter Bob Hawke. Hawke had reason to celebrate the moment – the score line of 25.15 (165) to 11.8 (74) was, and still is, Sydney’s biggest score against Collingwood, and 91 points remains the Swans’ greatest winning margin against the Magpies. 160322_collingwood1990_01 Four members of Collingwood’s 1990 premiership team (Gavin Brown, Michael Christian, Gavin Crosisca and Craig Starcevich) made their senior debuts in the club’s 91-point loss to Sydney in round one, 1987. Hafey was realistic after the game, saying: “It’s good to have a first up win, but it is a different Collingwood side from what we’ve seen in the past, mainly because of all the recruits they’ve got.” Matthews told reporters: “Athas Hrysoulakis and Craig Starcevich were probably the two plusses for us off the top of my head. But they were small mercies really when you’ve been beaten so badly.” “But we have no choice other than to play the inexperienced players and there’s nobody in the reserves, apart from Wes Fellowes, that are likely to come through in the immediate future.” Mitchell had had 35 touches and kicked three goals, which made for a busy afternoon for Brindley in what was his only game in black and white. “I managed to play the whole four quarters without being rested … I didn’t get picked the following week,” Brindley recalled. It was a tough call on 19-year-old Brindley, who was an exceptionally good footballer, and a quality individual, as Mitchell was one of the most exciting players in the competition at that stage. Matthews admitted as much later. Brindley would later return to the Diamond Valley Football League, where he had a long and distinguished career with Greensborough. He deserved another chance, but sadly didn’t get it. But the winds of change were blowing. As the Magpie fans trudged home from the game that night, they had taken a glimpse into the club’s future. The skinny kid with raw courage wearing the No.26 jumper, Gavin Brown, had 21 touches; 18-year-old Gavin Crosisca had 19 disposals; Craig Starcevich kicked three goals; and Michael Christian showed he had a future. 160322_starcevich01 Craig Starcevich kicked three goals from 21 disposals on debut against the Swans in round one, 1987. So, too, did the Magpies. From one of the darkness of the club’s worst ever round one loss – 91 points – it would lead to one of the most illuminating of moments. One hundred and four games on, and before a crowd of almost 99,000 at the MCG, four of those nine fresh faces from 1987 were among the 20 players who helped to end one of Australian sport’s long-running and most embarrassing droughts. All played key roles in Collingwood’s drought-breaking 1990 flag. Brown was knocked out during a quarter-time melee, but returned in an inspirational effort during the third term. Crosisca kicked two critical goals. Starcevich kicked a goal and was in the running for the Norm Smith Medal before he was concussed by Terry Daniher, the same Bomber who had earlier struck Brown. And Christian played a steady but important hand deep in defence. The ‘Babes’ of Round 1, 1987 graduated swiftly; and Collingwood’s 14th VFL-AFL premiership – which was almost 12,000 days in the making – was the reward for long-suffering Magpie fans in 1990.]]>