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/the-coaches/ Sun, 19 Mar 2017 02:42:25 +0000 http://cfc-forever-staging.qodo.com.au/?p=11003 Jock McHale. McHale is arguably the most famous name in Collingwood history. He’s certainly been the game’s most fabled coach, not just for his longevity and games record, but also for his achievement in piloting the club to no fewer than eight Premierships. It’s no wonder that the AFL has named its award for each season’s leading coach after him. But the club has also had plenty of other outstanding coaches along the way, such as Phonse Kyne, Bobby Rose, Tom Hafey, Leigh Matthews and Mick Malthouse. Not all of them have enjoyed the ultimate footballing success (Rose, in particular, was desperately unlucky). But every one of them has given his all. That applies even to Collingwood’s two most short-term coaches. Ron Richards filled in while Neil Mann was coaching the Victoria team in 1974, and is officially credited with a coached-two-won-two coaching record. The other historical anomaly came in the 1930 Grand Final, when Jock McHale was sick in bed at home. While no coach was appointed for the day, Treasurer Bob Rush delivered a famously stirring half-time speech so is sometimes credited with having a coaching role on the day (though not officially by us or the AFL). Good trivia questions, those two. Of course there were no coaches in the club’s earliest days, with off-field preparation usually handled by the captain, in conjunction with the head trainer. Match-day moves were the province of the skipper. The club’s first coaches were senior or recently retired players. It was not until 1977, when Tom Hafey came across from Richmond, that Collingwood finally looked outside its own nest for a senior coach. But no matter their background, every single one of Collingwood’s coaches has put his heart and soul into the job, devoting huge reserves of time and energy into taking the Pies as far as he could. All that work is aimed at one thing – returning the Magpies to the top of the tree. As fans, we always hope that moment is going to come next season. So do our coaches.

Years	Senior Coach
1904	Bill Strickland
1905-06	Dick Condon
1907-08 (part)	Ted Rowell
1908 (part)	Bill Strickland
1909-11	George Angus
1912-49	Jock McHale
1950-63	Phonse Kyne
1964-71	Bob Rose
1972-74	Neil Mann * (Ron Richards filled in as senior coach for two games while Neil Mann was coaching the Victorian side.)
1975-76	Murray Weideman
1977-82 (part)	Tom Hafey
1982 (part)	Mick Erwin
1983-84	John Cahill
1985-86 (part)	Bob Rose
1986 (part)-95	Leigh Matthews
1996-99	Tony Shaw
2000-11	Mick Malthouse
2012-21 (part)	Nathan Buckley
2021 (part)	Robert Harvey
2022-	Craig McRae

]]> https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/daicos-helps-the-pies-draw-with-the-roos/ Mon, 04 Aug 2014 09:48:53 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=4662 1977 Grand Final: the absence of Phil Carman due to his suspension from the second semi-final; Collingwood’s remarkable rise from last in 1976 to being the minor premier; the first pre-game entertainment for a Grand Final; the Magpies’ 27-point lead at three quarter-time; North Melbourne’s early inaccuracy and stunning fight back in the last term; all culminating in Ross “Twiggy” Dunne’s famous pack mark and torpedo goal from close range which levelled the scores on 76 each – Collingwood 10.16 (76) to North Melbourne 9.22 (76). The other draw played out between the two teams came 11 years later, and none of the players who been out there for the first draw were out there for the second. The Round 17 clash in 1988 is recalled with less clarity and less colour than the 1977 draw. Contrasting occasions and conditions; the same result, if you like, though there were a few similarities between the two games. In 1977 it was the Magpies who had led by 27 points at three quarter-time before the Kangaroos stormed home with five goals to one in the final term. In 1988, it was North who led by 25 at the last change before Collingwood managed five goals to one in the last quarter. Played out on a wet and windy winter’s afternoon at Victoria Park, the match between Leigh Matthews’ Magpies and John Kennedy’s Kangaroos was witnessed by 16,082 hardy souls -more than 90,000 fewer than those who attended the previous draw between the two sides. And instead of Barry Crocker singing “The Impossible Dream” to a stadium full of people as he did in 1977, the only pre-game entertainment before the Collingwood-North Melbourne clash in 1988 was a bit of old-fashioned reserves watching. There was plenty to see, too, with three ruckmen – David Cloke, who had been dropped a few days earlier, 1986 Copeland Trophy winner Wes Fellowes and a developing kid with plenty of talent called Damian Monkhorst – attracting a fair bit of attention in the “twos”. Matthews had dropped Cloke (as well as Tony Elshaug and Paul Tuddenham) after the club suffered bad losses to Fitzroy and Melbourne in successive weeks – leaving James Manson as the sole ruckman against the Kangaroos. A week earlier, he had dumped full-forward Brian Taylor, only to recall him for the game against North Melbourne. In fairness to Taylor, retired Hawthorn great and newspaper columnist Don Scott wrote at the time: “I’d have hated to be full-forward at Collingwood this season with the time it has taken to deliver the ball and the poor manner in which it has done (so).” But clearly the pressure was on the Pies heading into this Round 17 game. Two weeks earlier Fitzroy had beaten Collingwood by an almost inconceivable 90 points; the previous week it was a 46-point loss to Melbourne. That loss to the second placed Demons brought out plenty of criticism for a team that sat fourth on the ladder, but was looking more than a little susceptible. Former captain Des Tuddenham said after the Melbourne loss that he was “ashamed” by the effort. He added: “The double chance was at stake, but what happened? They wimp it.” Eleven minutes into the first quarter of the game against North Melbourne, Collingwood looked even more vulnerable. The scoreboard at the Yarra Falls end told a sorry tale – crediting the Kangaroos with 4.2 (26) while the operators had so far failed to post a score for the home side. The first three goals came from Peter German after an “inspirational” start for the visitors with a strong breeze. It looked like it wasn’t going to turn out to be much of a 28th birthday for Collingwood’s captain, Tony Shaw, who was playing his 199th game in black and white. As busy as Shaw was on the field, the Magpies were finding it very hard to get on the scoreboard. Only two goals came in the first term to North’s six, but by 17 minutes into the second term, and with some fine work from Taylor in front of goal, the scores were back to level. However, the Kangaroos kept coming and regained the lead soon after, taking the margin to 18 points by the time the two Little League teams came out to play. Taylor had redeemed himself with a brilliant first half, keeping the Magpies in the contest with five goals heading to the main break He had “outbustled” young defender Mick Martyn, who was one of five teenagers on the ground that day. The others were: Collingwood’s Gavin Crosisca and North Melbourne’s John Longmire, Brenton Harris and Dean McRae. The Sun’s chief football reporter Peter Simunovich wrote: “By half-time North Melbourne had re-asserted its superiority with two goals to Longmire (in only his sixth game) and another to the brilliant German.” Simunovich added: “But in the third quarter the wind dropped and with it appeared to come an increased propensity by both sides to increase their already-high number of mistakes.” Still, Collingwood made more than North Melbourne, and two of them – “critical errors” – threatened to cost the Magpies dearly. The first came when Mick McGuane, in his 19th game, “paddled” the ball over the boundary line deep in defence. The umpire deemed it to be deliberate and the resulting free kick to 20-year-old Alastair Clarkson was slotted through on an acute angle. Not long after, Magpie Matthew Ryan grabbed the ball and ran too far as he was trying to extricate himself from the crowded backline. The free kick to Matthew Larkin ended in a goal, and the margin was out to 25 points at three-quarter-time. Seemingly, the game was looking beyond the home side. The only thing in Collingwood’s favour was that it was coming home to the scoring end and that North Melbourne had not taken advantage of all of its opportunities. The Roos had 24 scoring shots to the Magpies’ 14, leaving the door slightly ajar as the parochial home crowd tried to urge their heroes on to stage a revival. The Collingwood comeback started in the middle of the ground – with Manson starting to assert his authority, “rucking his heart out in the last quarter.” Jamie Turner was playing his best game to date, Darren Millane was strong on the wing, Taylor was dangerous in attack and Doug Barwick finished up with two goals, including one in the last term that came about after a 50m penalty that must have infuriated Kennedy in the opposition coaches’ box on the outer side of the ground. Unusually, Peter Daicos had been reasonably held through, but when the difference was back to a point in the visitors’ favour late in the game, he stepped forward for one of the most important moments of the match. Speaking about it this week, Daicos’ memories of the game are two-fold. “It was just one of those really wet and muddy days at Vic Park, that’s the thing that I recall about that game,” he said. “I remember we were a point down and we were kicking to the Yarra (Falls) end. I got the ball deep on the boundary line on a tight angle and I just got my boot to ball. I think I went with a torpedo and just tried to drill it home. I kicked it really hard.” For a moment, Daicos’ kick looked like conjuring one of the miracles that he had become renown for. The crowd looked on in nervous anticipation as the Sherrin spun towards goal, almost as if it was played out in slow-motion. At the last moment, it diverted towards the nearest goalpost, and slammed into the woodwork. It was a behind; the point that would level the scores. “I thought it was home for a few seconds, but it ended up hitting the post,” Daicos said. Daicos’ behind squared the scores – Collingwood 14.8 (92) to North Melbourne 13.14 (92). Not all that many minutes later, and with no addition to the score, the timekeepers reached over and pushed the final siren. It was over. In the confusion, leading ABC commentator Graham ‘Smokey’ Dawson told listeners not long after the end of the game: “And now we’ll go down to St Kilda for details of the closest match of the day.” It wasn’t. Collingwood and North Melbourne had staged a draw. At Moorabbin, Sydney had beaten St Kilda by seven points. As darkness descended over the ground, up in the social club, Brian Taylor was being presented with an award for Collingwood’s best player after kicking seven goals. Taylor said: “In terms of goals, it was my best match for awhile, but I think I’ve been doing a lot of other work which people don’t notice.” His teammates toasted their captain, Tony Shaw, on his birthday and looked ahead to his 200th game the following week. And as disappointed as Magpie fans were as they lingered around for a chat, before streaming out of the ground and heading out across the footbridge, with many of them heading to the Victoria Park train platform, they knew that Collingwood had fought exceptionally hard to come back. They also knew that a draw, as tough as it was to deal with, was better than a loss. And this time there was no need for a replay.]]> https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/peter-daicos-first-match/ Mon, 04 Aug 2014 09:27:39 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=4652 https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/the-other-pies-saints-draw/ Sun, 03 Aug 2014 04:32:49 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=4201 https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/tony-shaw-brings-up-300-matches/ Fri, 01 Aug 2014 01:05:01 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=4109 https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/collingwoods-first-win-against-sydney/ Fri, 01 Aug 2014 00:42:11 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=4097 https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/nathan-buckleys-debut-in-black-and-white/ Fri, 01 Aug 2014 00:26:09 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=4090 March 26, 1994 Buckley played his first match in Black and White after a much-publicised move to Collingwood following a brilliant debut season with the Brisbane Bears in 1993. And while Buckley’s Magpie debut game was more a workmanlike performance than displaying the wonders that would come not too much later, it was the start of a relationship that still has at least three seasons to run. Buckley, the player, would become one of the greatest in the club’s history, stretched out across 260 games in Collingwood colours. Buckley, the coach, is still very much an unfinished product, with much promise and the certainty that he will run through until at least the end of the 2016 season. Incredibly, there have been only two years of the past 20 that Buckley has not been at Collingwood – the two seasons he spent in the media and at the AIS Academy in 2008 and ’09. Not even those former Magpie officials (chief among them, Graeme Allan) who fought so doggedly, and to the borderline of AFL rules, to secure him, could have imagined Bucks’ stay would be so long. There had been some collateral damage in the Buckley trade. Collingwood had to compile a list of 10 “untouchables” who were off limits and the rest of the playing list was effectively on the table. That meant the Magpies ended up relinquishing the popular Craig Starcevich and promising young player Troy Lehmann as well as their first draft choice for the readymade star. In hindsight, two decades on, it looks to be one of the trades of the century, even if then coach Leigh Matthews later conceded the zeal with which the club chased Buckley left a sour taste for some players. Buckley had even been heckled by Collingwood players a year earlier when he played against them in Round 12, 1993, especially from Graham Wright, Tony Francis, and, of course, Tony Shaw. “‘Wrighty’ was yelling out ‘I hate you, I hate you’,” Buckley recalled before his first game with Collingwood. “That’s part of the game. It’s business, and out on the field you’ve got no friends on the opposition side.” But the intensely driven young footballer desperately wanted to play for a traditional Victorian club. And while there were suitors aplenty armed with chequebooks ready, willing and able, many suspected it had always been Collingwood who was at the head of the negotiations. As Patrick Smith wrote on the eve of Buckley’s first game: “Distraught wooers of Nathan Buckley, their hearts broken and cheques torn up, will tell you that under the centreman’s Brisbane Bears’ jumper last season beat a heart of Black and White.” Buckley’s recruitment to Collingwood was one of the trade stories of the 1990s. After one season playing for the Bears, he was always going to head to a Victorian club in 1994. What’s more, he wanted to play for a team steeped in history, and the Magpies fitted the bill perfectly. He gave a succinct explanation of his mindset in a “Hero Poster” published in the Herald Sun on the day of his first game, against Fitzroy (who would merge with Brisbane within a handful of years). Asked by Oula, 11, from Spotswood Primary School, why he had left Brisbane, Buckley answered: “I chose to change because I was keen to play for a Victorian club with tradition.” And he gave an indication of his confidence and ambition when he answered questions from Lauren, 12, and Jamie: “Life’s a competition, and once I had the chance, I felt compelled to do it. It’s something I do well.” Buckley wasn’t worried about the pressure or the expectations that would have weighed down others, nor even the suggestion from some that he alone would put the Magpies back in the flag frame. With refreshing honesty that some saw as over-confidence, he would say: “I’ve said 100 times before that the expectations I have of me can’t be outweighed by whatever other expectations might exist. I like to win. “I’m excited with the prospect of playing for a club that has such a tradition of playing important games every week, playing in games when something is riding on it and your reputation has to be proved every time.” His former Brisbane coach Robert Walls predicted Buckley would thrive on the challenge: “He’ll love the big games; the big crowds; the MCG; the 90,000 fans; it will bring out the best in him.” The first time he wore the Collingwood No. 5 jumper wasn’t at the MCG nor were there 90,000 fans in attendance. It was Victoria Park, and 25,602 fans, including this reporter, went to cover the first chapter in Buckley’s life as a Magpie. The chapter would end on a winning note, but only after a bitter struggle against an old rival. If Buckley wanted footy tribalism, this walk down footy memory lane would be right up his alley. He had played earlier in an intra-club at Glenferrie Oval, matched up at centre-half-forward on Michael Christian. There were other non-official games – one against St Kilda in what was Nicky Winmar’s return to Victoria Park after the racial storm from a year earlier, a Foster’s Cup clash with North Melbourne (another team that desperately wooed him), and a clash against Aboriginal All-Star team in Darwin, where he had played some of his junior footy. By the time he ran out for his first official game, the fans were excited by what they had seen in the pre-season and what they could expect to see in the coming decade or so. Members of the so-called “Collingwood unofficial selection committee” – grass roots fans who went by the names of Alf, Brian, Lou, Jack, Bruno and Johnny – were clearly excited, telling one newspaper reporter that “Boom recruit Nathan Buckley’s been a fantastic get. We’re talking Brownlow Medal this year for him. Best recruit since Phil Carman, and a nice bloke with it.” Who knows if it was them, or others, who launched a Brownlow plunge on Buckley that month, backing him to win $55,000, cutting his quote from 25/1 to 14/1? He wouldn’t win the Medal, but he would more than win over Collingwood supporters and his own teammates in the coming weeks and months. Even before that first game, the Herald Sun’s Mike Sheahan forecast that Buckley and Saverio Rocca would become Collingwood’s “most lethal combination” since Barry Price and Peter McKenna in the 1960s and ’70s. Matthews would say of Buckley leading into that first game – “He is not the perfect player. He knows that…that’s what he works at all the time.” Buckley would be overshadowed by an unlikely figure in that opening game for Collingwood, kept relatively quiet by a kid called Tom Kavanagh, who was the son of Brent Crosswell, who had caused his own share of trouble for Collingwood in two Grand Finals – in 1970, for Carlton, and in 1977, for North Melbourne. Fitzroy coach Robert Shaw took the punt on Kavanagh playing on Buckley, and for at least for three quarters, it paid dividends. Collingwood had only played seven of its 1990 premiership team that day. A number of them had moved on, or been moved on, while others were nursing injury and form concerns. One of them, the ever popular James Manson, had transferred to Fitzroy and was playing his 18th game for the Lions. Manson’s unusual kicking gait sometimes proved a frustration to Magpie fans, but nowhere near as much as his 50m-plus goal (yes, it really did happen) for the Lions against Collingwood that day. It was one of the most enjoyable goals he would kick in his footy career. One of the Pies’ 1990 heroes was making a brave comeback from a debilitating illness that day. Graham Wright was playing his first game since being diagnosed late in 1993 with Guillain-Barre syndrome, which had brought about a short-term limited paralysis and a loss of 11 kilos. And on a day that reached more than 30 degrees – prompting Magpies fitness conditioner Mark McKeon to call on the AFL to institute night or twilight matches in early season games – Leigh Matthews wondered post-game whether it had been the right thing to play Wright. He said: “You shouldn’t say it, but I suppose if it’s over 25 degrees, we really shouldn’t play him.” The Fitzroy team had two future senior AFL coaches in their side that day – Paul Roos and Ross Lyon – while the Magpie team would produce Buckley and Tony Shaw as future coaches. Buckley wasn’t the only first time Magpie that day. Jon Hassall played his debut match, while Brett James, Jon Ballantyne, and Stephen Ryan, recruited from Norwood, Footscray and Richmond, also turned out in Black and White for the first time. A kid called Andrew Tranquilli was buttering up for his second game, and he would make it a memorable one, kicking a goal. It was a strangely fluctuating match of many twists and turns. Collingwood led by two points at the first change after a scrappy first term, then Fitzroy responded with seven goals in the second to lead by 14 at half time. Midway through the second term, it looked as if there would be a big upset in the offing, with the Lions leading by as much as 26 points. Then the Magpies edged into the margin, and by three-quarter-time had cut it back to a more manageable, but still difficult 14 point deficit. As the Collingwood team gathered to hear Matthews’ final speech just in front of the Ryder Stand side wing, the Collingwood crowd began to chant and urge the home side onto a special final term. Almost on cue, Buckley began to break clear of his tag, and some outstanding play from the recruit saw him kick the first goal of the final term after only one minute had elapsed. The chant got bigger, and fans were pleased to see the new boy was earning his keep. If there were two turning points, one of them came from Matthews and the other from some undisciplined play from Fitzroy forward Darren ‘Doc’ Wheildon. The first one came in the third term when the coach switched Jason McCartney from centre half-back to centre half-forward, He responded with one of his best performances in a Black and White jumper. The second was when Wheildon “flattened” James after he had taken a mark and the resulting 50m penalty saw James fire the ball off to McCartney, who kicked one of his three goals of the final term. Fitzroy didn’t throw in the towel, though. We should have expected nothing less from a team The Age described as: “a team that refuses to be bowed by defections, disasters, and dire predictions of financial destruction.” McCartney’s second goal 12 minutes into the final term finally gave the home side the lead for the first time since the eight-minute-mark of the second quarter. And then Paul Williams’ fifth goal came from a free kick and it extended the lead to nine points. But the Lions gained one back when the busy Matthew Armstrong set up Ross Lyon for a goal. But Collingwood’s most effective player, Mick McGuane, swept the ball away from the next centre bounce and McCartney outpointed Roos and kicked the sealing goal from outside 50m. The Magpies held on to win the match by 11 points, all due to a seven-goal final term that was partly inspired by Buckley’s best quarter for the match, and some brilliance from Williams and McCartney. Matthews said: “They (Fitzroy) started well and we just never quite picked them up to the very end. We were just fair today, just reasonable.” That might have summed up Nathan Buckley’s game, though it was said a lack of opportunity was as much a cause as the close checking of Kavanagh. It was a start, however, and his 18 touches and 1.3 gave those there that day a glimpses of what was to come from Buckley. And even now, 20 years on, there is still more to come from him at Collingwood. Round 1 1994 Collingwood    3.1, 6.5, 10.10, 17.12 (114) Fitzroy             2.5, 9.6, 13.6, 16.7 (103) Goals Collingwood: Williams 5, McCartney 3, Rocca 2, Ryan 2, Buckley, McGuane, Richardson, Shaw, Tranquilli Fitzroy: Armstrong 3, Boyd 2, McGregor 2, Sartori 2, Hogg, Lyon, Dunstan, Manson, Wheildon, McCarthy, Sporn Disposals Collingwood: Brown 24, McGuane 21, Buckley 18, Fraser 15, Watson 15, Williams 15 Fitzroy: Roos 27, Armstrong 26, Boyd 22, Sartori 18, McCarthy 18 Crowd: 25,602 at Victoria Park on Saturday 26 March, 1994]]>