Magpie Faithful Newsletter #13
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 30: (L-R) Peter Moore, Darcy Moore of the Magpies and Craig McRae, Senior Coach of the Magpies hold the cup aloft during the 2023 AFL Grand Final match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Brisbane Lions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on September 30, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos)
We did it!
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 1600th 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 31st 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 15th 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.