Collingwood has known plenty of characters over its history, but Albert Tame seems to have been someone with a particularly eclectic take on life. And while that wasn’t always evident during his playing days, it certainly came to the fore after he retired.

Alby was born in Collingwood and first came to prominence in 1893 when, as a 16-year-old, he won a medal for cricket and one for football at Kings College in Fitzroy, being named as one of two ‘champions of the school’ that year.

He began playing with Collingwood Juniors soon after school, and joined the senior Magpies from there early in 1896. He played mostly on the wing or forward, where his pace and natural athleticism could shine (in addition to cricket and football, Alby was an elite level cyclist and also apparently a fine yachtsman).

He only played seven games in that first year, kicking two goals along the way, but he was still considered part of the Club’s first ever Premiership that year, despite not playing in the Grand Final itself (he was awarded a Premiership medal after the game).

Despite that early vote of confidence, and his obvious quality as a footballer, he never really became a mainstay of the team. Indeed he managed only 36 games in total over seven years, although one of those, 1901, was spent back with the Juniors.

That failure to become a permanent fixture may well have been due to his love of cycling and its interference with his football. He was an elite cyclist who competed in numerous major events and won plenty. During the mid-late 1890s he was regarded among the top 10 cyclists in the country. He won the Adelaide Eight Hours Wheel Race in September 1898 (for which he won 60 pounds!) And if you’re looking for a statement on his priorities, he actually missed a game with Collingwood in 1899 to take part in a cycling carnival.

Alby retired from football after the 1902 season, and later became associated with a property called Athenry, at Diggers Rest. And this is where his personality really seems to have emerged.

The house was originally built in 1906 as part of a farm before eventually coming into Tame’s possession. In Tame’s hands, Athenry became something far more distinctive than a simple farmhouse: he expanded and embellished it in the style of an architectural folly, mixing elements of a medieval castle with the original dwelling. Some of the fittings were thought to have come from the old steamer SS Edina, whose fittings were sold at auction in 1936. It was also reported that Alby had a private zoo and a super-scale model railway on the premises too.

Those facts help explain why he remained a well-known figure around Diggers Rest: not simply a former footballer and champion sportsman, but also a local character whose home became part of the district’s story (the home itself went up in flames in 2013, nearly 50 years after Alby’s death, by which time it was one of Diggers Rest’s oldest surviving houses).

Alby was also a successful businessman in and around the area, owning businesses connected with ironmongery, spouting manufacture, wire and wire-nail manufacture, and similar trades. Within his family he was known as ‘AE’ (for Albert Edward).

A colourful personality and a multi-talented sportsman, Alby Tame had an involvement in two Collingwood Premierships, 1896 and 1902. Who knows what he might have achieved if footy had been his primary focus?

- Michael Roberts