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/from-road-worriers-to-road-warriors/ Wed, 13 Jul 2016 00:59:12 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10588 Mick Malthouse, had a plan at the start of the 2001 season – as a team, they had to learn to win on the road or run the risk of being also-rans for the foreseeable future. Leading into Malthouse’s second season as coach, the Magpies had lost 16 of their previous 17 games interstate. You didn’t need to be Jock McHale to realise that this trend had to end if the club was ever going to turn its fortunes around and contest for a premiership again. In a 2001 fixture that included four “road” games – two at Football Park, one at Subiaco and one at Manuka Oval, Canberra – Malthouse explained to his reshaped playing list about the need to become a resilient side no matter where the team played. That first game was ticked off with a win, when the Magpies took and beat Port Adelaide by nine points. It was club’s first win at South Australia’s then home of football since 1996. The challenge was to back that effort up four rounds later against Adelaide at Football Park in round 12, with a team that had been significantly altered since Malthouse’s first year in 2000, including recycled Magpies James Clement, Brodie Holland, Jarrod Molloy, Shane Wakelin and Carl Steinfort. Malthouse knew it would time for the team to gel, but interstate trips such as the one to take on the Crows on June 30, 2001, would be part of the glue that would turn this group into a competitive force once more. “Let’s not kid ourselves,” Malthouse said. “This side today is not as good as the (West Coast) side that won premierships in 1992 and ’94. But we’re taking the steps we need to take to ensure this club has a decent crack at the year. We’re still learning, there’s no question of that … They (the players) believe we are a good football side and it’s taken an enormous time to convince the players we are a good football side.” Nathan Buckley gathers in front of Tyson Edwards. Buckley had 37 disposals at Football Park that evening. Three wins in the first seven games was not the ideal start to the 2001 season, though the losses came at the MCG or Docklands. By the time Collingwood made its second plane trip to Adelaide for round 13, Malthouse’s Magpies were in the top eight, and Gary Ayres’ Crows were desperately trying to leapfrog them into finals contention again. Importantly, skipper Nathan Buckley was able to prove his fitness for the game after missing the two previous games with a hamstring issue. He was about to play his 174th game, being one of only three players to have played more than 100 games, with the others being former Kangaroo Glenn Freeborn (103 games), as well as new Magpies in Molloy (133 games) and Wakelin (107). And tellingly this would prove to be one of the greatest games Buckley would ever play in a Black and White jumper. Eleven Collingwood players who ran onto Football Park that night were yet to play 50 games – Damien Adkins (19), Rupert Betheras (49), Leon Davis (24), Nick Davis (42), Andrew Dimattina (19), Josh Fraser (34), Brodie Holland (48), Ben Johnson (27), Tarkyn Lockyer (49), Ryan Lonie (13), and Steven McKee (37). Four Crows had played 200 or more games – Mark Bickley (218), now Collingwood assistant coach Ben Hart (214), Darren Jarman (220) and Nigel Smart (218). Malthouse spoke about the challenge leading into the game: “We did a pretty good job against Port Adelaide. They were in terrific nick and we were able to beat them on their home ground.” “So the ground now doesn’t become an issue. It’s more the fact we’re playing Adelaide who are 6-6 and breathing down our necks. In the past I think Collingwood has tended to struggle when travelling and I don’t know for what reason. Perhaps because the club didn’t do a lot of travel.” Collingwood held sway but only narrowly at the first change, leading by seven points. And the Magpies appeared to have control of the game 22 minutes into the second term after Leon Davis slammed home a goal from 50m to open up a 19-point lead. But Jarman turned on a blistering few minutes, as he was so often capable of doing. He changed the game with three goals in six minutes, while Mark Ricciuto nailed another to put the Crows in front by half-time. The spectre of Jarman forced Malthouse’s hand after half-time. He had recalled what Jarman had done in the 1997 and 1998 Grand Finals, and knew something had to be done. He shifted Freeborn off the Crows’ superstar, and conscripted the forward who had been almost best on ground at quarter-time after kicking the first two goals, James Clement. Clement and Holland were new Magpies, but they were already making a difference since moving from Fremantle. And while Clement had played down back before, his efforts in the second half that day showed what an incredible defender he would turn out to be for Collingwood. The dangerous Darren Jarman spills a chest mark in front of Glenn Freeborn. The Sunday Herald Sun said of Clement’s second-half shutdown role on Jarman: “The move worked as Jarman had only one shot, an inaccurate one, at goal in the third period. In the final quarter, when the Crows looked for Jarman on many occasions, Clement shadowed his every move.” Jarman had six goals to his credit at half-time. He did not kick another one after Clement went to him. Buckley was having the best of his duel with Simon Goodwin. He was described as “blindingly brilliant”, by Damian Barrett, who was then working with the Sunday Herald Sun. Andrew McLeod had his impact dulled by Paul Licuria, while Malthouse trusted 23-year-old Andrew Dimattina to shadow Ricciuto. Steven McKee shared the ruck duties with Josh Fraser, though the club’s 1999 No. 1 draft pick spent most of his time in attack, as the Magpies had gone into the game without Anthony Rocca (calf) and Mark Richardson (virus). Chris Tarrant had kicked two early goals but was reasonably well held by Hart. Buckley’s last term was one for the ages. He would have 37 possessions for the game and win the three Brownlow Medal votes. But it was his desperation mixed in with his poise in the last term that made it so special. His 13 kicks in the last quarter were all used to great impact. Only six players had more kicks for the whole game than he had in 30 minutes. The Adelaide Advertiser‘s David Burtenshaw wrote of the Collingwood captain: “If ever any player won a game off his own boot, this was it.” Malthouse would have hated that analysis, as he was always trying to say that Collingwood’s reliance on Buckley was unhealthy and overstated. But Burtenshaw’s assessment was spot on. The Pies could never have won this contest without him. When he kicked Collingwood’s last goal of the game, at the 17-minute-mark – his second for the game – it was to prove the match winner, though the time remaining kept the Crows alive in the game until the final siren. On four occasions in the last term, the Crows edged to within two points of the Magpies’ lead, but they couldn’t manage to drag themselves over the line. Fittingly, Clement was tireless in spoiling the ball away from Jarman in the dying stages of the game. As the time ticked down, Ricciuto had the ball in the back half and saw an opening in giving off to Hart. Then Tarrant desperately laid a tackle to bring about another stoppage. And a long boot from Goodwin put the ball deep into the Crows’ forward line with only a matter of seconds left. A punch from Betheras was followed by a tap towards the boundary from Clement as the siren sounded. James Clement put the clamps on Darren Jarman during Collingwood’s thrilling win against Adelaide. Collingwood had held on. The final margin was two points. Malthouse could not have been more proud of his team after the game. He explained: “I don’t think too many (visiting) sides will do that this year (win twice at Football Park). To come away with a victory was more G (guts) and D (determination) than our skill level or setup.” “It’s very tough and I think mentally we’ve come out of it very well. It’s a great bonus going into future games. “The record for Collingwood in away games has been pretty dismal over the past six or seven years, maybe eight or nine years. “We’ve broken a lot of those mental barriers because the players’ persistence puts us on a different level now.” It would be the same when this team went on the road later in the season, winning games against Fremantle at Subiaco in Round 19, and against the Kangaroos in Canberra in the final round. In many ways, that 2001 season, although it ended without a finals berth, produced a template for the coming seasons. By the end of the next season many of these young Magpies were playing off for the premiership, and they did so as one of the most resilient teams on the road.]]> https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/this-is-the-game-right-here/ Tue, 31 May 2016 22:51:45 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10494 By: Glenn McFarlane of the Herald Sun Alan Didak had never experienced a moment like it; even if the thought had crossed his mind since he was a kid. He had the ball about 35m out from goal with less than a minute remaining. His kick would likely determine the outcome of a match, but also whether his team could lock in a finals spot. Time was running out. It was round 20, 2006, and Collingwood trailed Port Adelaide by three points when a neat chip kick from Anthony Rocca landed in Didak’s arms. It was one of the few times he had been able to get away from his shadow, Dom Cassisi, on a night at AAMI Stadium that had more than 30,000 fans on the edge of their seats. Didak, playing his 99^th game, had the ball, but would he have the nerve to seal the deal? The scenario was simple. Kick the goal and it was almost certain that Collingwood would score a remarkable come-from-behind victory; miss it, and he would be seen to be responsible for a game that got away. This match was always going to noteworthy for a number of reasons. For Port Adelaide, it was meant to be Gavin Wanganeen’s farewell match as a player. But a knee injury brought an end earlier than he had intended. He would say: “Not being able to play that last game is disappointing … Still, I get a special moment with the fans, a chance to say goodbye to those who have been there over the 17 years.” Heritier Lumumba leaves the field with an injured leg, early in the night. Nathan Buckley wasn’t saying goodbye yet. But as fate would it, this would be the final time he would play against Port Adelaide, a franchise that had courted him unsuccessfully when it was sought to join the AFL in late 1996. He knocked them back, and stayed loyal to Collingwood, and this particular night, he was also creating a part of Black and White history. The 34-year-old skipper, in his 273^rd AFL match, was breaking a long-standing club record that stretched back to the 1934 season. On that night Buckley passed Syd Coventry‘s record of 153 games as Collingwood captain, and his match would be defined by one moment in the last quarter that kept his team in the contest when it looked over. Collingwood started well, kicking six goals to three, to lead by 19 points at the first change. Injuries to Heritier Lumumba (then known as Harry O’Brien) and Shane Wakelin were a concern though. Two of the Magpies’ opening term goals came from eighth-gamer Sean Rusling who looked unstoppable for a period of time. He would end up with three goals for the match. By halfway through the second term, the difference shot out to 33 points, after the extremely busy Ben Johnson slotted through a nice goal. But then things tightened considerably. The Power had cut the margin back to 10 points at half-time. And when the Magpies failed to score goal during the third term, things were beginning to look bleak. Port Adelaide led by seven points headed into the final term and with the support of the parochial South Australian crowd behind them, it was going to be a real challenge for the visitors. Sean Rusling kicked three goals from five scoring shots. Strangely enough, Buckley started the final term on the pine. The Herald Sun noted that he “engaging in a spirited conversation with coach Mick Malthouse as he walked from the field after the three-quarter time huddle.” Goals were hard to come in the final term. Port Adelaide couldn’t nail one, and Collingwood found it just as difficult. The Power was nine points in front with four minutes left, as the goal drought rolled on. It was left to Buckley to break the deadlock. Shifted forward, he launched on the back of Troy Chaplin and dragged down one of the best marks he had taken in his career. Heath Shaw won a team-high 33 disposals and earned two Brownlow votes for his troubles. Dennis Cometti screamed: “Buckley, what a mark by the champ.” From point blank range, he did not miss, and the game was suddenly alive. It was a skipper’s goal on the night he broke the club captaincy record. The difference was three points with less than four minutes left. Scott Burns was just as important as Buckley in the last term. He went back against the flow of play to drag in a courageous mark, but soon after missed a chance to steal the lead back, to the frustration of his coach. Stuart Dew had kicked the ball across goal. Burns intercepted, but inexplicably missed – hitting the post – from just metres out. Vision of Mick Malthouse slamming his hands on the desk in the coaches’ box, and then flinging off his head-set and leaving his seat in frustration showed just how tense the moment was. The ball ended up at the other end, with Brett Ebert having a shot at goal as the time remaining went under two minutes. His shot fell short, but Chaplin snapped a behind, with the difference now three points. This provided Collingwood one last chance with 85 seconds left. The Magpies got the quick escape and took the ball around the boundary line towards the attacking zone. A Chaplin punch pushed the ball loose to half forward, with Johnson handballing off to Rocca. A clever kick found the right target. Garry Lyon declared on Channel Nine: “This is the game right here” as Didak moved in and slotted through the match-winning goal with cool aplomb. The Magpies were in front with only 19 seconds remaining. Didak gestured to the crowd in delight, in the crowd President Eddie McGuire leapt from his seat and Malthouse almost signalled the goal from the coaches’ box. But it wasn’t the end of the drama. The centre bounce saw Burns gather the ball on the ground and shoot off an errant handball. It ended up with Brendon Lade who barrelled the ball deep into attack. The ball sailed long, but deviated late to go through for a behind. The siren sounded and the Pies had won a remarkable match by two points. James Clement arrives in the nick of time to spoil Chad Cornes. Interviewed on the ground after the game, Didak said: “My legs are about 50 kilos each as it is, and they went to about 100. Look, it was a 50-50 chance and I kicked it straight and it went through.” Malthouse was more composed in the press conference, praising Didak’s maturity. “I think it’s a testament of (the) maturity of Alan. I thought Cassisi did a terrific job (but) Alan remained disciplined,” he said “He sacrificed a lot of his own play to tie up a few of the defensive mechanisms of Port. It’s probably fitting at the end that he was able to slot one through. “Was it defining? Well, it’s put us in the eight. That’s fairly defining, isn’t it? Especially when (we) were 15th last year.” And he praised Buckley’s leadership, his mark and his late goal, saying: “I think Nathan Buckley’s mark was pretty handy, I’ll give you the tip.” Asked about his own histrionics, Malthouse could only say: “I didn’t think the clock was doing us any favours.” The jubilant Collingwood players got to re-live Didak’s goal and Malthouse’s mini-meltdown when they watched the last few minutes in a small meeting room deep beneath AAMI Stadium after the game. “When we were watching the replay in the rooms, I was thinking that in my whole football life I had never had a kick after the siren or even just before the siren to win a game,” Didak said. “This was a first for me. It’s an incredible feeling. It will be memorable for the rest of my life.” And so it remains in the minds of Collingwood supporters.]]> https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/a-night-of-hellos-and-goodbyes/ Wed, 11 May 2016 01:17:03 +0000 http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/?p=10447 By: Glenn McFarlane, Herald Sun journalist and Collingwood historian. It was a match that seemingly had everything. There was a bold beginning and a farewell of sorts. There was a 23rd birthday, a milestone of longevity and some past demons buried. There was an unusual career-best effort from a club champion, as well as a victory crafted from adversity, owing to a quartet of injuries – one of them which proved career-ending. There was even a banner held up in the Cheer Squad which may have summed up the feeling of many Collingwood fans, but caused some angst among MCG officials. It was round 10, 2006, and it is match worth revisiting. Collingwood took on its nemesis, the Brisbane Lions, that June Saturday night before a crowd of 54,280 fans. Those in attendance and those watching at home on television were in for a real treat. Let’s start with the beginning. It belonged to an 18-year-old young gun called Scott Pendlebury. Wearing the No. 16 jumper – he didn’t switch to No. 10 until 2007 – the No. 5 draft pick from Sale had his first pre-season rudely interrupted by glandular fever, but showed enough form in the VFL to be elevated for his first senior game against the Lions. And it was a beginning of great promise. Pendlebury would join the “first goal, first kick” club that night, having 11 touches, including eight contested possessions. It was a sign of what was to come in the future. Scott Pendlebury takes possession during his first senior game in round 10, 2006. The farewell centred on 29-year-old Blake Caracella, though no one knew it at the time. He was playing his 187th game – and his 27th in a Collingwood jumper – and it came against his former side, with whom he had won the 2003 premiership, against the Magpies. This would be his final match, with an incident bringing about a premature end to his successful career. He was the player to wear the No. 10 immediately before Pendlebury took it on the following year. The demons undone that night in 2006 were directly related to that 2003 Grand Final. The Magpies hadn’t beaten the Lions since the 2003 Qualifying Final, and the mental of scars of what happened in the Grand Final that followed, and in the years after, still plagued some of the Collingwood players. It was time to exorcise some of the Lions’ demons. The 23rd birthday was Nick Maxwell‘s. An incident with Jonathan Brown early in the match would provide him with the sort of gift that no one wants – a broken leg, and six weeks on the sidelines. The milestone was Mick Malthouse‘s 700th VFL-AFL game as both a player and a coach – 174 as a player for St Kilda and Richmond, and 526 as coach of Footscray, West Coast and Collingwood. More milestones were ahead. And the banner? It was held aloft by ‘Joffa’ Corfe and read: ‘P— off Brisbane”. Many Magpie fans clearly agreed with the sentiment, even if the ground’s security didn’t have the same regard for it. The unusual career-best came from Nathan Buckley, and it was interconnected with the injuries. Aged 34 and playing his 263rd game, Buckley was shifted forward to provide a target, given the numerous injuries suffered. The Magpies’ midfield maestro would produce a night to remember, kicking a career-best six goals, including his 250th in a Black and White jumper. Robert Walls, who had coached Buckley in his one season with Brisbane in 1993, predicted the Magpies would break their drought against the Lions in a column he penned in The Age on the morning of the match. Blake Caracella leaves the MCG for the last time after injuring his neck during Collingwood’s win over Brisbane. “Tonight will be the start of ‘payback time’ for Collingwood,” Walls explained. “Over the past five seasons, the Lions have felt superior to the Pies, physically and mentally. (But) it’s Collingwood’s time.” The opening to the game was as hard-fought and ferocious as the rivalry between these two teams demanded. They didn’t like one another, and it showed. The past was very much dictating what was happening in the present, and this time around Collingwood was determined to make sure they would not give an inch. When Paul Licuria mistakenly gave off a handball to Ash McGrath, and the Lion kicked the first goal, the bad blood was on show for everyone to see. Some scuffles followed and more than a few Lions mouthed off. In one passage of play, Brown crashed into Maxwell, and the Lions forward emerged with blood on his forehead. But the birthday boy fared worse. He had put his body on the line, and never flinched, even when one of the toughest players in the competition was coming at him. By quarter-time, Maxwell’s night was over. But the injuries kept coming. Dane Swan, 22 and playing his 40th game, suffered a hamstring injury. He, too, was out of the game, while Josh Fraser was also injured, but he managed to hobble back on late in the game to kick an unlikely goal. No one was prepared for what happened next. Early in the second term, Caracella’s career changed forever. Fortunately, his life didn’t, but it was a close call. The two-time premiership player went for a ball that came in short, and then appeared to lose his footing. His former teammate Tim Notting slid into him, with his hip inadvertently crashing into the Magpie’s head. As Notting swept the ball away, Caracella was unmoved. No free kick was awarded, and almost as disturbingly, the play carried on as trainers rushed to Caracella’s aid. One reporter noted: “A motionless body and a stretcher are among the two things you never want to see on a footy field.” At least with the stretcher being called, the game was temporarily halted. An eerie feeling went around the MCG, with fears as to what had happened to the likeable Magpie who just couldn’t get up. Caracella would later explain to Buckley in an exclusive interview in the Sunday Herald Sun: “I just got hit in the side of my head. Then I slowly rolled over and tried to get up.” “If you look at the video, you can see my head raised, but my arms and legs don’t do anything. That was me being paralysed for a split second. The doc asked if I could move my feet and I could just wiggle my toes a bit. Within 30-40 seconds, he asked me to move my legs and I did a bit. I got worried because I could see he was worried. “At the same time my arms were really sore. I actually said to the doc to take me through the interchange bench, but he said that wasn’t an option.” Caracella was taken immediately to hospital. He had suffered a fractured vertebra and bruising to the spinal cord. Subsequent X-rays revealed that he had a pre-existing flaw in his spine. The game was important, but Caracella’s welfare was infinitely more so. Again, there was a strange mood in the Collingwood rooms at half-time – when the Magpies led by seven points – as the seriousness of Caracella’s injury began to sink in to his teammates. Many in the crowd felt as if the Magpies’ hopes of winning ended with the limited interchanges they would have for the rest of the game. Jon Ralph explained in the Herald Sun: “Enter Buckley. Pushed forward instead of resting on the bench as he normally would, he dragged the Pies back into the game.” The Magpies kicked five goals to three in the third term, opening up the break to 21 points, and closed the game out with five more goals in the final term to secure a resilient 26-point victory. Buckley had 29 possessions. But for once it was his goal tally which was more important than the disposals. He kicked six goals for the game, his highest tally in AFL football, but the four premiership points felt better. “I’m happy to rotate through the forward line,” Buckley said after the game. “I think Mick was going to use the goal square as an opportunity to rest guys through the midfield because we didn’t have an opportunity to rotate through the bench. “When I went down there late in the third quarter it was to take that rest opportunity and it was good to get on the end of a couple of great passes. “I know what forwards mean when they talk about getting good service because that was basically what I was able to get on the end of.” Buckley won the three Brownlow Medal votes that night – the last of 34 BOGs he would awarded across a stellar career. Malthouse described the victory as “an excellent win, an absolutely terrific win, and a very, very good win under the circumstances.” “We’ve taken another step today . . . are we growing as a football team? Today I thought we grew a bit more. “I think we’d lost our third player by the five-minute mark of the second quarter, or thereabouts, and under the circumstances, I thought the boys were just terrific.” The relief of winning was satisfying, but there was relief too when it emerged that Caracella had narrowly dodged a bullet in terms of how the injury could have been infinitely more serious. A leading sports physician Peter Brukner later detailed how Caracella was “very close” to becoming permanently incapacitated – “he is a very lucky man.” Collingwood President Eddie McGuire agreed: “He’s lucky in his unluckiness, if you like. There doesn’t seem to be any permanent damage. (But) it was a close thing.” All smiles again: Blake Caracella walks to the Collingwood coaches box four weeks after sustaining his neck injury against Brisbane. Caracella retired two months after the incident, explaining: “I’ve seen a specialist … and I’m at an increased risk of doing further damage to my spinal cord and possibly being paralysed (if he played on).” “I’ve seen all the specialists and … it was guaranteed that it was too dangerous to play again, so I was obviously very disappointed.” One of the first phone calls Caracalla took in the days after the incident came from Notting. Another was from Neil Sachse, a former Footscray player, who had become a quadriplegic in a match in 1975. That put into context just how lucky he had been. Caracella said later: “The CT scan showed the arteries that go through the vertebrae . . . there are holes in the back of the vertebrae where they go through and are held in place and I actually cracked the rim of the hole. “So if that bone had gone backwards or splintered a bit and cut the artery, it was pretty much goodnight. “You can see on the scan that there is a bit of bruising in the spinal cord behind C5. I said, ‘Does that happen very much when it comes to these types of injuries?’ He said, ‘No, not really, normally there is no bruising or it snaps in half.’ Amazingly, I didn’t snap it. I have been incredibly lucky in that sense.” Fortunately, he was never going to be lost to football. Caracella became a Collingwood assistant coach (2007-2009) and has been an assistant at Geelong since 2010. And many good judges think he has what it takes to become an AFL senior coach one day.]]>