Collingwood Football Club
the magpies
Formed in 1892 in the then-working class Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, the club played in the VFA before joining seven other teams in 1896 to found the breakaway VFL.
Founded
12 Feb 1892
Nickname
The Magpies
Motto
Floreat Pica
may the magpies prosper
The Collingwood Football Club supporter base traditionally came from the working class, although its supporter base today goes far beyond.
Many of the supporters still come from lower socio-economic groups, leading to jokes from supporters of other clubs which typically stereotype their Collingwood counterparts as poor, crude and ignorant.
The Magpies are traditionally reviled by non‑Collingwood supporters.
"You either love 'em or you hate 'em".
The dislike of the club by outsiders is said to have originated during the 1920s and 1930s, a period of great success for the club which drew the envy and resentment of other clubs.
In this period, Collingwood was also perceived as a Catholic and Irish club, at a time when these groups were looked down upon by the rest of Australian society and subjected to a considerable degree of social exclusion.
The first signs of a rivalry with Brisbane originated in 1999, when the Magpies were comprehensively beaten in the last ever AFL match at Victoria Park.
Collingwood is regarded as one of Australia's most popular sports clubs, attracting the highest attendance figures and television ratings of any professional team in the nation.
In 2013, it became the first AFL club to reach 80,000 members.
Playing Uniform
Club Song
Good old Collingwood forever,
They know how to play the game.
Side by side they stick together,
To uphold the Magpies name.
See the barrackers a‑shouting,
As all barrackers should!
Oh, the premiership's a cakewalk
For the good old Collingwood.
Adapted from the USA army marching song
Goodbye Dolly Gray
The first team song (written in 1906) and the only song to reference the barracker, an aussie rules term for fan.
Originally based at Victoria Park, the club now plays its home games at the MCG.
Victoria Park
M.C.G.
Its training and administrative headquarters are located at Olympic Park Oval and the Holden Centre.
Collingwood has played in a record 44 Grand Finals, winning 15, drawing two and losing 27 (also a record).
The Pies also won a record four consecutive premierships between 1927 and 1930.
Since 1958 the club has won only two premierships - the inaugural AFL Premiership in 1990, and in 2010.
Despite this, the club still has won more individual games, more finals and made more grand final appearances than any other club.
A string of eight Grand Final losses, often by narrow margins, between 1960 and 1981 gave rise to a perception that the club was prone to "choking", a phenomenon wittily dubbed the ❛Colliwobbles❜.
Whether this perception is accurate remains a subject of debate; however, the club's record in recent years has been much improved, having won two and drawn one of its last six Grand Finals. Lou Richards ceremoniously buried the Colliwobbles at Victoria Park after the club's 1990 premiership.
the longest drought
After what was arguably the Collingwood Football Club's finest hour in 1958, few could have imagined that it would be thirty‑two long years before the club again achieved premiership success.
During that time, the Magpies contested no fewer than eight grand finals, with all bar two – the 1960 and 1980 thrashings at the hands of Melbourne and Richmond respectively – being lost from potentially winning positions.
Almost inevitably, given the jealous loathing that the club had engendered over the years, this gave rise to talk of curses, jinxes and mental weakness (colliwobbles), but more rational analyses suggest that the side was either simply unlucky in 1964, 1966 and 1979, or not quite good enough in 1970, 1977 and 1981.
