The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Founded in 1892 in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, the club played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) before joining seven other teams in 1896 to form the breakaway Victorian Football League (VFL), known today as the Australian Football League (AFL). Originally based at Victoria Park, Collingwood now plays home games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and has its headquarters and training facilities at Olympic Park Oval and the KGM Centre.
Collingwood has played in a record 45 VFL/AFL Grand Finals (including rematches), winning 16 premierships (tied with and ), drawing two (a record) and losing 27 (also a record). Regarded as one of Australia's most popular sports teams, Collingwood, as of 2013, attracted the highest attendance figures and television ratings of any professional football club in the nation, across all codes.Windley, Matt (15 May 2013). "Collingwood, Brisbane Broncos top rankings as Australia's most popular football clubs" , The Herald Sun. In 2023, it topped the AFL membership ladder with 106,470 members.
The club's song, "Good Old Collingwood Forever", dates back to 1906, making it the oldest team song currently used in the AFL. Its home guernsey consists of black and white stripes, based on the colours of the Australian magpie. Another kind of colour is white and black stripes instead. Historically, the club's biggest rivals have been neighbouring clubs Carlton and Richmond. Collingwood has also enjoyed a healthy Anzac Day rivalry with Essendon since 1995.
Collingwood fields a reserves team in the Victorian Football League (formerly the VFA) and women's teams in the AFL Women's and VFL Women's competitions. It also owned and operated a netball team in the National Netball League from 2017 to 2023.
History
Formation and early years
The Collingwood Football Club was established on 12 February 1892.afl.com.auA Century of the Best, Michael Roberts p.viii pub:1991
Collingwood played its first game in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) against Carlton on 7 May 1892.Michael Roberts (1991). A Century of the Best. p. x. The club won the VFA Premiership in 1896.
In 1897, Collingwood, along with fellow VFA clubs Fitzroy, Melbourne, St Kilda, Carlton, Essendon, South Melbourne and Geelong split from the VFA and formed the Victorian Football League (VFL).
Collingwood won its first premiership in 1902, defeating Essendon by 33 points in the 1902 VFL Grand Final.
1920s and 1930s: Four consecutive premierships
Collingwood was the most successful Victorian club of the 1920s and 1930s, appearing in 13 out of a possible 20 Grand Finals during the period. Collingwood were premiers six times during this time, including four consecutive premierships between 1927 and 1930, a VFL record, and two consecutive premierships in 1935 and 1936. The club's coach during this period was Jock McHale, who served as coach from 1912 to 1949. Collingwood also had three Brownlow Medallists during the period, with Syd Coventry winning in 1927, Albert Collier in 1929 and Harry Collier in 1930. The club's ruthlessly successful period later earned the club the nickname "The Machine". American journalist and author Sam Walker included the Machine team in his book The Captain Class, which listed some the author's greatest teams in the history of world sport.
The Collingwood team of 1927–1930 not only achieved four straight premierships, but did so with a winning percentage of around 86% across the four seasons, and an average winning margin of about five goals. In 1929 they also became the only team in history to go through a home-and-away season undefeated. Collingwood remains the only club in the history of the VFL/AFL to have been declared premiers on four successive occasions.
1950s: Two premierships
In the 1950s, the Melbourne Football Club enjoyed an era of unprecedented success, winning five premierships in six years (the last coming in 1960, and having been runner up in 1954). Collingwood lost two Grand Finals to Melbourne in this decade, but bounced back to win premierships in 1953 and 1958. Collingwood's 1958 premiership is much cherished by the club as it prevented Melbourne from equalling Collingwood's record four premierships in a row.
The 1958 premiership was however to be Collingwood's last for 32 years, as the club was to suffer a string of Grand Final defeats in coming decades.
1959–1989: "Colliwobbles"
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 "Colliwobbles"."Let's banish memories of Colliwobbles forever". The Herald Sun, 24 September 2010"Putting a price on Colliwobbles". The Melbourne Age, 12 August 2010"It's still neck and neck after 44 years". The Melbourne Age, 25 September 2010 Whether this perception is accurate remains a subject of debate;"Colliwobbles: fact or fantasy?" Footy Almanac having won three, drawn one and lost four of its last eight Grand Final matches. Lou Richards ceremoniously buried the Colliwobbles at Victoria Park after the club's 1990 premiership.
1990–1999: Long-awaited premiership and struggles
The 1990 premiership team, coached by Leigh Matthews and captained by Tony Shaw, had a one-sided grand final win against Essendon, the Magpies recording a 48-point victory and ending a 32-year premiership drought which included eight grand final losses and one draw. The sight of club great Darren Millane, who died in a car-crash one year later, holding the ball aloft in triumph at the final siren is one of the indelible images of the match.
After the drought-breaking premiership, the club lapsed into a state of decline for the remainder of the decade, culminating with the club's second wooden spoon in 1999. The Magpies returned to finals, though were quickly eliminated, in the 1992 season against St Kilda and in the 1994 AFL season against West Coast. Matthews left as head coach at the end of the 1995 season and was replaced at the start of the following year by 1990 premiership captain Tony Shaw, who had only retired from football 18 months earlier. Mid-table finishes under Shaw were achieved for the next two seasons, before poor results in 1998 and 1999 saw Shaw announce his resignation.
2000–2011: The Malthouse era Media personality, sports journalist and administrator Eddie McGuire was elected President in October 1998. He oversaw the installation of new head coach Michael Malthouse in October 1999, whose appointment proved to be a masterstroke in reviving the club on-field. Under Malthouse, the acquisition and emergence of players such as Paul Licuria, Alan Didak, Anthony Rocca and Nathan Buckley resulted in Collingwood quickly moving up the ladder in the 2000 AFL season and in the 2001 AFL season, only narrowly missing the finals in the latter year. Collingwood met reigning premiers Brisbane in the 2002 Grand Final and were regarded as massive underdogs, eventually falling just 9 points short of an improbable premiership. Buckley, the captain, became just the third player to win the Norm Smith Medal as best afield in the Grand Final despite being a member of the losing side. Despite a very successful home-and-away next season, they were again defeated by the Lions in the 2003 Grand Final, this time in thoroughly convincingly fashion.
Following those Grand Final losses, Collingwood struggled for the next two years, finishing 13th in 2004 and second-last in 2005; the latter meant Collingwood was eligible for a priority pick which the club used to recruit Dale Thomas. Collingwood made a return to the finals in 2006, finishing fifth, but were defeated by the Western Bulldogs by 41 points in its elimination final. A loss to (who were on the bottom of the ladder at the time) late in the season ultimately cost them the double chance. The 2007 season saw them finish sixth on the ladder at season's conclusion, and in the finals they knocked out the grand finalists of the past two years, Sydney, in the elimination final and then West Coast in overtime at Subiaco Oval in the semi-final. Having earned a preliminary final against , Collingwood lost to the eventual premiers, by five points in one of the most memorable preliminary finals in over a decade. Nathan Buckley would announce his retirement at season's end after playing just five games in 2007 due to injury.
Collingwood finished eighth in the 2008 AFL season and were assigned an away final against at AAMI Stadium. After at one point trailing in the match, Collingwood went on to end Adelaide's season and earn a semi-final meeting against . Having defeated the Saints in both their regular season meetings, Collingwood lost convincingly, ending their 2008 season. The 2009 season saw Collingwood finish inside the top-four for the first time since 2003, but in the qualifying final were beaten by minor premiers St Kilda convincingly. Having won a second chance, Collingwood struggled against Adelaide for the second year in a row before John Anthony kicked the match-winning goal with a minute left to send them into another preliminary final meeting with Geelong. But the season ended abruptly for the Magpies, with a 73-point loss to Geelong.
In 2010, Collingwood finished as minor premiers, and after wins in the qualifying and preliminary finals, reached the first Grand Final against St Kilda. The match finished as a draw, forcing the first grand final replay in 33 years. Collingwood won the replay by 56 points. Key defensive player Nick Maxwell captained the club to victory and midfielder Scott Pendlebury (who had already won his first of eventually four Anzac medals earlier in the year) was awarded the Norm Smith Medal. The club won a second consecutive minor premiership in 2011, and qualified for the Grand Final after a three-point victory against Hawthorn in the preliminary final. However, Collingwood was then beaten by Geelong by 38 points in the decider, after trailing by seven points at three-quarter time. Following the Grand Final loss, which also marked the end of the club's 2011 AFL season, Malthouse left Collingwood after deciding not to stay on as "director of coaching". Star midfielder Dane Swan won the 2011 Brownlow Medal with a then-record 34 votes. Malthouse would leave having coached the club to eight finals series and four grand finals in 12 years.
2012–2021: Coach Nathan Buckley