Well, here we go again!
I have no idea how we’ll be able to follow up all the thrills and spills of last year, but if the first two rounds are any indication then we’re going to be in for another memorable season.
In the meantime, here’s our first newsletter of the year to kick things off. As always it looks like being a BIG year on the history and heritage front, with some potentially exciting developments on the cards. We’ll keep you posted.
See you at the footy.
Carna Woods!
Michael Roberts
CFC Historian
The Cats in Rd 1
If you experienced a sense of déjà vu about our opening round encounter against the Cats, you weren’t imagining things.
This was the 17th time we have faced the Cats in the opening round of a season, which is significantly more than any other team. And following that heroic win, our win-loss record in those games now stands at 11-6.
Our next most common Rd 1 opponents are Hawthorn and the Swans (14) and Richmond and Fitzroy (13). We’ve never played GWS or Gold Coast in the opening round, and have only played West Coast once. The rarest Rd 1 opponents of the ‘traditional’ crop of teams is St Kilda, with four.
The other slight statistical oddity is that, of all those games v Geelong, this is the first time since 1933 that a Rd 1 game against Geelong hasn't followed a Collingwood Grand Final appearance! Yet another reason to be annoyed with the heartbreaking loss to the Swans in the prelim.
Pendles not tossing the coin
If there was a sense of familiarity about our opponents in Round 1, there was definitely something new about the guy tossing the coin.
With Darcy Moore now our new man in charge, it’s worth reflecting again on Scott Pendlebury’s extraordinary reign as skipper. Here are a few highlights:
- The first time he captained the team was in 2010, Rd 13 v Sydney;
- Appointed full-time in January 2014 and served nine years in the role;
- Spent 206 games as captain or acting captain, which is a club record. It’s also seventh on the all-time VFL/AFL list;
- He recorded 111 wins, 94 losses and one draw while in the role, for an overall winning percentage of 53.88%
- The 13 seasons in which he acted as captain (either acting or permanently) is the second longest in VFL/AFL history, behind Ted Whitten’s 14.
Thanks Pendles – you will be a hard act to follow!
Early takeaways…
We know it’s only been two rounds, but already the landmarks have started to pile up. Here’s a few from the first fortnight of the season:
- As we know, Darcy Moore started out his captaincy with a cracking win against the Cats. In doing so he broke a mini-trend, which had seen our last two skippers, Maxy and Pendles, lose their first games in the job. He’s also the first Magpie to start out his captaincy with a win over the reigning Premier since Peter Daicos did it while acting captain in 1989.
- And while we’re on that game, we also managed to stop Geelong’s 16-game winning streak. Shades of 1953 perhaps?
- Plus according to stats guru Sir Swamp Thing it was the first time since 1961 that a reigning Premier has been held goalless in the final term of a season opener.
- Our 19.11.125 in that Geelong game was our highest score since 2018. And of course we promptly went out and did even better against Port!
- Our 71-point win over Port was our first 70+ point win since 2016!
- The 60,744 who turned up to that Port game made it our largest ever home-and-away crowd against Port, easily eclipsing the 51, 833 in Round 1, 1997 – Port’s first ever game in the AFL.
- We had 14 different goalkickers in the game against Port – just the fourth time that has happened in our history, and the first time since Richmond in Round 4 of 2015 (when we had a record 15 different goalkickers)
- That Port win was also significant because it was the 164th win that Steele Sidebottom and Scott Pendlebury have ever played in – the highest by any Collingwood combination.
(as always, thanks to stats guru Sir Swamp Thing, the stats team at the AFL and our own research team for these little oddities!)
Crispy and Steele
If the footy gods are kind to us, then there are two big milestones on the cards for season 2023.
Everyone’s favourite Shepparton product, Steele Sidebottom, is on track to become just the fourth player in our history to reach the 300-game mark. And Jack Crisp has the chance to break Jock McHale’s club record of 191 consecutive games – a mark that has stood since 1917! He could also become just the SIXTH player in VFL/AFL history to have played 200 consecutive games.
Fingers crossed for both boys!
1917 Premiership Medallion
We were beyond stoked when the grandson of former Magpie skipper Con McCarthy, Graeme Moffatt, got in touch recently to donate Con’s 1917 Premiership medallion back to the club. There were some other nice pieces with it too. Read all about it here. Thanks Graeme!
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1289014/a-skipper-s-prized-premiership-medallion
Other donations
We’ve picked up lots of other interesting items during the off-season too, including a wonderful collection of memorabilia from Faye Marks, a superb autographed 1930 itinerary and a print of an original artwork all the way from England! So check out all our latest acquisitions here – and remember to get in touch if you have anything you’d like to donate.
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/club/history-and-heritage/latest-acquisitions
Vale George Hams
We were saddened to learn of the passing of 1953 Premiership player George Hams in February. He had been one of the last few survivors of that wonderful Premiership team.
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1268461/vale-george-hams-am
Looking for team photos
This is a bit of a long shot, but we’re looking for team photos of clubs and teams that are associated with Collingwood, but not necessarily of our senior team itself. So we’re looking for:
- Collingwood District Football Club (1908-39)
- Collingwood Juniors Football Club
- Collingwood Reserves
- Collingwood Under-19s
- Abbotsford Football Club (pre-1950s)
If you have items like this, or know anyone who does, please get in touch with us at [email protected]
