Hello Magpie fans – and welcome to a season that already feels different from any other over the past decade. With a new coach, new assistants and a new game plan it will be exciting to see how things develop over the next six months – and especially to watch our crop of promising youngsters.
As always, it promises to be a big year on the history front too, and we’ll do our best to keep you informed of everything that’s going on.
As always, get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions. In the meantime, we’ll see you at the footy!
Carna Woods!
Michael Roberts
CFC Historian
Round 1 History
This year was only the fourth time we’ve played St Kilda in the first round of a season, and every one of them has been historic in its own way.
- Round 1 1897 – the first ever game we played in the newly formed Victorian Football League
- Round 1 1962 – St Kilda ended a Victoria Park hoodoo stretching back to 1919! It was only their second win at the ground in 59 attempts
- Round 1 1965 – the first ever game played by St Kilda at Moorabbin, the game drawing a staggering crowd of 51,370 (a number that would never be exceeded). This was also Peter McKenna’s debut.
- Round 1 2022 – Craig McRae’s first game as Collingwood senior coach. He now joins this list of post-war coaches to have started their coaching careers with a win: Mick Malthouse, Leigh Matthews, Bob Rose (twice), Jack Cahill, Mick Erwin, Tom Hafey and Murray Weideman.
The Daicos family
You might have heard a whisper that a kid called Nick Daicos has joined his brother Josh at Collingwood. When he ran out against the Saints on Friday night he became the 45th father-son to have played for the club, and he and Josh became the 47th combination of brothers (104 siblings in all). Plus father Peter became just the eighth former Pie to have produced multiple Magpie offspring, joining Bill Twomey Snr, David Cloke, Brian Beers, Syd Coventry, Charlie Pannam Snr, Ray Shaw and Gavin Brown.
And while on the subject of Nick’s impressive debut, it also won him bragging rights around the dinner table. When Peter made his debut in 1979 (also against the Saints), he had 19 kicks and 7 handballs, so 26 disposals in all. Nick ended last night with 27, edging out his old man by one! But they both had debut kicks they'd rather forget: Peter's first apparently sailed out on the full, while we know what happened with Nick's!
A ‘new’ ANZAC
With ANZAC Day fast approaching, new research has uncovered that former player Jim Keogh was also among those who fought in the First World War. You can read his story here - and it’s a quite remarkable one.
/players/jim-keogh/
Vale Ken Turner
We lost our third 1958 Premiership player in just over a year when the wonderful Ken Turner, who was just about BOG on that day in ’58, passed away suddenly in February. Read more on the sad news here
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1060150/vale-ken-turner
This Collingwood Life
We’ve launched a new series of articles on the club’s website, telling the stories of a variety of people whose lives have become entwined with Collingwood one way or another. It’s called This Collingwood Life – stories about us. Check out the first of them here, and keep an eye out for others on the website. And even better, if you know of anyone who’s got a great Collingwood story to tell, please let me know about it!
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1058014/this-collingwood-life-june-bradbury
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1076302/this-collingwood-life-rohan-bownds
Tell us how you fell in love with the Pies
And while we’re on the subject of great Collingwood stories, we’d love to know how and why you started following the Pies, and what made you fall in love with them. Submit your entry here:
https://tradablebits.com/tb_app/470471
Great pic finds
We’ve unearthed some rare pics of two Collingwood legends, Albert Collier and Jack Ryder. Read all about it here.
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1078198/before-they-were-stars
Robin Murphy
We lost one of our longest serving and most loved members of the Archives just before Christmas. We miss you Murph.
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/1056289/vale-robin-murphy
Foyer displays – get in quick
We have a new cabinet display in the foyer celebrating the life of Murray Weideman. And we’re once again keeping the 2010 and 1990 displays in place, simply to give people a chance to see them. But the foyer will be being redeveloped at the end of the season, so they’ll be taken down before then.
Phil’s Trivia
This issue’s trivia question from Phil Taranto (no relation to Tim):
Which guernsey number has the most goals in Magpie history? We reckon you’ll probably guess the first one, but we want a top 5!
# 6 (1843 goals)
# 9 (1327)
# 1 (1319)
# 5 (1298)
# 7 (1190)
Donations
Check out our latest bunch of acquisitions, including some wonderful 1920s ephemera, Peter McKenna scrapbooks, a great collection of seasons tickets and a box of superb scrapbooks from the 1980s/1990s. Thank you to EVERYONE who donates to us!
https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/club/history-and-heritage/latest-acquisitions
