Thomas Abbott was a key figure in and around Collingwood in the club’s early days.

He spent 10 years on the club’s committee between 1905 and 1914, and was one of the pioneers in producing promotional election material (such as postcards of Collingwood players with ‘Vote 1 T Abbott’ messages on the back). He was also the President of the Collingwood District Football Club, the team that became our seconds side.

He also produced two boys who played for Collingwood, Clarrie and Les – and they were vastly different players. Les was a long-kicking full-back who would go on to enjoy a storied career by virtue of the number of clubs he represented.

Clarrie, on the other hand, was a diminutive rover who totalled only three games but still managed to represent two clubs – playing two games with the Magpies and one with Melbourne.

He first came to our attention when he was playing with the Collingwood Trades team in the Wednesday league. This was a competition established to accommodate those who wanted to play footy but couldn’t do so at weekends, usually because of work commitments. The Collingwood Trades team was powerful and won three successive flags between 1905 and 1907 (the first of them featuring such luminaries as Teddy Rowell and Lardie Tulloch – no wonder they won!)

Clarrie started with the Trades team in 1905, when he was just 16, and soon won a reputation as a smart, nippy rover/forward. After two promising seasons there he was chosen to play in some of the Collingwood seniors’ practice matches leading into the 1907 season. He played the opening game of the season for Trades against South Melbourne and starred, The Herald describing him as a “clever rover” who had put on “a good exposition of football”.

That performance was enough to gain him selection for the seniors in Rounds 3 and 4 of the 1907 season, named as first rover in one game and a forward pocket in the other. He didn’t have a huge impact but still managed to gain some media mentions, especially for his second game against Melbourne, where The Age described him as being amongst the “most prominent” Magpies and The Argus said that he “brightened up greatly in the later stages”.

Despite those encouraging signs he was dropped after Round 4 and did not return. Instead he went to Collingwood Districts, where he played with Les, and then returned to the Trades team in 1908. In 1909 he went to Brunswick, then the year after to Essendon’s Association team. Two years after that he was given another VFL lifeline when called up to play with Melbourne as a late replacement for an ill player, but this time he lasted only one game.

Like his brother, Clarrie Abbott wasn’t afraid of changing clubs in order to pursue his footballing dreams. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, he never managed more than those three senior games.

- Michael Roberts