Collingwood has fielded a reserves team since 1919 - initially under the banner of the Collingwood District Football Club, and from 1939 onwards as part of the Collingwood Football Club, right through to the team it fields in the present day VFL competition.
Now, for the first time, we have been able to produce a list of the players who represented us at reserves level in those years. The list is not complete - far from it. Records of reserves teams, match results and goalkickers are variable in quality. We are extremely confident in the data we have from 1958 onwards, but before then it is a mixed bag. While the games data is solid from 1930 on, the goals records are much less complete - especially in the Districts years and the 1940s. We are always on the lookout for more records or history, so if you have anything to add please contact us at [email protected]
Even though there are still gaps - including many first names we would love to add - putting this list together has been a monumentally difficult task. That we have got to this stage is almost entirely down to the work of Collingwood Archives researcher Phil Taranto, who has spent years compiling the information by trawling through online and physical records. In more recent times he has been greatly helped by another researcher, Rob Harris. Both have spent crazy hours on this project (and will almost certainly continue to into the future), and we can’t thank them enough.
The Reserves (or the seconds, the twos, the ressies, the magoos, or the various other names they’ve gone by over the years) have played a huge role in the history of the Collingwood Football Club. The vast majority of senior players have spent time here, either on the way up or sometimes the way down. But just as importantly, there are the hundreds of guys who played reserves footy but never quite made it to senior level. Now, at last, their names can also join their more fabled colleagues in being recorded and remembered in our official records.