Graham Wall’s life has been dominated by his passion for the Collingwood Football Club.

Not only has he barracked for the Magpies for more than seven decades, he also spent 22 years working for the club as a part-time statistician.

“I feel really lucky to have been a Collingwood person since I was born,” said Wall, who recently turned 71.

Wall became a Pies supporter at the insistence of his father, George, who was a North Melbourne fan, then switched allegiances after becoming close mates with Collingwood Team of the Century member Des Fothergill when both were serving in the army during the Second World War.

When they returned from the war, Fothergill ended up working for Wall’s father, who had a tyre business based in Melbourne’s inner-north.

The tyre business was well known thanks to being featured on one of the first advertising signs hung on the fence at Victoria Park.

“I think it was one of the first advertising signs ever hung around a footy ground,” Wall explained.

A Collingwood player gets a kick away in front of the advertising sign promoting the tyres business owned by Graham Wall's father

Wall and his two brothers were nominated by their father to become Collingwood Social Club members in the early 1970s, and the four of them went to just about every game at Victoria Park.

“All we cared about was Collingwood winning,” Wall recalled.

“We used to sit in the forward pocket down at the scoreboard end.

“One of my dad’s best mates and his wife used to meet us at Victoria Park, and we sat together. We referred to them as Uncle Jack and Aunty Fran.

“Dad and Jack would go up to the Social Club rooms and have a couple of beers and the rest of us would stay down by the fence.

“It was great sitting by the fence. When the players tackled each other you could hear the thump. It was great to be so close to the game.

“They used to have homemade pies and pasties for sale at Vic Park back then. We would get one every time we went to the footy. They were beautiful.”

The Magpies slid down to the bottom of the ladder in 1976, a slump that led to a number of changes, including the hiring of Tom Hafey as coach.

Hafey, who had previously coached Richmond to four premierships, wanted to bring a more professional approach to the club. As part of this, he wanted more detailed statistics recorded during every Collingwood game.

Wall, who had a full-time job with the Civil Aviation Authority at the time, and his brother Dennis were among the people brought on board to spend their Saturdays recording the stats for Hafey.

Dennis Wall and Tom Hafey

“We used to sit on top of the Ryder Stand, next to the coaches. Ronnie Richards sat beside us,” Wall said.

“I was the caller. I basically commentated the game to a guy next to me called Trevor Hall, who had a sheet of paper in front of him with all the players’ names and the different actions.

“So I was lucky. I got to watch the whole game.

“We were always invited into the after-match functions. We’d get stuck into the sandwiches and the beers. It was great fun.”

Wall has many great tales from his years in the stats team.

“One day we were out at Carlton and Billy Picken wasn’t playing that day, so he came up to our stats box and sat beside us.

“I was calling the game and at one stage a player who looked like Billy picked up the ball.

“I said, ‘Handball Picken’, and suddenly I got an elbow in the ribs from Billy. ‘I’m sitting right beside ya!’ he said. That was funny.”

Graham Wall (right) with fellow Collingwood stats man Dennis White

Between 1977 and his retirement in 1999 (by which time Champion Data had secured the licence as the official provider of statistics to the AFL and its clubs), Wall worked at almost every Collingwood game.

He and his fellow stats guys had some great times travelling interstate with the team after South Melbourne moved north to become the Sydney Swans.

“It was great,” Wall said. “We got to walk on the Sydney Cricket Ground. And Dr Edelsten used to have these amazing after-match functions up in one of the stands.

“Then we would go to the Western Suburbs leagues club for dinner. Wests were the Magpies, so that was our link to them.”

His highlight was being in the coaches’ box on Grand Final day in 1990 when the Magpies, led by Leigh Matthews, broke their 32-year premiership drought.

“I was sitting right behind Leigh, so I really felt like I was part of it,” Wall said.

“We’d lost so many Grand Finals, but finally we had our premiership. It was fantastic.

Wall received a Special Services Award at the Collingwood AGM in 1998, which also happened to be the night that Eddie McGuire was elected president.

“It was a great honour,” he said. “It’s something I’m very proud of.”

Graham Wall (right) with his fellow Collingwood stats men during a game at Waverley Park

These days, Wall resides on Queensland’s south coast, where he often runs into Collingwood supporters.

When Wall recently purchased a computer table from the local Officeworks, the staff member who carried the table to his car spotted his numberplate, which reads CFC 47 (he was born in 1947) and has the words “THE MIGHTY MAGPIES” across the bottom.

It turned out he was a Pies supporter as well.

Wall watches Collingwood play every weekend on TV and always goes along when the Pies take on the Gold Coast Suns at Metricon Stadium.

Collingwood has been a huge part of his life and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“The club means a lot to me,” Wall said. “I wouldn’t like to barrack for anyone else.”