Many consider the number 13 to be a bearer of bad luck.
The caution with which many treat the number is best underlined by former Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie who switched his One Day International shirt number from 13 to 4 after enduring a spell of bad luck that curtailed the early stages of his career.
Gillespie was so careful to avoid the number that it was said that he had triskaidekaphobia (a fear of the number 13), meaning he would never stay on the 13th floor of a hotel or stand on the 13th step in a staircase.
The suspicion with which the number 13 is treated, rational or otherwise, was given credence by several Collingwood supporters after several players to wear the number on their guernsey were struck down by bad luck.
Sly, a prominent blogger on The Collingwood Rant, noted the below on March 21 2002:
“Collingwood’s Number 13 curse has struck, yet again. In recent years, these are the players who’ve held the number and felt its ill-fortune:
* Andrew Ukovic – delisted. True, Ukovic was no champion, but he wanted to come down to Collingwood to be part of the rebuilding process. In fact, he was a handy pinch-hitter. But the year he took 13, his season was decimated by injuries and he was delisted at the end of the year.
* Craig Jacotine - delisted. In 1999, this kid (wearing 38) looked to be one of the best of our young brigade. In 2000, he took the number 13 and hardly played a Senior game. In the one match he did played, he was manned-up on Garry Hocking when Geelong staged a second-half comeback against us. Hocking goaled – the last goal of the game – and we lost, our 2000 season forever derailed. Oh, the joy. Jacotine was delisted at the end of the year.
* Alan Richardson - missed 1990 Premiership. Played every game in 1990 but injured his collarbone in the weeks leading up to the Grand Final. Failed a one-on-one fitness test with Leigh Matthews and ended up missing our drought-breaking Premiership.
* John Bourke - suspended for 10 years! Ran amok in the Reserves, tripped an Umpire, went after a spectator, and behaved in such conduct that he got 10 years at the Tribunal.”
Sadly, two players who have worn the number in the past 40 years have since passed away due to illness.
Wayne Gordon and Jamie Tape both battled Hodgkin’s disease (a type of lymphoma) during their late 20s. Gordon played 67 games between 1974 and 1978 and was a member of both Grand Final sides in 1977. Tape, meanwhile, crossed from Richmond (where he had represented his native South Australia a few years prior) at the end of 1997 and played 16 games in the black and white before leaving the club when the 1999 season came to a close.
Fortunately, all fans that looked at the number 13 warily were happy to leave their superstitions at the door when a man by the name of Dale Thomas rocked up at the Westpac Centre at the end of 2005.
The club handed its prized recruit the number 13 and he has never looked back.
From the moment Thomas soared into the night sky to mark over several Adelaide opponents in the first quarter of his debut in round one, 2006, he has ensured that the number 13 on a Collingwood jumper has been ubiquitous at the MCG every week.
Thomas’ daring play attracted a new legion of younger fans that now sign up as members of Thommo’s Team 13, a membership category for Collingwood supporters aged between four and 14.
In 2010, Thomas returned the number 13 to the premiership dais for the first time since Ray Gabelich wore it in the 1958 triumph, thus doing away with the myths once and for all.
Keen students of Collingwood’s history will note that the number 13 was actually worn in premiership triumph by another high-flyer nearly 100 years ago.
Collingwood’s first goal kicking colossus, Dick Lee, wore the number 13 between 1914 and 1922 as he raced to a then club record 707 goals from 230 senior games.
Lee donned the number 13 in the 1917 and 1919 premierships, kicking three goals in each game.
He was famously photographed taking a specky over a pack of four players against Carlton at Victoria Park in round one, 1914. Coincidentally, it was the first match in which Lee wore number 13.
Whether you believe each number has a distinct meaning or you adhere to the adage that you make your own luck, you cannot deny the colourful history of Collingwood and the mysterious number 13.
By the numbers…
Players to have regularly worn the number 13 for Collingwood
Dick Lee (230 games, 707 goals; 1906-1922)
Jim Lawn (35 games, 37 goals; 1923-1925)
John Harris (88 games, 48 goals; 1925-1929)
Horrie Edmonds (79 games, 124 goals; 1929-1934)
Fred Froude (148 games, 41 goals; 1930-1939)
Alec Fyfe (11 games, 3 goals; 1934-1935)
Les Main (21 games, 26 goals; 1941-1943)
Bill Dalkin (30 games, 10 goals; 1944-1945)
Allan Knorr (9 games, 1 goal; 1946)
Kevin Flint (4 games, 3 goals; 1952-1953)
Les Smith (5 games, 0 goals; 1952, 1954)
Ray Gabelich (160 games, 43 goals; 1955-1960, 1962-1966)
Bob Delanty (5 games, 1 goal; 1961)
Laurie Hill (114 games, 0 goals; 1962-1969)
Wayne Gordon (67 ganes, 23 goals; 1974-1978)
Neil Peart (13 games, 0 goals; 1982)
Brett Cooper (1 game, 0 goals; 1983)
Alan Richardson (114 games, 10 goals; 1987-1996)
Jamie Tape (16 games, 1 goal; 1998-1999)
Craig Jacotine (16 games, 6 goals; 1999-2000)
Andrew Ukovic (17 games, 9 goals; 2000-2001)
Richard Cole (56 games, 6 goals; 2002-2005)
Dale Thomas (152 games, 121 goals; 2006-2012)
Collingwood premiership players to wear number 13
Dick Lee (1917, 1919)
Billy Libbis (1928)
Horrie Edmonds (1930)
Fred Froude (1935)
Leo Morgan (1936)
Ray Gabelich (1958)
Dale Thomas (2010)
*Note that numbers were first worn on club jumpers in 1911, and in the early decades of the 1900s often changed hands from year to year.
Collingwood and Pick 13
The below players were selected by Collingwood with pick 13 in their respective drafts since 1986
Andrew Hardiman (1990 mid-season draft; 0 games)
Jon Ballantyne (1994 pre-season draft; 9 games)
Cameron Venables (1999 pre-season draft; 3 games)
Luke Casey-Leigh (2007 rookie draft; 0 games)
Players to have played 13 games for Collingwood
Bob Bryce (1901-1902)
Graham Diggle (1907-1909)
Hector Lingwood-Smith (1922-1923)
Les Hill (1939-1940)
Norm Oliver (1940-1941)
Geoff Brokenshire (1948)
Bruce Neave (1968-1970)
Geoffrey Austen (1979-1981)
Barry Mitchell (1993)
Stephen Pitt (1996)
Players to have kicked 13 goals for Collingwood
Charlie Lee (1916-1919; 1923)
Ray Horwood (1946-1949; 1954)
Stephen Clifford (1973-1978)
Lee Walker (1995-1997)
Steve McKee (2000-2004)
James Clement (2001-2007)
How did we go in 1913?
Collingwood finished third on the ladder (behind the second placed South Melbourne and eventual premiers Fitzroy), winning 13 games and losing five. The Magpies were bundled out in the first week of the finals by the Roys who won by 37 points in front of 43,631 at the MCG. Jock McHale was captain-coach for the second year running and Les Hughes led the goal kicking with 22. The Copeland Trophy was still another 14 years from being introduced.
And did you know?
Tom Paterson is the player with Collingwood ‘cap’ 13, having represented the club in its first VFL game against St Kilda in round one, 1987.
Collingwood has played on the 13th on six occasions in the past five years, winning two and losing three. The most famous of those defeats was against Carlton in round three last year, when the Magpies went down by 10 goals. For the suspiciously inclined, it was a Friday.
Do strange things happen on the 13th? Collingwood fans would have had a case back in 2008. On 13 April, the side became the first team to lose to Carlton since round 11, 2007, while its season ended on 13 September when it produced nine individual goal scorers (none with multiples) in the 34 point loss to St Kilda in the Semi Final.
Information for this article was sourced from the follow websites:
AFL Tables
The Collingwood Rant
