So the Copeland has been run and won, and we’re all still reflecting on what a crazy, thrilling, improbable year this has been.

There have almost been too many highlights and great moments to keep track of.

So, in honour of our remarkable 2022 season, here’s a quick rundown of some of the year’s best and most memorable highlights – on the field, off the field and from the boffins.

With big thanks to afltables.com, @PiesNation, @AFLCentral and @sirswampthing as well as our own researchers.

The players

  • Scott Pendlebury became the first ever Collingwood player to reach the 350-game milestone against the Crows in Adelaide. His total currently sits at 358;
  • Pendles also finished second in the Copeland, giving him a staggering 14 podium finishes in 17 seasons. That is now the equal second best in VFL/AFL history (Footscray and North Melbourne ruckman Gary Dempsey has 15), but importantly he has the best record overall for podium finishes in years in which the team has played finals (10 for Pendles, ahead of Ron Barassi with 8);
  • Pendles’ surprisingly low two votes on Brownlow night drew him level with St Kilda’s Robert Harvey on 215 career Brownlow votes – the fifth highest ever;
  • Steele Sidebottom overtook Wayne Richardson (277) during the year to now sit in outright fourth place on our games tally. He currently has 289 games (behind Pendles, Tony Shaw and Gordon Coventry);
  • Jack Crisp went back-to-back as a Copeland winner. He also notched his 200th game, and his 188th consecutively (including his time at Brisbane). He has now played 182 consecutive games for us, and is closing in on Jock McHale’s record mark of 191, which has stood since 1917;
  • While on Crispy, he had 141 inside-50s this year. Only one player has had more in a season for the Pies (Nathan Buckley, who did it three times);
  • Only two teenagers have won the ANZAC Medal. Both are Magpies. Jack Ginnivan did it this year, and Mark McGough in 2002;
  • Speaking of Jack, he kicked the first goal of the game three times this year. No other Magpie did it more than once;
  • Nick Daicos became just our second ever Rising Star winner, with a unanimous vote from all judges;
  • Nick polled 11 Brownlow votes, just behind the 13 polled by Des Fothergill back in 1937 which is the benchmark for the best Brownlow season by a Collingwood rookie;
  • Nick also became the youngest player to have 40 or more disposals and kick three or more goals in a game. He was just 19 years and 194 days old when he did that against Gold Coast;
  • Nick also had the second most disposals in a home-and-away debut season on record;
  • Brayden Maynard was chosen all-Australian, while Josh Daicos and Jack Crisp were in the squad;
  • Josh Daicos should have won Goal of the Year for his extraordinary effort against Essendon (he was in the final three). And Jamie Elliott should have at least been nominated for his post-siren winner the same day;
  • Jeremy Howe & Darcy Moore had 123 & 122 rebounds respectively. The only player to have more in a season for the Pies is James Clement, who did it three times;
  • Darcy Moore's 202 ‘one-percenters’ in 2022 is a club record;
  • Craig McRae was voted by his peers as the AFLCA’s Coach of the Year.

The team

  • Our leap from 17th to 3rd (after finals) was the biggest season-on-season jump in VFL/AFL history. Our ladder leap from 17th to 4th was the equal biggest;
  • The boys delivered the equal fifth-longest winning streak in Collingwood’s 130-year history, and only the second time since 1965 (!) that one of our teams has won 11 games in a row;
  • No fewer than 12 of our games were decided by single-figure margins, and we won nine of them. No other team has won that many nail-biters in a season;
  • We had a run of seven successive wins by less than two goals - the longest in VFL/AFL history;
  • We now hold the record for the smallest cumulative margins across 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 wins in a row;
  • Our Anzac Day score of 15.3 was our second most accurate scoring performance ever (with a minimum of 15 scoring shots). Our best ever was 15.2 in the opening round of the 1929 season;
  • Our after-the-siren victory against Essendon was only the second time in our history that we’ve won a game that way (Chris Tarrant against the Crows in 2003 was the other);
  • We laid a record 126 tackles in the wet against Adelaide.

Off-field

  • We reached 100,000 members for the first time in our history;
  • The five highest home and away crowds of the season all featured Collingwood;
  • Our total home-and-away crowds for the year were 1,084,585 – the best in the competition.