Collingwood is never far from the headlines.

As any decent news editor knows, if you can get the Magpies onto the front or back page, on the TV or as a lead online item, you'll get readers and viewers.

That results in a lot of Collingwood stories being overhyped. But there's also no denying that we've been involved in plenty of genuinely massive news stories down the years – from sackings, injuries and board coups to player revolts and internal squabbling.

So, to help mark Collingwood's 125^th anniversary season, we're counting down the 25 biggest, most explosive news stories in Magpie history, as judged by historian Michael Roberts and the Herald Sun's Glenn McFarlane.

We've ignored Premierships and on-field results, and have instead concentrated on the other elements that have so often seen our club making headlines. It's a fascinating way to look back at our often colourful history.

Each of these stories will be published by Collingwood Media on #125Wednesdays, as part of our mid-week celebration of Collingwood's 125th Anniversary.

Headliners No. 18: The Healy-Adams clash
Glenn McFarlane of the Herald Sun

It was the moment the earth shook at the MCG, and amidst one of the most contentious moments in Grand Final history, it also brought about the end of a famous Collingwood career.

The 1955 Grand Final was in its dying stages. Melbourne had the advantage of just over two goals and seemed almost certain to win, though Collingwood prepared for one last surge.

Magpie wingman Des Healey, in the best year of his career and 12 days after 28th birthday, was charging along the members' wing in his customary dashing style. Just a few moments beforehand, Demons coach Norm Smith ordered a change, taking Geoff Case off and bringing 20-year-old reserve Frank 'Bluey' Adams on for his first run in the game.

A gifted foot runner, Adams was bearing down on an unsuspecting Healey. The two moving objects crashed into each other at full pace, their heads colliding, both knocked out by the sheer force of the incident.

It was, as Melbourne star Ian Ridley said, "the crash to end all crashes", and the noise reverberated around the ground.

The Argus summed up the moment etched in the mind of those who were there: "Healey was breaking clear of a pack near the centre, the ball under his arms, at top speed they converged. Players and the 88,000 (it was actually 88,053) spectators waited for the elusive Healey sidestep. The players (Healey and Adams) collided and fell unconscious."

"Every spectator at the ground gasped as Adams flashed from the boundary line and hurled headlong into Healey with a crash that could be heard in many parts of the ground. Healey, who was racing with the ball, had no defence against Adams ..."

Healey lay unconscious on the turf, with an arm draped almost unnaturally across his chest. A few metres away, Adams was on his side with one hand to his face.

Years later Adams would recall in the Herald Sun: "It was quite a severe knock. He was running reasonably quickly ... I was at absolutely top speed."

"It was a complete accident. Just as I was about to run on, Des has got the ball. He's looked up and all he could see was empty space. I was going to bump him; it probably would have cost a couple of weeks these days. When I got close, I dropped my head, as you do, and we just ran into each other."

Healey jokingly told Adams a few days later: "If you had grabbed me, I would have dropped the ball in fright. I had no idea anyone was near me and you would have got a free kick."

Publicly, Healey would never blame Adams for the collision that would effectively end his VFL career. "It was just football," he said the next morning when resting in bed. "I didn't see anything, I just felt a bang and it was like hitting a brick wall."

After the incident, the Magpie fans shouted out in disapproval, and a handful of players were wild with Adams, even though he, too, had been knocked out.

Norm Smith told the Truth years later: "If 'Bluey' had not been unconscious, anything could have happened. I doubt if there has ever been an uglier crowd. Hundreds decided that 'Bluey' had deliberately charged at Des Healey to put him out of the game. It was ridiculous - would a man race at another head-on, knock himself out, to put a man out of a game already won?"

Collingwood fans booed when Adams was carried off the field by three trainers, with the Demon unaware he had made the shortest cameo of any footballer in Grand Final in history. It had lasted all but a matter of seconds.

Both players lay in the rooms as the Demons closed out the game to win the Grand Final by 28 points.

Confused reigned as the delay for an ambulance for Healey lasted for more than an hour and three quarters. He was eventually taken to St Vincent's Hospital with a badly broken nose in five places, concussion and shock; Adams went to the Alfred Hospital, suffering from concussion.

Incredibly, both were released from hospital that night, with Healey going home to bed and Adams joining the premiership celebrations.

By the following evening, Healey had a visitor at his Preston home. It was Adams who "called in to express his regret for his part in the accident, and to hope that Healey would soon be fit again."

Healey would never play another game of VFL football. He told several journalists: "I think I might have made my last appearance in the League."

He did, however, play a game of district cricket for Collingwood a few weeks later, though he was dismissed by Fitzroy medium pacer Carl Adams - yes, another Adams. "You wouldn't read about it," he said. "Caught and bowled twice (by Adams)."

The postscript came a few years later when the former Magpie was involved in a car accident and had to have x-rays. Those scans would reveal Healey had suffered a fractured skull, not from the car crash, but in the incident with Adams.

When Healey died in 2009, Adams, the man who would be linked with him forever, would say that it was a shame that the incident defined his career.

"One of the things I've always felt sorry for Des is he is remembered for the clash and not his football," Adams said. "He won a Copeland (1955), he played interstate football (and) he was a part of one of the outstanding centre-lines - Healey, (Bill) Twomey and (Thorold) Merrett."

In so many ways, Des Healey deserves to be remembered for so much more than his final few seconds as a Collingwood player.



Des Healy player 149 games for Collingwood. CLICK HERE to view his full profile on Collingwood Forever.