It was the era of mullets and moustaches; a time when tight shorts and lace-up jumpers were the trends; and when footy expansion meant national, not international as it does today.
Remember the ‘80s?
If you can, you will recall it as one of the most volatile periods in Australian football history. It was a time of seismic change which dragged a near-broke Victorian Football League – with its 12 parochial clubs who played predominantly on suburban grounds each Saturday afternoon (often on muddy grounds) – towards the Australian Football League of today – when 18 clubs play in every state and territory at an assortment of times during the day and night (often under a roof).
If can’t recall them, you missed a remarkable decade for the game, and for Collingwood.
But don’t fret; Collingwood Forever plans to transport you back in time each week for a blast from the 1980s past, profiling a player who made an impact for one reason or another during that decade. They might not have all been stars, but each contributed to one of the club’s most tumultuous periods.
Darren Collins
Collingwood spent a significant and often fruitless portion of the 1980s searching for the prototype for a speedy and classy rover.
Many were tried; very few succeeded.
Some of them were convinced they were never given enough time to shine, moved on before they had the opportunity to seriously make their mark.
Darren Collins might be considered one of the last bracket. He debuted for Collingwood as a 17-year-old schoolboy, kicking two goals in his first game in 1985, but he was gone from Victoria Park before his 19th birthday.
It was a fleeting stay that never quite gave him the chance to mature. Once likened in style and appearance to Hawthorn's great rover of the early 1970s, Peter Crimmins, the kid from East Reservoir would only get the chance to play 21 games across two seasons before playing elsewhere at two rival clubs.
Through those two seasons in Black and White, Collins was used more as a small forward than the rover he wanted to be, but he still managed to make an impression on the Collingwood fans, averaging a goal per game in Magpie colours, and even earning two Brownlow Medal votes in only his eighth league match.
Collins was fortunate enough to be playing at any level in his teenage years, given he was almost lost to the game three years before making his VFL debut. As a rising 15-year-old, in 1982, he suffered a disease in both knees that saw him forced to take a break from the game he loved.
For a time, he didn’t know how long he would be sidelined.
"I stopped sport for nine months," Collins told the Sun soon after making his Magpies debut in 1985. By that stage, he had worked through the problem, and the only residual issue he had were "lumps" on both knees which were a legacy of the disease.
A junior star in the northern suburbs, as the trophies adorning the family mantelpiece showed in a profile story, Collins was invited to Collingwood and made his impact through the under 19s side, where some of his teammates included Neville Shaw, Ron McKeown and Gordon Sumner.
The blond, baby-faced rover won the Magpies' under 19s best-and-fairest in 1984 - doing it as a 16-year-old - and that alone ensured that he graduated to the senior list the following year, even though he was still eligible for the thirds.
He played the first six games in Collingwood's reserves, pricking the interest of senior selectors with his good form. A senior opportunity arose in round seven against Fitzroy at Victoria Park, and he "jumped at the chance."
The Sun wondered if he might be that long-awaited rover Collingwood had chased for so long: "Keen judges have likened Collins to the late Peter Crimmins and Magpie officials are hopeful that he will be the answer to the team's roving problems."
Collins went from Preston East High School student on the Friday to Collingwood senior footballer the following day. But as much as he performed creditably, the 17-year-old's team didn't. Collins kicked two goals, two behinds and had 14 disposals, but the Magpies were never in the game, losing by 79 points.
He kicked two goals against Hawthorn in his second game, then scored 4.3 from 18 disposals in his third game against St Kilda. However, he copped a reality check in his fifth game, when he was "shirtfronted" by a Footscray player early in the game, after having kicked a goal and had four touches.
"I think I had taken a handball and got the ball out to (Greg) Phillips and the next thing I knew I was on the ground," he recalled. "I know I was fumbling the ball because I was worried about copping another one. But there will probably be a lot more knocks, it's all a part of the game."
The knock didn't stop him from fronting up for a night series game on the Tuesday night, where he kicked another two goals.
One newspaper noted that, even though he was considered a rover of the future, he was mainly being used in attack. It was said that he "impressed with his uncanny ability to develop the loose man, particularly near goals."
Even the umpires began to note his good form, allocating him two votes for his 3.1 performance against Melbourne. Wes Fellowes scored the three votes, while Mike Richardson's 6.0 was deemed worthy of only a solitary vote.
Collins kicked 5.1 against Sydney in his 10th game (but didn't get a Brownlow vote), with one of the observers calling him "gutsy" and "unbeatable".
The Collingwood team as selected for round 16, 1985, when Collins kicked five goals against the Swans.
His 15 games in his debut year yielded 24 goals, a fine start to his Collingwood career, and it seemed as if a long career was ahead of him at Victoria Park.
But a broken collarbone in the preseason leading into 1986 held him back. It set the tone for the year ahead as injuries restricted him for much of the year. He ended up playing six games for the year, kicking only four goals, but his impact was limited.
Still, Collins wasn't expecting what came next. He was "given his marching orders" from Collingwood before the 1987 season, which was a shock to him and also to those who had watched him closely in his debut year.
Footscray gave him a chance, and while he only played one senior game in that 1987 season, he would play 13 and 10 games in the following two seasons.
He felt as if he had a point to prove when he played against Collingwood for the first time in 1989.
Before that game, he had admitted he had been shattered to be cut from the Magpies at such a young age. He said: "Too many blokes there (at Collingwood) have got too much to say. It was a big disappointment at the time. I've just got something to prove to those blokes sitting in the box."
The Bulldogs won the game, and he kicked a goal.
His Footscray coach Mick Malthouse was hopeful he would go on to a long and successful league career, saying in the late 1980s: "I would like to think that sometime in the future - probably when I'm long gone from the club - that players like Stuart Wigney, Darren Collins and Ron James will be compared to champions like Michael Tuck, Don Scott, Kelvin Moore, Leigh Matthews and Peter Knights...”
Sadly, with Malthouse leaving, and with a near merger between Footscray and Fitzroy at the end of the 1989 season, Collins found he couldn’t push past the likes of Tony Liberatore, Tony McGuinness, Terry Wallace, Brian Royal and Steven Kolyniuk in terms of a senior spot.
But he refused to give up on his AFL dream of playing 50 games and it still looked likely after being selected by Fitzroy in the 1990 mid-season draft.
The Sun said of the 23-year-old at the time: "If Australian golfer Greg Norman had footballer Darren Collins' confidence, he'd already have the 1990 British Open in the bag. Collins may have clocked up a healthy list of clubs for one so young, but he has no doubt he has what it takes to make the big league."
He had 21 touches and kicked a goal - as a rover - in Fitzroy's round 16 game against Geelong. It was the first of four games with the Lions, with his last coming against Footscray in round 19. Frustratingly, he finished on 49 games in total, one short of 50.
It was an abbreviated league career, but Collins still made his mark, and is still remembered by the Magpie faithful for that teenage spirit he showed in his debut season.
The Electrifying Eighties
Written by Glenn McFarlane and Michael Roberts
A lasting impact: Greg Phillips
A loved rover's big year: Matthew Ryan
A comet in the Magpie sky: Phil Walsh
Sweet sixteen and a senior debut: Terry Keays
Quiet, no fuss and got the job done: Ron McKeown
A man for all seasons: Jamie Turner
Almost ahead of his time: Bruce Abernethy
Hawke's rise and fall: Paul Hawke
Our first Indigenous Magpie: Wally Lovett
Mr Reliable: Michael Taylor
An impact beyond Collingwood: Tony Burgess
Another Shaw thing: Neville Shaw
What could have been: Russell Dickson
