Every match that Collingwood plays feels like it's the most important game in the world.

But the truth is that some games matter more than others. And some have impacts that last for decades, even if that significance isn't always apparent at the time.

So here is a trawl through the history books to come up with the most significant games in Magpie history. These aren't just the biggest wins or the most memorable days, but the games that had a significant influence on the club's history.

We've excluded all finals, simply because otherwise the list would almost be completely taken up with premierships and a few painful Grand Final losses. But the home-and-away games covered in this series have had a huge impact on the club – sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. They've led to club turmoil, coaches being sacked, major changes in the game or sometimes set us on the path to a flag.

Whatever the outcome, these games represent major turning points in our club's story. And they're worth recalling.

The First Game
Every football club's first game is, by its very nature, a pivotal moment in that club's history. And Collingwood is no different: its first match, played against Carlton on May 7 1892, was a landmark moment in so many ways.

It was the sporting, social and cultural highlight of the year for those who lived in the suburb. It was also the culmination of nearly three years of hard work by the 'true believers', the political, business and community leaders who had taken the dream of a Collingwood Football Club and turned it into reality.

But the real significance of this first game lay not just in the fact that it happened. It was what happened that day that really marked this day as one to remember.

And for once it wasn't what happened on the field. The young Magpies battled hard against their more experienced opponents but eventually went down by three goals to two. The Argus noted: “Collingwood, although beaten, are to be congratulated on playing a fast and fair game … they promise to be a formidable team in second flight.”

No, it was off the field that the real significance could be found. Everywhere other than the scoreboard, it was a triumph.

Around 16,000 fans – a staggering number for the time – crowded into Victoria Park that glorious day in May, all of them buzzing with excitement and anticipation. The three years it had taken to bring the club into existence seemed to have only heightened expectations and taken the hype to unprecedented levels.

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Few other football matches had ever attracted those sorts of numbers, and Collingwood achieved it in its very first outing. It was a clear sign that the game's newest football club had massive popularity and almost unlimited potential. That was confirmed when, by the end of that first season, the Magpies already had more members than any other club in the VFA.

Almost the entire suburb, from businessmen and politicians to community leaders and everyday citizens, had been passionately behind the creation of a footy team bearing the name Collingwood, one the suburb could truly claim as it own.

All had been driven by pride, by a near-desperate desire for the oft-derided suburb to be taken seriously, on a footy field if nowhere else. But even the club's most optimistic advocates were blown away by the crowd that turned up that first day.

The local traders had more reason than most to be buoyed. As one of the local papers, the Collingwood and Fitzroy Mercury, noted: “Collingwood footballers have to be complimented on the stir that they have made and will make from Saturday to Saturday throughout the present season.

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“At the opening of the match some 15,000 or 16,000 persons assembled to watch the progress of this game. Out of that number we estimate that fully 7000 persons were visitors to Collingwood from other parts.

“They spent the afternoon in Collingwood and each paid their entrance fees to go (into) the ground and from the smiles that radiated the various countenances of the Johnston Street tradesmen generally, they were pleased at seeing such a large influx of persons into the city, as in all probability they left a silver coin here and there behind them that would not have chinked on the counter of a Johnston Street or Smith Street shop."

So if the local businesspeople had been enthusiastically behind the club's formation from the start, they were rusted on and locked in after the first game. They had got their first taste of what would become a sporting phenomenon.

And that was where the significance of Collingwood's first game really lay. The huge crowds absolutely cemented the backing for the new club from the local business and community leaders, ensuring club and community moved forward as one. And the number – and passion – of the Magpie fans made every other club in the competition sit up and take notice.

Those fans actually made the club famous before its footballers did. Everybody knew the Magpies had the most, and the most passionate, fans in the game.

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This gave Collingwood a power that could scarcely have been imagined for the newest club in the competition. And within just a few years, it would ensure that when the game's most senior clubs wanted to form a breakaway competition called the Victorian Football League, they knew the Magpies had to be a part of it.

None of that was yet known on May 7 1892. But even the most naïve observer that day would have walked away knowing one thing: football's newest juggernaut had arrived.