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.

T-shirt Tommy makes an early statement: Round One, 1977

Good coaches change teams; great coaches transform clubs.

That's what Tom Hafey achieved in his time as Collingwood coach, with his influence and impact apparent from the first match of his first season at Victoria Park in 1977 - the forerunner to one of the greatest ladder turnarounds in VFL-AFL history.

Hafey, the Magpies' first outsider coach, helped turned what looked like a football basket case into a side that came within a whisker of winning a premiership.

He inherited a team that had finished on the bottom of the ladder the previous year – in 1976 - the first time it had happened in the club's VFL history. The Magpies were a fractured unit, with divisions and bitterness rife, with outgoing coach Murray Weideman unable to stop the slide to the bottom.

With Weideman gone, the Magpies had to find a new coach for 1977. Fortuitously, four-time Richmond premiership coach Hafey had just parted ways with the club, and a chance meeting at an airport between him and Magpies President John Hickey was the catalyst to appoint him as the first non-Collingwood person to coach the club.

Hafey anticipated a quick rebound, saying early in the 1977 season: "Collingwood has the players, they have just needed someone to get it out of them.”

But no one in their wildest dreams could have anticipated how swiftly the turnaround would be, nor how Hafey's arrival at the club would work towards galvanising the team into a competitive force once more.

On face value, Hafey's maiden match looked to be a serious test for Collingwood. The Magpies, who had only won six games the previous year, were scheduled to meet Footscray, who had made the finals in 1976, and looked to be a side on the rise.

That round one clash, on 2 April 1977, was at Victoria Park at least, but there was an air of excitement that Saturday afternoon that this might well have been a big turning point for the club.

It was Hafey's 249th game as coach, and his first for the Magpies. It was also 34-year-old Des Tuddenham's 250th game as a player in his second season back for the Magpies after a stint as Essendon captain-coach.

Two players played their first game for Collingwood that day - former Tiger Gerald Betts and Sandgroper Kevin Worthington.

Almost 28,000 fans were there to see the Magpies embrace the brave new world with a coach who demanded nothing less than effort. Individualism, which had been prevalent a matter of months earlier, was banished. Everything was about the sacrifices being made for the sake of the communal good.

The Age said of Collingwood's efforts that day against the Bulldogs: "Some Collingwood players almost looked embarrassed as they tried to incorporate team work into their game - some of them for the first time."

Hafey may not have been looked upon as the messiah at that stage, but for many fans, he wasn't far off.

Each time he went through the crowd to come onto the ground at breaks in the game, he was mobbed by well-wishers. People cheered for him as much as they yelled support to the players, anticipating this moment - and this match - was likely to be the start of something special.

How special? No one knew.

But there was little doubt Hafey made an immediate mark on the team and the club from the moment he walked in the doors.

Journalist Stephen Phillips detailed: "Every time (Hafey) appeared on the ground he was applauded and at quarter-time he almost didn't even get to the ground after getting lost in the part of the 27,377 crowd who filled Victoria Park to see his debut (as coach)."

The excitement after his first quarter as coach was understandable. Collingwood kicked 7.6 to Footscray's 5.1 at quarter-time, and that 17-point margin was the same at half-time before the Magpies blew the lead out to 42 points at the last change off the back of a six-goal-to-two third term.

Phillips noted the changes that were evident in black and white, including Wayne Richardson "kicking the ball longer" and Andrew Ireland "tearing through packs with abandon", while Ray Shaw and Ron Wearmouth "punched holes" in the Bulldogs' defence, hitting the scoreboard with regularity.

"Hafey has shown a completely revitalised approach to the game since taking on the worst-performed Collingwood team in VFL history,” Phillips wrote.

"The Hafey plan for success this year is built squarely on the principal of teamwork ... and (the Bulldogs game) showed he is getting through to the players."

But the "biggest surprise of all" came in the form of star forward Phil Carman. Dominant in his first season at the club in 1975, he was accused of selfishness and playing like an individual in his second the following year.

The Age explained "the brilliant Carman has never been questioned but there have been murmurings about his failure to look for teammates when he had the ball ... on Saturday he was handpassing to teammates instead of kicking goals, he was short-passing rather than taking long scoring shots and yet still managed to be the best player afield and kick three goals from centre half forward."



Phil Carman starred in Collingwood's win over Footscray in round one, 1977.

His dominance made the front of that newspaper on the Monday morning, with a picture of him flying above Terry Wheeler, with the headline: "Flying Phil flummoxes Footscray."

The anticipation gave way to a few nervous moments in the last term when Footscray staged a significant final-term comeback, almost dragging the lead back before steadying goals from Wayne Richardson and Ray Shaw (his fourth for the game).

Still, the Magpies held on to win by 11 points, giving Hafey a win in his first game at the club.

It was a near perfect start, albeit a little closer than it should have been, with some pundits conceding "Collingwood still has a way to go."

Hafey's message was simple and to the point - the Magpies needed to stop living in the past, and concentrate on being a more rounded team into the future.

"Tradition has to be earned, not inherited," Hafey told the awaiting media after the game. "Collingwood hasn't won a premiership for 20 years and some of these kids weren't even born then. They have had tradition shoved down their throats for too long."

"The boys are under instructions to play football my way, and they will make mistakes doing it."

The Magpies won 19.16 (130) to the Bulldogs' 18.11 (119) in a high-scoring, attractive game that gave Collingwood supporters a template for the future.

That match proved the launching pad to a remarkable season that took them to within a whisker of winning the premiership. But while the flag remained an unrequited dream, the new coach had turned not only the team, but the club around.

Turning Points
Written by Glenn McFarlane and Michael Roberts

Turning Points: A game of belief.

Turning Points: The first game.

Turning Points: History's ugly repeat.

Turning Points: Honouring the greater good.

Turning Points: A turning point for football.

Turning Points: How we landed McHale.

Turning Points: Ending the Cat empire.

Turning Points: The practice match that led to a revolution.

Turning Points: Starting from the bottom.

Turning Points: Attacking the Cats.