Compiling lists is a staple part of the sports media diet. People love reading them, whether they be Mike Sheahan's current Top 50 players, the greatest marks of all time or anything in between.

For Collingwood's 125^th anniversary, the Herald Sun's Glenn McFarlane and I were charged with the responsibility of producing a book honouring the lives and careers of the 125 greatest players in Collingwood's history.

More than 1200 young men have pulled on the black-and-white jumper since 1892, which makes narrowing down the list to 125 no easy task. And with our book Champions of Collingwood now about to hit the shelves, I can genuinely say it's been a bloody tough assignment.

Luckily, the members of Collingwood's Hall of Fame Committee – Kevin Rose, Wayne Richardson, Thorold Merrett and Eddie McGuire – ended up with the final say, and it certainly made life easier knowing that the three ex-players there played with so many champions (while all being amongst our greats themselves).

PRE-ORDER: Book in your copy of Champions of Collingwood now.

But even so, we all confronted a number of issues. How do you compare players across eras? How do you do justice to those who played in the club's first 20 or 30 years, when no first hand memories are accessible, no video exists and there were no Copeland Trophies to act as a guide? How are you not biased towards those who played in Premierships? How do you measure things like leadership, or off-field contributions? How do you weight the goals of a forward against the touches of a midfielder, or the negating impact of a defender? And what about those still in the early stages of what could prove to be wonderful careers?

So after much research and soul-searching, we've built on the work that was done around our centenary to come up with our list of the 125 greatest. We’ve looked through newspapers, spoken to former teammates and in some cases relied on interviews done as far back as the 1980s for reference.

Inevitably, there will be debate and discussion around our choices. There were some tough calls and line ball decisions that had to be made – some very tough calls. Two in particular still bug us (we can't tell you who!), but for every player worthy of a spot, there is somebody else who would have had to drop out. And if you think it's hard choosing who should be included, it's even harder trying to decide who should miss out!

In the end, there are only 125 spaces available, and there has to be a player who was probably number 126.

All will be revealed when the book is released next week, and while the obvious candidates will be there (it's fair to assume the Colliers and Coventrys will get guernseys, for example) there will also be plenty of players who might not be as well known. There is one player from our first ever game way back in 1892, and two from our most recent, so the list covers every year of our existence. There are rovers and ruckmen and full-forwards and defenders, running half-backs and even a few old-fashioned back pocket players.

We hope we've done justice not just to these 125 champions but also, through them, to every player who's represented the club. So let the debates begin.