Collingwood players and coaches celebrate winning the 2010 premiership

So we're coming to the end of 2019 – and that means it's the end of the decade, and the end of another massive 10 years in the life of the Collingwood Football Club. 

In that period we played in four Grand Finals (two in the one year) for one premiership and made it to two other preliminary finals, so in five of the 10 seasons we made it to the last two weeks of the season – which is handy going in anyone's language.

In that time we played 237 games and won 145, for a winning percentage of 61.18% We kicked 3197 goals (and 2930 behinds), and played in front of combined crowds of close to 13 million!

But more importantly we created so many magical memories that fans will talk about for years to come. And now seems like as good a time as any to indulge in a bit of reminiscing. 

So we've trawled back through our video archives and come up with some of our favourite marks and goals, the magic moments and the best wins. These are not meant to be definitive lists: rather, they're our take on some of the Best of the Decade in each category.

But we want to know what you think. What was your favourite goal, or most fondly remembered moment? What wins stay in the mind, and which speccie? Let us know, and we'll farewell the 2010s by sharing our best of the best!

The Best Marks

Let's be honest here: we could have limited ourselves to Jeremy Howe marks alone and still created a thrilling list of sensational speccies that would be better than anything else in the comp. But we've broadened our reach slightly – and also tried to limit the number of times we feature both Howie and Jamie Elliott. How about this 10 for starters?

1. Jeremy Howe v Melbourne in 2017
2. Jamie Elliott v Port Adelaide in 2013
3. Andrew Krakouer v Adelaide in 2011 (see the YouTube video below)
4. Jamie Elliott v Gold Coast in 2013
5. Jeremy Howe v Melbourne in 2019
6. Jordan De Goey v Richmond in 2019
7. Dale Thomas v Carlton in 2011
8. Jeremy Howe v Western Bulldogs in 2016
9. Darcy Moore v West Coast in 2016
10. Travis Cloke v Hawthorn in 2011

The Best Moments

1. The Premiership. Of course: nothing else comes close.
2. Heath Shaw's smother of the millennium.
3. Nick Maxwell's desperate run-and-dive to touch an otherwise certain Nick Riewoldt goal in the 2010 GF. Followed soon after by his flying mark and brave play-on to set up Travis Cloke's go-ahead goal.
4. Luke Ball's late winner against Hawthorn in the 2011 preliminary final (see the YouTube video below).
5. Jarryd Blair's late soccered winner against Essendon on Anzac Day in 2012 (see the YouTube video below).
6. Brodie Grundy's late winner against Richmond in 2016.
7. Leigh Brown's run-down and contest with Daniel Cross in the 2010 qualifying final.
8. Alan Didak's three goals in three minutes against the Eagles in 2010.
9. The dual desperation smothers from Jeremy Howe and Jamie Elliott in the dying seconds of the 2019 qualifying final win over Geelong.
10. Dane Swan winning the 2011 Brownlow Medal.

The Best Non-Grand Final Wins

1. v Geelong 2010 preliminary final. Possibly the best half of football we played in this decade.
2. v Richmond 2018 preliminary final. Maybe the second best (see the YouTube video below).
3. v Adelaide, Round 3 2011. A stunning 11-goal last quarter after kicking only two goals in the first half and falling 24 points behind early in the last quarter.
4. v West Coast, semi-final 2012. In all the emotion of John McCarthy's death, this was a truly heroic performance.
5. v Adelaide, Rd 9 2012. Crippled by injuries and facing the second-placed Crows, nobody gave us a chance. They were wrong.
6. v St Kilda, Rd 16 2010. Beating the Saints, without Maxy and Cloke, gave us the belief that would ultimately take us all the way.
7. v North Melbourne, Rd 9 2015. A nine-goal third term turned a 39-point half-time deficit into a 17-point win.
8. v West Coast, Rd 17 2019. This one-point win in the west against the reigning Premiers was a testament to guts and spirit.
9. v West Coast, Rd 18 2017. Overcame an 18-point three-quarter time deficit with only two left on the bench to poke our noses in front in the dying minutes and win by eight at Etihad Stadium.
10. v GWS Giants, Rd 22 2014. With an already depleted line-up, the Pies lost Swan, Macaffer and Young during the game and only managed to get in front for the first time through a Josh Thomas goal with minutes left. Heroic.

Best Goals

As we noted earlier, the Pies kicked 3197 goals from 2010-19. So trying to remember – let alone select – a top 10 from that period is next to impossible. But here's 11 bloody good ones for starters (we couldn't bear to leave any of these out, and even snuck a couple of extras in for good measure).

1. Brodie Grundy on the run versus the Crows in Adelaide in 2018.
2. Alan Didak's smother and goal in the 2010 Grand Final replay.
3. Dane Swan's run-and-goal from the boundary against Essendon in 2014.
4. Dale Thomas's audacious left-foot banana from the boundary v West Coast in 2011.
5. Jamie Elliott's goal from three rows back in the grandstand against Essendon on Anzac Day in 2015.
6. Mason Cox's goal on the run against Geelong in 2016.
7. Adam Treloar's brilliant, bursting running goal versus Sydney in 2017
8. Jordan De Goey's twisting, turning goals against St Kilda in 2018, and West Coast in the Grand Final (we couldn't split them).
9. Will Hoskin-Elliott's ice-cold finish from the boundary to beat the Swans in 2017.
10. Scott Pendlebury's dual give-and-go versus Sydney in 2014 (and his right foot goal in the first quarter against Geelong in the 2010 prelim, after great pressure had forced a turnover).
11. Andrew Krakouer's spin-out-of-trouble and dual 'foot candy' dummies versus the Bulldogs in 2011 (see the YouTube video below).

Best of the rest

1. Best example of Karma: Dale Thomas shanking his first kick for goal against us in 2014. It was hilarious.
2. Best tummy rub: Dane Swan versus Essendon in 2012 (see the YouTube video below).
3. Best off-break by a Magpie: Leigh Brown's bouncing goal against Geelong in the 2010 preliminary final.
4. Best off-break near a Magpie: Lenny Hayes' kick that bounced at right angles in front of Stephen Milne.
5. Bravest mouthful: Heritier Lumumba versus Barry Hall in the 2010 qualifying final
6. Best chant (1): The slow Collingwood chant during 2010 preliminary final.
7. Best chant (2): U-S-A! U-S-A! During second quarter of 2018 preliminary final win over Richmond when Mason Cox was going ballistic.
8. Best shimmy. No contest: Alan Didak in 2010 versus Richmond.
9. Best way of making a difficult skill even harder: Pendles bouncing a ball back to himself via a pigeon.
10. Best Keystone Cops moment: two Geelong defenders run into each other in the 2019 qualifying final, allowing Jaidyn Stephenson to set up Jamie Elliott for an early goal.