The Collingwood players were treated to a walk-through of the club’s storied history by President Eddie McGuire last week.
Keen to learn more about their club’s rich and colourful 121-year history, the players turned to McGuire to explain the names, matches and moments that have helped shape the story of the Black and White.
“It was a tremendous honour that I received the phone call from (club captain) Nick Maxwell during the week asking me to come down because the players want to dedicate themselves to the ethos of The Machine,” McGuire told collingwoodfc.com.au.
The Machine was the name given to the group led by coach Jock McHale and captain Syd Coventry that won a VFL/AFL record four premierships in a row between 1927 and 1930.
“The Machine Team between 1927 and 1930 set the tone for the Collingwood Football Club in so many ways as far as success was concerned, playing for the guernsey and for the supporters, and doing something for the community, and that’s what 1927-1930 was all about.
“In the depths of the Depression, Collingwood reigning supreme, building the club - literally - the stands with unemployed labour, bringing sustenance workers in for free, giving soup kitchens at the game for the poor and downtrodden and then dominating on the ground and being the light on the top of the hill for so many people.”
McGuire regaled the players with the tales of the club’s glory era in the first 35 years of the 1900s, the iconic figures such as Bob Rose and Darren Millane, and even touched on the horrors of the Colliwobbles between 1964 and 1981.
“It gave me an opportunity to bang on about Collingwood for as long as I possibly could, but also to hear these young guys who, subsequently in the last hour afterwards, came up and asked further questions,” said McGuire.
“Their passion and desire to know about the Collingwood Football Club, and what’s come behind them and before them, is one of those things where we often talk about how we need to do these things but it’s like taking young men and sitting them in a classroom, teaching them a subject they don’t want to know about.
“When they do what to know about it, then it becomes fantastic.
“That’s what was the highlight for me - they wanted to know, they listened and now they want to know more and they want to take it even further. I think this is a great Collingwood bunch. They look at that 1927-1930 (team) and they want to emulate them in so many ways.”
The story of Millane is one that illustrated the importance of educating the modern day Magpies on their club’s history.
Millane, who was a key member of the famous 1990 premiership side, passed away on 7 October 1991.
Now, 23 years on, 20 players on the list were not even born during Millane’s lifetime.
Ben Sinclair and Josh Thomas, who are now coming into their fifth year of senior football, were born only six days prior to his passing.
“These days it’s interesting, often people say, ‘why don’t we have No. 42’, and we say ‘Darren Millane’, as if everyone knows, and these kids don’t know. Fair enough, too, it was 22 years ago.
“History goes very quickly and you don’t realise sometimes that you change your list, basically, every three years. If you haven’t spoken about it for five years then there’s a generation of players who don’t know really what’s going on.
“The history sources need to be there, we’re going to look at putting together some DVDs, make it even more enjoyable for the players to see these players that they’re talking about, and really build something.”
You can be sure that this won’t be the last time the Magpies both young and old dip their heads into the history books and gain a greater understanding of what has made their club tick since the 1890s.
“The traditions of Collingwood are fantastic,” McGuire said proudly.
“Our club was formed in 1892, nine years before Australia was formed.
“It’s a great club and there are wonderful things to learn from it.”
McGuire's Magpie history lesson
Eddie McGuire treated his Collingwood players to a walk-through of the club’s storied history last week.