Collingwood is never far from the headlines.

As any decent news editor knows, if you can get the Magpies onto the front or back page, on the TV or as a lead online item, you'll get readers and viewers.

That results in a lot of Collingwood stories being overhyped. But there's also no denying that we've been involved in plenty of genuinely massive news stories down the years – from sackings, injuries and board coups to player revolts and internal squabbling.

So, to help mark Collingwood's 125^th anniversary season, we're counting down the 25 biggest, most explosive news stories in Magpie history, as judged by historian Michael Roberts and the Herald Sun's Glenn McFarlane.

We've ignored Premierships and on-field results, and have instead concentrated on the other elements that have so often seen our club making headlines. It's a fascinating way to look back at our often colourful history.

Each of these stories will be published by Collingwood Media on #125Wednesdays, as part of our mid-week celebration of Collingwood's 125th Anniversary.

Headliners No. 16: The Tyson sacking
Glenn McFarlane of the Herald Sun

Just imagine a club sacking its captain five days out from the start of a season.

Couldn't happen? Well, it has happened - at Collingwood - and it created one of the biggest stirs in the football world, leading to allegations of bribery that were almost certainly untrue.

Just as incredible was the fact that the Magpies won the premiership less than six months later, and the man who replaced the sacked skipper would become one of the greatest leaders in the game's history.

The sacking happened on ANZAC Day, 1927 - the 12th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings. On that afternoon, as former diggers dispersed for games of two-up and more than a few beers, an incredulous public could barely believe the news coming out of Collingwood.

Charlie Tyson had been dumped, not just as captain, but also as a player.

Tyson had played 106 games since his 1920 debut, and had been captain since 1924. He was shaken by the decision, saying he felt he had been "in the gun" for a period of time. He would say later "a man is only an individual and it does not pay to have a body of officials up against you."

He believed his dismissal had come about because he had called a players' meeting the previous December to discuss the possibility of a bonus payment to members of the team.

The timing of the sacking, so close to the start of the season, gave rise to the unfounded rumour that Tyson had "played dead" in the 1926 Grand Final loss to Melbourne. There was no evidence of this, even though he had been criticised for two positional changes in the game, though he had also been cautioned for "spiteful and dirty play", hardly the signs for a man supposedly "taking a dive".

The rumours gained even more traction when the 29-year-old was spotted driving a new Fiat, and when Collingwood stepped out for its Round 1 game on the weekend, Tyson was across town playing his first game for his new side North Melbourne, with something to prove.

The fact that the sacking had occurred so long after the 1926 premiership playoff appeared to show that there had been some reluctance in replacing him. Collingwood vice-president Charlie 'Torchy' Laxton was said to have had serious misgivings that Tyson was being used as a scapegoat for what was a team failure in September 1926, when others were pointing the finger at one man.

Collingwood maintained Tyson was being replaced purely for form reasons. Secretary George Connor explained: "... the selectors considered we have younger and nippier men that they dropped those who have been named ... they considered the form of Tyson, and all the others, and thought they would improve the team by picking it as they have done."

At no stage did the club seek to quash the allegations.



Charlie Tyson was named captain of Collingwood in 1927.

Three months after Tyson’s sacking, the whispering campaign had not subsided. It became so widespread that he felt so compelled as to write a letter to the Herald threatening legal action if the "untrue and ungenerous statements" did not cease. Tyson said: "The statements are so wildly circulated that they are clearly designed to do me harm. I have only two courses of action to adopt, one of which is to ask you publish this letter, and the other to take proceedings against those foolish and credulous people who are responsible for this injury being done."

Most of Tyson's teammates never believed the rumours, even if the general public suspected there might have been some truth to them.

For decades, the theory that a Collingwood captain may have "played dead in a Grand Final became almost accepted as fact. It wasn't until almost 60 years later that a detailed examination in Richard Stremski’s book, Kill For Collingwood, came down strongly in Tyson's favour. It emerged that he had been advised not to play in that Grand Final by his doctor after he had copped a head knock in the previous game. He rejected the advice.

It is almost certain that the allegations were false. The reality was Tyson had simply outlived his usefulness at Victoria Park.

No matter how hard working or committed he was to the club, most of the committee and coach Jock McHale felt his time was up. They knew they had a ready replacement in the wings who was only 19 months younger than the man he was replacing, but who was a born leader of men, and already one of the premier big men of the VFL competition.

His name was Syd Coventry, and he not only relished taking on the captaincy, he produced a remarkable season where he became Collingwood's first Brownlow Medal winner, and Copeland Trophy winner.

Better still, Coventry was the inspiration behind the Magpies'1927 premiership success, with one newspaper saying: "at times (he) rose to phenomenal heights and he was the main factor in winning the Premiership."

Even more telling was the fact that he would led the club to four successive Grand Final victories as part of a team forever more known as 'The Machine;' the only side to win a quadrella of premierships.

The sacking of Tyson was a ruthless decision. But McHale and the Collingwood committee justified it by the successes that followed.