In the weekly Official Collingwood Match Day Program, collingwoodfc.com.au will be catching up for a chat with a past player to discuss their career and find out what they have been up to since taking off the Collingwood jumper for the last time.

The full interview will be published in the official Collingwood Match Day Program each week.

This week, collingwoodfc.com.au spoke to Brian Beers, who played 60 games for the Magpies between 1958 and 1961. Beers is a member of the famous 1958 premiership team and has since work in football and tennis at high levels across Australia.

On what he's doing in 2012...
I’m a board member for the Collingwood Past Players Association and the Premiership Players Club, and I’m the vice-president of the Fed Cup Foundation for the tennis. I help coordinate functions and do some social work for the Premiership Players Club in terms of visiting retirement homes and that sort of stuff. I also do some breakfast MC-ing for the Federation Cup lunch in Sydney during the International up there and I also do the commentary for 3AW for the Australian Open. This will be my 39th year. I started with Tony Charlton in 1974 and have been through with Craig Willis, Anthony Hudson, Clinton Grybas and now with Shane McIness. That keeps me occupied through the summer. That was always the case because even when I played footy, I would knock off to play in the New South Wales, Victoria and South Australian Championships and come home in those days ready for pre-season training around mid-January.

On how playing tennis benefited his football...
It certainly kept my fitness at a high level because in those times we’d train under Harry Hopman and we’d knock off training with the boys and then get into the squads with Harry and the players I just mentioned. When I came back from training for the pre-season, I was more than fit and it helped me anticipation and movement and footy helped my strength as far as tennis was concerned.

On his family's rich tradition at Collingwood...
My great uncle played in 1898, Robert Bird, so since then there’s been a continual link. My grandfather was on the Collingwood Council when it signed a lease for Victoria Park and his name is on the foundation stone in the Jack Ryder Stand. My uncles played in the time of the four premierships. They didn’t play in any flags, but uncle Tommy and uncle Leo Bird certainly played a significant part throughout the season. Uncle Tom went on to be the curator of Victoria Park for about 45 years. My cousin Kevin Wylie played in the early 1950s and I played in the late 1950s. Both my sons, Tony and Mark, played in the late 1980s and since then I’ve been connected with the Past Players Association for the last 20 years. I was connected before I went across to WA and certainly got reconnected when I came back as the vice-president and a life member of the Past Players Association. It’s a tradition within a tradition.

On winning a flag in his first season...
I was still a school boy when I was signed by Collingwood. I think I got my first invitation from St Thomas’ Clifton Hill when I played in the same team as Serge Silvagni, so we didn’t have many losses and we became quite accustomed to premierships, so when 1958 came along I thought ‘that appears to be in the right theme’. It was certainly a momentous occasion as Melbourne was chasing four in a row and that was the most significant part of 1958. We were given little to no hope because I think at least half the team had played less than 50 games and we had all come from junior football and people like Grey, myself, Rose, Reed and Bennett were basically just novices and Rosey, I think, had played his first game in the finals so when you consider the might of the opposition and the juggernaut they were in those days with talent like Barrassi, Dixon and Mithen, they were just a mighty team so to beat that team was unexpected to say the least.

On watching his sons play senior football for Collingwood...
Tony played a few games in the early 1980s. Mark played about 40 or 50 games, thereabouts, in the mid 1980s. My father gave me wonderful support due to the fact that he was around and driving me and my teammates to games and training. It wasn’t overt involvement, just passive, watching your kids play and helping them out when I could. Times have changed in terms of communication where instead of ranting about the history and calling on blood and thunder, people want to know why, how and about the game plan and how to incorporate their talents into the team so it’s a different way of conveying messages into the team. Hopefully I gave the boys support as I do my grandkids.

On the progress of his football-loving grandchildren...
Mark’s son, Lewis, is showing potential. He’s in the Northern Knights development squad and he’s in the Vic Metro squad for the under-16s, so he’s gone into the under-18s now and he’s a really good athlete like Mark. Thomas, my son Stephen’s boy, is competitive at his sport and he’s also interested in umpiring so I go and watch him umpire of a Sunday.