The full interview will be published in the official Collingwood Match Day Program each week. To receive the Match Day Program in your inbox every Thursday, fill in your details below and a member of our membership team will be in contact with you.
This week, collingwoodfc.com.au spoke to former rover Stephen Patterson who was one of the club’s most consistent players in the late 1990s. Now aged 41, Patterson runs a software company that works with sporting clubs back in his home state South Australia.
On getting drafted to Collingwood in 1993…
“There wasn’t any coverage of it. I think I got phoned up by someone from the press and that was it, really. It was totally different to how it is now. In a way you just found out through the media, and then the club phoned me the next day or something like that. It wasn’t as big a thing back then. I was a bit of a surprise. When I talked to them afterwards they said they didn’t want to tell people they wanted to draft them and they wanted to keep it a secret so the other clubs didn’t get onto anything.”
On why he wore a helmet in the last nine games of 1998…
“I was just going into a pack against the Crows and I dived in for the ball, and I think it was Shaun Rehn who was trying to punch it out and he punched my head in! There ended up being a ball up and I was talking to Brett James afterwards and I’m running on the ground holding my head and Shaun Rehn’s waving his hand because he hurt it smacking my head and then he saw the umpire look at him so he had to quickly put his hand behind his head. I didn’t even get a free kick!”
On Tony Shaw’s dignified departure from the coaches box…
“It was well handled when Shawry said he was going to go midway through the year because that stopped it being an issue. And because he’s such a team man and always puts Collingwood first, he basically coached to try and make the team better the following year rather than just coaching for wins that season.”
Stephen Patterson played 96 games for Collingwood between 1995 and 2000, and ran third in the Copeland Trophy in 1998. He polled eight Brownlow votes, kicked four goals on three occasions and is in the history books as the man who kicked the first three goals against Port Adelaide in its first game in the AFL in 1997.
On Mick Malthouse’s first pre-season at Victoria Park…
“Straight away you could tell that he knew what he was doing in terms of coaching. You look back and right from the early weeks, because he’d been coaching for so long, he knew what he wanted to do. It means players have got confidence in the coach.”
On life after Collingwood…
“I’m now in a business with a few other guys; one of them is Justin Staritski, who played for Collingwood in 1994. It’s a software company that works with footy clubs and their membership database and helps them communicate with and deal with their players and members. We work with the SANFL clubs in South Australia, A-League clubs and also the Heidelberg footy club over in Melbourne. We’ve been doing it for five years now with the SANFL and it’s meant that we can also work with local football clubs. It’s called Sport Subs. You can visit our website at sportsubs.com.au.”
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