Saturday night’s win in Sydney was an occasion marking more milestones for coach Mick Malthouse and defender Harry O’Brien.
By coaching Collingwood for the 273rd time, Malthouse moved into outright second on the list of most matches coached the Magpies in the history of the club, passing Phonse Kyne.
Only the legendary Jock McHale, who coached the Magpies an astonishing 714 times from 1912-49, is ahead of Malthouse on both the Magpies’ list and the all-time VFL/AFL list.
When the Magpies beat the Demons in the round 12 Queen’s Birthday clash a fortnight ago, Malthouse joined McHale as just the second person in the history of the game to coach 650 matches.
Malthouse’s distinguished coaching career began in 1984 when he took the reins at Footscray.
He coached the Bulldogs 135 times before moving to West Coast for the 1990 season, where he led the Eagles for 243 games, including premierships in 1992 and 1994 as part of an extraordinary run of 10-straight finals appearances.
Malthouse moved to Collingwood in 2000 and famously led the Magpies to their drought-breaking premiership last year, following grand final appearances in 2002 and 2003. The Magpies are on track to contest their sixth-straight finals campaign, which would be the longest active finals streak of any club.
O’Brien, meanwhile, became just the eighth player in the history of Collingwood to play 100 consecutive games.
The 24-year-old, who is one of the many success stories of the rookie-list system at the Westpac Centre, now owns the longest active consecutive games streak of any Magpie, and trails only Sydney’s Jude Bolton (144 games) and Carlton’s Kade Simpson (133 games) on the league-wide list of current consecutive games streaks.
O’Brien, who debuted in 2005 as a rookie-list player after being recruited from Claremont in West Australia, began his current streak in round 14, 2007, his first season permanently on the club’s senior list.
He has now played 123 games and won his first All Australian guernsey in 2010 as a half back flanker. He has twice finished in the top five of the Copeland Trophy voting as Collingwood’s best-and-fairest player (5th in 2008 and 4th in 2009).
Most matches coached Collingwood
Jock McHale (1912-49) - 714 games
Mick Malthouse (2000- ) - 273 games
Phonse Kyne (1950-63) - 272 games
Leigh Matthews (1986-95) - 224 games
Bob Rose (1964-71; 85-86) - 193 games
Most matches coached in VFL/AFL history
Jock McHale (Collingwood) - 714 games
Mick Malthouse (Footscray/West Coast/Collingwood) - 651 games
Kevin Sheedy (Essendon) - 635 games
Allan Jeans (St Kilda/Hawthorn/Richmond) - 575 games
Tom Hafey (Richmond/Collingwood/Geelong/Sydney) - 522 games
Players to have played 100 consecutive matches for Collingwood
Jock McHale (1906-17) - 191 games
Tarkyn Lockyer (2004-10) - 136 games
Wayne Richardson (1970-76) - 131 games
Dane Swan (2006-11) - 121 games *
Bob Rose (1948-54) - 119 games
Kevin Rose (1962-67) - 112 games
Lou Richards (1943-48) - 108 games
Harry O’Brien (2007- ) - 100 games
*Dane Swan’s consecutive game streak, which began in round 13, 2006, ended this season when he missed the round 12 game v Melbourne
**Darren Jolly’s consecutive run of 142-straight AFL matches ended when he missed round 4 v Richmond this season. His streak included 113 matches with the Swans and 29 with the Magpies.
Longest current active streaks of consecutive AFL matches played
Jude Bolton (Sydney) - 144 games since round 14, 2005
Kade Simpson (Carlton) - 133 games since round 15, 2005
Harry O’Brien (Collingwood) - 100 games since round 14, 2007
Brett Deledio (Richmond) - 84 games since round 18, 2007
Bryce Gibbs (Carlton) - 76 games since round 6, 2008
