To mark the occasion, collingwoodfc.com.au will turn the spotlight on the key moments and figures that influenced the birth of the Magpies.
The role Victoria Park plays in Collingwood’s storied history is well known to all followers of Australian Football, but on the eve of the club’s 120th birthday, it is prudent to acknowledge its role in the club’s early years.
Victoria Park’s original title was Dight’s Paddock, named after John Dight who purchased the land in 1838, and retained its name until the 1870s. According to Michael Roberts and Glenn McFarlane in Collingwood at Victoria Park - Revised and Updated Edition (2005), Dight bought 84 acres “bounded by Johnston and Reilly Streets between Hoddle Street and the Yarra River”.
As Australian Football was not created or codified until 1858, Dight’s Paddock was regularly used for Aboriginal corroborees. It was home to the Wurundjeri tribe prior to Dight’s arrival, but the steady growth of the Collingwood area meant that the onset of new diseases would cause the size of the tribe to diminish.
View a timeline of Victoria Park's history here.
In 1877, a year after Collingwood was proclaimed a city, Dight’s Paddock was sold to English-based Edwin Trenerry. A key figure in the sale’s negotiation was David Abbott, so it is no coincidence that two of the streets surrounding the ground are named in their honour.
One of the key sticking points of the sale of the land was Abbott’s proposal to the Collingwood Council which saw the Council take possession of a part of the land (what is now the football ground) to use as a community recreation reserve. However, the Council had to agree to spend money on ‘making the streets around and leading to the reserve’.
Click here for more on Collingwood's 120th Birthday.
The deal was struck, and it would have serious implications over 100 years later due to a covenant Abbott enforced that prevented the land from sale to ‘private individuals’. The impact was felt by the Collingwood Football Club many years down the track when seeking to own a part of the venue.
After heated debate, it was agreed that the ground should play host to local sporting teams. In late 1879, cricket became the first official sport to be played at the ground. The Capulet Cricket Club was the most prominent, erecting a portable grandstand and charging rate-payers admission by the mid 1880s. The Britannia Football Club was the first of its kind to play organised football at the ground, playing their first match in 1882 and continuing to do so for the next decade.
By 1892, Britannia had disbanded and the Collingwood Football Club came into existence. Based out of Victoria Park, local parliamentarian and the first President of the Magpies W.D. Beazley persuaded the local Council to level the ground and build a picket fence around the playing surface. It had immediate results, as the upgrade of the venue proved a key to Collingwood’s admission into the VFA.
Learn about the suburb behind the club.
At Collingwood’s first official game, played against Carlton on May 7 1892 at Victoria Park, 16,000 fans flocked to the ground, unwittingly setting the standard of support that has been maintained by Collingwood supporters in the ensuing 120 years.
The first stand built was an unnamed wooden grandstand, followed by a Ladies Stand that stood where the Ryder Stand (opened in 1929) still stands.
Collingwood won its first premiership in the VFA in 1896 before it joined the newly formed VFL competition. The club won an incredible 11 premierships in the years between 1902 and 1936, and quickly became the envy of the other clubs.
During this period, it made Victoria Park its fortress. The team enjoyed 221 wins at the venue in the 34 seasons including 16 without loss between round seven, 1902 and round one, 1904.
An aerial view of Victoria Park in 1929. Note the lack of grass in the goal square at the railway end - a result of Gordon Coventry's 124 goals for the season?
The 75 seasons since have not been as kind in terms of premierships, but the wins continued to flow and the fans turned in their tens of thousands.
The main grandstands in the second half of the 20th century were the Members’ Stand (a brick structure built in 1909 on the site of the current Sherrin Stand), the Ryder Stand (built by local unemployed residents during the depression) on centre wing, housing Collingwood’s property and locker rooms, gymnasium and training facilities, the three-storey Social Club building (also titled the S.A. Coventry Pavilion and currently known to many as the Bob Rose Stand), the Sherrin Stand that replaced the Members’ Stand behind the goals at the western end of the ground, and the R.T. Rush Stand (build in 1966) that extended along the outer wing.
Those looking for strictly standing room congregated at One-Eyed Hill behind the goals and under the old scoreboard (built in 1966) at the Yarra Falls end of the ground.
The Sherrin, Social Club and Ryder Stands all remain in 2012 and have been refurbished as part of the ground’s redevelopment in recent years. The roof and most terracing of R.T. Rush Stand were demolished in late 2009, and the scoreboard removed in 2010.
Due to the increasing level of professionalism and the struggle to maintain the upkeep of the ground’s facilities, the Magpies moved most of their home games to the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1994, and played their final match at the ground in 1999. However, Victoria Park still remained the club’s training and administration facility until 2004 when it moved to the Westpac Centre at Olympic Park.
As many as 24,493 squeezed into the ground as the Pies went down to the Brisbane Lions in the final match in 1999, but crowds of 15,000 had two final hurrahs at the ground in 2002 and 2003 when the team in the lead up to their Grand Final appearances. The final game played by Collingwood’s seniors was a practice match against Melbourne in March 2004.
After several years of standing dormant, new life was breathed back into Victoria Park in 2010 when Collingwood returned to play its VFL matches as a part of the ground’s redevelopment.
Read Eddie McGuire's reaction to Collingwood's return in 2009.
Despite officially closing the gates for the final time in 2004, Collingwood will always live on at Victoria Park. The close ties between the fans and the ground were illustrated by the many who opted to return to the ground to celebrate the team’s 2010 premiership victory, and one suspects that the spirits of Collingwood supporters will forever linger in the streets surrounding the home of the Pies.
Learn about Collingwood's involvement in the Victoria Park Community Centre.
Victoria Park Trivia
A primary school (Victoria Park State School) stood next to the ground from 1889 until 1992. The school produced several Collingwood champions, none greater than the famous Collier brothers, Albert and Harry.
Victoria Park is the only VFL/AFL venue in Victoria to have its own train station. Located on the Epping and Hurstbridge Lines, Victoria Park Railway Station was built in 1898 and is only a 200m walk from the ground. A Collingwood Railway Station is located one stop closer to the city.
VFL legend and 306 game Magpie Gordon Coventry holds the record for the most games played at Victoria Park (138) and most goals kicked (679).
Coventry also holds the record for the most goals kicked in a match at Victoria Park, kicking 17 goals against Fitzroy in 1930. Coventry also managed hauls of 16, 15 and 14 at the ground, while Peter McKenna also bagged 16.
Tony Shaw, the man who surpassed Coventry as the games record holder of the Collingwood Football Club, amassed a record 50 possessions against the Brisbane Bears at Victoria Park in 1991. He broke Mick McGuane’s record from 1988, when he won 46 possessions in his second season against St Kilda.
Of all the 643 victories at Vic Park, was this the most perfect of them all? Having lost six matches in succession, Collingwood got its 1997 season back on track in style with a 100 point win over Fremantle in round 15. Up by 41 points at three-quarter time, the Magpies slammed on 10 goals to nil in the final term to win by exactly 100 points. In his 100th match, Nathan Buckley celebrated in style, gathering 43 possessions and kicking a goal. Sav Rocca, who was a late inclusion after being dropped on the Thursday prior to the game, returned to form with nine goals.
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The final Collingwood team to play at Victoria Park - Round 22, August 28 1999
Back: M.Michael, C.Tarrant, M.Richardson, A.Schauble, A.Rocca, S.Prestigiacomo, G.Crosisca, T.Lane, H.Scotland, G.Freeborn.
Middle: N.Davis, G.Brown, N.Buckley (captain), D.Wheadon (assistant coach), T.Shaw (coach), D.Frawley (assistant coach), S.Burns, P.Williams.
Front: P.Licuria, M.Orchard, R.Betheras, S.Patterson, T.Lockyer, S.Crow, R.Olarenshaw.
The information compiled for this article was sourced from:
• "Kill for Collingwood", written by Richard Stremski and published in 1986 by Allen & Unwin
• The Official "Collingwood Illustrated Encyclopedia" written by Michael Roberts and Glenn McFarlane, and published by Slattery & Lothian Books in 2004. It is available from the Collingwood shop.
• Collingwood at Victoria Park (Revised and Updated Edition), written by Glenn McFarlane and Michael Roberts, and published by Media Giants in 2005.
• The Victoria Park website - www.victoriapark.net.au
