What made us 'Collingwood people'? - Add your story

[Clifton Hill-Billy]

AS I grew up in Clifton Hill, I was really only ever destined to support the Pies, but ironically I didn't start barracking for the Pies until my second game of football.

My dad used to take me down to Vic Park at 3/4 time when they opened up the gates and you could just wander in. Sometime in the mid to late 80s I went to my first game of football (I think I was about 5 or 6 at the time) Pies vs Fitzroy, couldn't see much, but I remember seeing Bernie Quinlan kick an amazingly torpedo goal from outside 50. Dad informed me that Quinlan was called Superboot and I thought that he was some kind of football superhero.

By my second game, thoughts of Superboot had completely disappeared and as I sat on top of the 4 and 20 Pie Stand (so I could actually see something) at the Dights Falls end and saw a sea of black and white cheering their beloved Pies on to victory, I knew I wanted to be a part of that army and have supported Collingwood ever since.

[Magpies Nest]

My dad is responsible. He and my mum moved to Melbourne from England in 1954, he was setting up the Australian branch of the company he worked for. As a Pom, he wasn't that interested in the local game that was so alien to him.

That changed a few years later, when he was visiting a potential client who duly informed him that if he wanted his business, he had to follow Collingwood, and ever the commercial opportunist, he duly complied. And so was born a family legacy.

Dad began to follow the Pies with enthusiasm, but unfortunately for him didn't do so until 1960, missing out on enjoying the glory of 1958. THus, like some of you out there, he sat through 1960, 1964, 1966, 1970, 1977, 1979, 1980, and 1981 before the event that he didn't think he'd ever live to see.

My own passion didn't really kick in until 1982. We moved from Melbourne to Sydney in 1974, when I was 9, and I still hadn't settled on a team to follow. My school was in Hawthorn, and many of my friends followed them. I tried, but with little enthusiasm. I also had brief dalliances with Essendon and St Kilda (my only defence for this outrage is that it was pre-Greening).

Then we moved to Sydney, and I decided how ridiculous Rugby League and Union were. VFL was all that there was in our house, and finally the penny dropped. I have been a passionate follower since - not aways the best supporter I will readily confess. I do take defeat very personally sometimes. But it's been a great ride, I have converted 2 wives and 3 kids over the journey, and the future looks bright!

[MattyD]

There's nothing like being a collingwood supporter.

I know where I come from.

And I'm proud of where I come from.

My Irish ancestors moved to Collingwood in the 1850s, poor and Catholic.

Family legend says in the 1890s our family would hide John Wren and his men when the police would raid his bookmaking business. True? who knows.

But we were there from the beginning.

Dad fell in love and married a pommie jew from wales in the '60s who wanted her 3 boys to play rugby. Never happened.

Dad started taking us to Vic Park in the '70s.
I now take my boy to games.

Collingwood is in the blood.

[malteaser]

As soon as I was born I was a collingwood supporter, my dad won out there so my life as I know it has been collingwood. I do remember when I started to really follow the footy was when my dad took my to Vic Park in the early 70's in the outer. then on of course in 77 with the live GF and I remember decorating and making food for the day, my Uncle came over. I remember running outside in the last quater cause i was just freeking out.

However my father was no originally a collingwood supporter he was born in Stkilda and his parents were mad saints fans up to when they both died they were memebers of the saints and I also remember going to morrabin and sitting in the saints members stand (the day carman kicked nine in the last) Anyway, the reason my dad changed allengence to collingwood was because his older sister kept on beating him up and he thought by becoming a collingwood suppoter and suppoting a team that won more than they lost he could fight back. Well that was certainly evident in 2010 pity it took 60 years!!!!!

[mgbourne]

Living in Perth, my first taste of VFL footy was as a 6 year old watching the 79 grand final on a small b/w telly with all my family hoping for a Carlton win. I alone chose the other side, although mildly disappointed on the day after the bollocking I received from people who now all support west coast, I am safe in the knowledge that:

1. The pain has made me stronger
2. I am part of the Collingwood family
3. That when I die Collingwood win the GF every year in Heaven cause God's a Collingwood supporter

To this day I know in my heart and my soul that I have chosen wisely!

[Beast]

Some great stories here, unfortunately mine only goes back as far as 1997. I was living with an ex-Adelaide girl at the time who naturally was a big Crows fan and had a rather serious disdain of all things Port. When the Pies gave Port a nice warm welcome to the AFL to the tune of 80 something points I've decided this is going to be my team. My missus warning me about Collingwood being the most hated Club in the land only reinforced my choice due to my slightly antagonistic nature. The other things that helped me make my choice were the colours, which I loved, working on Smith street at the time and that game being the first one I watched in full after trying to get into Aussie Rules for four years.

Never ever looked back and am proud to support without a doubt the best sporting Club in universe.

Floreat Pica

[stui magpie]

Top thread. I love all the recent additions, my story is in here somewhere if anyone cares to go back and find it.

I'm not re posting it, but suffice to say there's been a few choices in my life I've regretted. Choosing to be a Collingwood supporter for now 35 years isn't one of them.

[Breadcrawl]

It's funny that a few of our stories have their origin in Canberra. More than you would think.

I was brainwashed by my brother from a very early age. He was twelve years older than me and a strong influence - he was seventeen when I was five and certainly a hero figure. My parents followed the Rugby League - I even found myself swept up in the excitement of the Raiders premierships in 89 - 91. We followed Queensland in the State of Origin because so many Raiders heroes were cockroaches - Belcher, Meninga, Chicka Ferguson, Chris O'Sullivan to mention a few. I followed the Pies all of this time but Mum was taking my brother and I to Raiders games and so I followed both. These days I could name you maybe ten League players and two of them have played AFL.

My dad and brother had a poor relationship and I'm sure choosing to follow Aussie Rules was part of the rebellion. He was watching a game on a black and white tv in the early 70s and picked the team whose jumper looked better in that medium. He taught me to sing the song and parrot propaganda. I had absolutely no say in it at all. He and I don't really talk these days - however, I will always be grateful that he turned me into a Pies supporter. It is the single best thing he ever did for me by a bloody long way.

Opportunities to watch the Pies were few and far between, even on television. I can't be sure but I reckon we only got one game a week on the tv in Canberra in the 80s - if Collingwood didn't feature in the match of the day, stiff titties. They came with Fitzroy for an exhibition game at Manuka - which Fitzroy won easily, and which featured very few 'names' bigger than Wes Fellowes and Mick Gayfer. I was rapt to see Gayfer though. Shaw and Daics and Pants and Dougie Barwick would have been nice too, though.

I was 13 in 1990 and while being a Collingwood supporter was an important part of my identity even then, and I remember wearing my scarf to school after we won the flag, I certainly wasn't the mental case I became in the leadup to our next cracks at Grand Final victory.

We also went once, by car, to see the pies play in Sydney. That was the first VFL game I went to and it was the only one until I moved to Queensland at sixteen and eventually to Brisbane for Uni. Going to the Gabba to see the Pies play was such a privilege.

My best mate switched from Geelong to become a founding Lions supporter and a rivalry with truly tragic outcomes was born. I love the man but when we talk footy I'd mostly like to reach down the phone line and wring his neck. The bastards beat us twice. Both times I made mammoth efforts to be there - in 2002 I went so far as to hitch a ride on the Brisbane Lions cheer squad bus. I heard the Lions theme song enough on that return journey to never need to hear it again for the rest of my life. These days I change the words for my own amusement and sing them LOUD in order to drown out that devil's music.

Then six years ago, living and working on the Gold Coast, I realised one day that I had no good reason to be where I was. I had landed there by chance and other people's decisions, and it was not the right environment for me. I decided that I would flap my wings and find a place where I could really plant some roots. So where would I go?

I went to a place where I could enjoy the privilege of watching my beautiful Pies play live all the time. I drove to Melbourne with my worldly possessions in my hatchback, and an address I got off the interwebs which would, I hoped , be my new home. I didn't even have a job to go to. Though I was pretty much totally isolated and alone when I got here, I felt like I was a part of a huge, pulsating community - a family, really - every time I made myself a part of the crowd at a Collingwood game at the MCG - which was every single time it was possible. I went on my own (still do), and hardly spoke to anyone at all, but I felt such a reassuring sense of belonging - belonging to this huge, warm, passionate, drunken, irrational, beautiful thing.

Six years later and I'm happily shacked up with a Melbourne girl and just welcomed my third son into the world (and if that isn't some kind of record I'll be fairly disappointed). I'm as happy as a clam and I owe it all to Collingwood. Well, most of it - lots of it at the least.

[Nick - Pie Man]

I'm a St Kilda troll. Ssh, it's a secret!

[TC15]

when i was a kid going to School at Brighton Road back in 1971 i met Peter Makenna on a Tram, He gave up his seat for my Sister, Wow he was like a God, At that time i was playing u11s for St Kilda City , and not really following anyone in the VFL, But i have been a loyal Collingwood supporter ever since.

[sweaty betty]

It all started because of my father. As a young child in Bacchus Marsh, he would go with his siblings and neighbours to the train line in time for the train from Melbourne to Adelaide to be slowing down for Bacchus Marsh station. The kids would call to the passengers 'papers, papers' and some would throw the newspapers down to them, having already read them. Dad was about 4 or 5 and was born in 1926. He reckons he could read and loved reading those papers, which, I'm guessing, would have been full of news of a particularly strong and dominant footy team of that era. (think 1930-ish). Collingwood of course! He has followed them all his life (he's 86) as has mum(85) and their 7 children. Dad & mum go to every game in Melbourne and some interstaters as well. They have been members for nigh on 50 years. This is more about them than me, I just grew up with it. Cheers

[Buckley Swan]

I have a confession to make. I have always been Collingwood. But haven't always supported Collingwood.

I was born into a Collingwood family - my grandfather, who grew up in WA was a Pies man (much the same as kids in Asia follow Manchester United, I guess - you aren't from there but need to follow a team so you pick the most famous).
A Navy man, he later, by all accounts, played for Port Melbourne.
My father, also a Pies man, was also born in WA but eventually his family settled in Geelong, where he maintained his black and white heart.
He also served in the forces and returned to WA with the RAAF, trialling with Swan Districts - black & white. A team I also support.
Eventually, meeting my mother whilst travelling through SA we settled down in Adelaide in a place called Elizabeth.
I, by the way, was born in Williamstown, giving me a link to the Seagulls.
Growing up in Adelaide back then, you had two teams, your VFL team and your SANFL team.
My SANFL club is Central District. A great source of joy in the past decade. A source of none through my childhood.
So, there I am, growing up in the northern suburbs outpost, a much maligned and loathed, by some, part of the world.
I grew up a Collingwood supporter, until 1986 when the great John Platten left Central District to play for Hawthorn.
The Rat had also played all of his junior footy at my club Elizabeth, where I still play with his nephews and, this year, his son.
Naturally, Rat was my hero, so I transferred my allegiances to the Hawks.
Dad never said anything about that but it was clear he didn't share much of my joy when Hawthorn won flag after flag.
And here's where my heart always regrets my decision to change clubs.
In 1990, I had the chance to share the joy of a premiership with my father.
I knew how much joy he felt at that victory and I enjoyed seeing the people celebrate, as in my heart, I understood. However, I felt hollow (this is the first time I'ver shared these feelings, by the way).
By 1991, when I was 14, Port Adelaide had trashed SA footy by trying to join the VFL, resulting in the birth of a new football club - Adelaide.
Being a proud South Australian, I became a supporter of the Crows.
However, it wasn't long before I got fed up with what I now understand to be the sycophancy of the local media and supporters.
Adelaide were getting belted, week in, week out, but if you listened to everyone, "the boys still played well. It wasn't their fault. The Victorian conspiracy...etc, etc".
A decision was made, it was abrupt and decisive.
I returned to supporting Collingwood. I'd kept hearing how much this new breed of football supporter hated Collingwood. I had no understanding of why, and I'm sure most of these Adelaide supporters didn't either - just another tin foil hat conspiracy.
I returned to my heritage. Being young, I was able to do so without having felt dirty about my desertion.
From then on, there has been no question, not even when those dirty Adelaide Crows won the flags in 97/98.
I have grown to hate them, more than any ever football club you could name. The Adelaide media ensures you do that if you support a non SA club.
I'm now ensuring my daughters are also Collingwood supporters, too.
My eldest, four, asks me to sing the club song as she goes to bed sometimes, while my youngest will have NO choice but to be a Pies supporter.
See, my first daughter was born in 2008, a Central District premiership premiership year.
My second, was born the Monday after the tied grand final between Collingwood and St Kilda, she was 12 weeks early.
My wife had given birth to her while I was still trying to get to the hospital, in Adelaide, 300 kilometres from our then home in Loxton.
It was a traumatic time for us, this situation we'd been thrown into. My daughter weighed 681 grams. She was fighting for her life.
I wanted to name her Dane. My wife wouldn't agree to that, not that she knew who Dane was.
The following Saturday, Collingwood won its first premiership since 1990.
I watched that grand final on my wife's hospital bed and remember very little of it, we were both so tired.
I remember Didak's beautiful smother and recover, before kicking a goal.
So very Dids.
And I didn't even see the cup raised, by then we were on our way to the NICU ward to see my baby girl.
I have a photo of me by her crib wearing my Pies scarf.
The very next day, I was at Football Park to watch my beloved Central District win another premiership.
I would have thought that had my two most beloved clubs won premierships in the same year, let alone in consecutive days, I would have been pissed for a month.
I barely had a beer over those two days, life had provided some very important lessons in that week.
I have a copy of the 2010 premiership but I still haven't watched it.
I can't. My daughter is fine now, you'd never have known about her tough start to life but the emotions of that time are still raw - I'm holding a tear or two back as I write this.
Those moments of joy in that week gave me some respite from what was a traumatic time.
I have learnt that football is not quite life but it's still bloody important! And so is Collingwood.

[tomoleary]

[tomoleary]

[Jezza]