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

[magpie jeff]

I invite everyone to reply because it's something that i find profoundly interesting. I want to know when it was and why you decided to follow collingwood, everytime i meet a collingwood person in a pub i always find myself asking 'hey what made you decide to follow collingwood'and i have heard some terrific stories regarding this subject.

I dont want anyone holding back and it's not a competition i just want an accurate account of why are you collingwood..so dispense with the verbal one liners and tell us because i reckon one day this sort of stuff would make a compelling must read book.And to finish it off i want to know what collingwood means to you.

I can remember way back when i was soooo young seeing my dad cry when collingwood lost the 1970 grand final, football at that time meant nothing what soever to me, in fact i cant really recall ever kicking a football at that stage.And i dont think i ever rushed home to watch a replay so seeing my dad cry did have an impression on me as i can still recall feeling quite sad at such a sight. And i can remember feeling in a child like way what must this collingwood thing be where it has driven my very own father to tears.My dad was one of them tough strict old buggers "god bless him'he loved a drink had thousands of mates and during his whole life i never ever saw him in tears again.

Shortly after i was interested in collingwood only in the sense where if other kids at school asked who i barracked for, i would proudly answer, collingwood.

I asked mum for a collingwood jumper and being dirt poor she answered ' when we get the money son'i never saw my first collingwood jumper until that christmas and it was second hand. Mum told me years later it was from the local op shop i knew it was, but when you were raised with so many brothers and sisters and were church poor so to speak, you never moaned or groaned about getting second hand gifts or hand me downs.

I would tuck my collingwood jumper into my pants and where a long sleeve shirt because it itched and scratched and generally drive you crazy if you didnt wear a long sleeve shirt. But i was proud to wear my first ever collingwood jumper it was the jumper i would wear to many victoria park games until i would eventually grow out of it. It was the jumper i would wear to state school and couldnt understand or comprehend the hatred and jealousy my collingwood jumper would cause.

And finally what collingwood means to me,
Well i will try and keep this short....LOL

I sometimes sit back and think what would it have been like to follow another club and i come up with the same answer and that is, i really cant comprehend ever of following another club. I guess collingwood has been my life and forever will.

There is something unique about being collingwood but being collingwood i dont know what that uniqueness is, it just feels unique i guess.

But the lifelong friendships it has given me is quite astounding
and it pleases me greatly to see emma passionately follow collingwood just as it must of pleased my dad to see me follow collingwood and just as it would of pleased my grand dad to see my dad passionately follow the magpies.

I wouldn't be anything else but collingwood.i wouldnt be anything else for quids.

................................................................

Now people i have just pored my hear and soul out in this post, so i hope the topic gets some responses or else im gonna look like a goose.



'My God'i wouldnt go into hoddle street tonight for quids'.Bill jacobs 3aw, minutes after our premiership'That is like winning tattslotto and losing your ticket and some bloke puts it in the herald sun that he found it'Rex Hunt 3aw during the 1990 grand final'Well thats about as useful as a fly wire door in a submarine'sammy newman 3aw during the 1990 grand final

[Bones]

Geeez i can't remember back THAT far.
Guess i was brainwashed by Mick Twomey. Well living next door to one of the famous bro's was enough for this wee kid waaay back then. Also in the ancient old days we were in a Collingwoood zone. It wasn't a fanatical bleed me guts until after going to 1980 GF.
Even tho it has been VERY gewd damn frustrating at times i am proud to say i have never ever once been swayed to change teams.
Don't get the chance to go to any games, so if we are on tv, live, delayed or replayed, i watch. A couple of times this year have more or less locked meself away and not listen on radio for any scores and have then watched replay 3-4hours later.
Was always too tight to join up until me Ma joined me a few years ago. Have been a member ever since, i even pay meself now ...
Well thats about it, nothing real exciting. HAve purchased a magpie flag, a black n white teddy, them little cars n trucks the PO put out, some photo's, some pie booze and of course several glasses, Gavin Browns plate, um think thats all.

Oh hell how many days do we have to go now???

[daicos4ever]

My Mum's story about why i am a Pie:
When I was 4 or five, back in the 80's, I was totally obssessed with 'football'. My dad had taken me to a Essendon-Melbourne match and I loved it. I was desperate for a sleeveless jumper that I could wear while I kicked the balloon around the hallway in our old house in Leongatha.
Mum was looking through an op-shop in Kurrumbura for i don't know what, and i came across this sleeveless, black-and-white striped football jumper. The price to pay was $2. I had sold my soul to Lord Collingwood and I have never looked back since. I guess the flag in 1990 intensified my passion, but it all started in an op-shop in little Kurrumburra.

daicos4ever

2002 - The Year of the Pie

[dillo_09]

My support of Collingwood dates back to 1977.

My dad supported Essenscum and mum was a Geelong supporter and I cant remember either of them pushing me in the direction of their team.

My earliest memory of football was finding the team photo of the dorks in the Sun, after the 1976 GF. I got mum to hang it on the wall above my bed, and I said that I liked the team with the gold in it.

On July 11th 1977, things changed for the better.

My grandparents came to visit on my birthday and gave me a present. As a kid this is an exciting time, people giving presents was great!!
My first reactions, when I grasped the brightly wrapped gift were "Oh no - CLOTHES!! YUK!! I wanted toys", thinking I was holding a gift of jocks, socks and t-shirts. Then my grandfather said "Open it - its a football jumper"

My excitement levels climbed dramatically as I dream of a life with a wonderful new brown and gold footy jumper with a number on the back, any number, it didnt matter.

As I excitedly tore at the wrapping, which was always 5 or 6 layers thick due to my grandfathers sense of humour, my ecitement hit its peak and then plummeted into the depths of hell!!

"Black and white stripes???? I wanted brown and yellow!!!" I said. It was the most disgusting and un grateful statement I had ever made. My mum and dad were horrified and my grandparents were upset.

My grandfather then said "What's wrong with Collingwood? Your mum said you barracked for Collingwood, so thats why we bought it". So, realising the ungrateful manner of my actions and not wanting to upset my mum with my bad manners, I said that I thought 'Collingwood' were brown and yellow. (Hey I was 7, so sue me!!)

Dad had dissapeared and came back into the room with a new gift for me, it was my first football!! A shiney red Ross Faulkner 'Junior' football!! All pumped up and ready to go!!

That was it - all I wanted to do, was put on the jumper, grab the footy and head to the park for a kick of the footy with my dad and grandfather. It was the best day of my then short life!! A Brand new footy jumper, brand new football and I discovered that The Magpies were on top of the ladder!! That was good enough for me!!

What Collingwood means to me.

I don't know if I can convey what supporting Collingwood means to me into words, it's more than that.

It's a lifestyle, it's my mates (The majority I have met through the footy, including my best mate), its the smells of the MCG on match day, its the discussions, the rivalries, the beers at the footy, the excitement, the disspaointments, the first bounce, the final siren, the players, the people, Vic Park, MCG, the stories, my memories it's my passion - its just everything to me.

There are two seasons in my life - Footy season and Pre season.

I love it all!!

GO PIES!!!!

Dillo_09

[Lockyer24]

My whole family is Collingwood supporters, so I just inherited it in my genes I guess. Ive seen photos of myself as a baby on Grand Final Days sitting in a pies guernsey next to a 'Rene Kink 36' Banner and things like that. Ive been brought up a Pies fan and wouldnt have it any other way.

What Collingwood means to me- well its just a love affair really, you all obviously all feel it to, otherwise why would we be here discussing club matters in cricket season. My mood for the forthcoming week is dependent on whether Collingwood wins or loses on the weekend. Its a way of life, and all our hard work (specially cheer squad members and the like), hard earned and passion will all culminate in another flag very soon.

We are one of a kind and from various backgrounds and I think thats one thing I learned from a very early age, that we are the best and most proudest supporters in the league.

[Mike]

I don't have a Magpie family history, I don't even have a football family history. The local footy team (Lilydale, Tasmania) were the Magpies and I've scoured the team photos going back 100 years on the clubroom walls without success for Wilsons, hoping to find some ancient genetic reason for Nick's and my fanatic Pie passion, but we obviously weren't a footy playing family. My only family connection to footy is that the closest thing I have to god-parents (my father is a committed sceptic) are part of a great football family - Frank and Pat Hird, James' great uncle and aunt. So it's probably lucky that my family weren't interested in football - if they were I'd probably be a bandwagoner.

My older brother is one of those people who nobody wants to have to follow: successful at everything he touches; academic achiever; captain of the school footy and cricket teams - you know the type. He's quite a bit older than me so I used to be in awe of him when I was young and quite happily followed his lead. We moved to Melbourne from Tassie when I was 7 and Richard, my brother, found me one day in the playground at school and informed me that now that I lived in Melbourne I had to have a footy team. He, of course, had one (Collingwood) before we left Tassie. He presented me with a hat full of names and the piece of paper I drew bore the name of Collingwood - so did every other piece of paper, but I didn't know that at the time. I've been Collingwood ever since.

I'm a good example of the power of the Pies to create fanatics. I was a kid who grew up without a football background, I had no interest at all. All that changed once I became a Collingwood supporter. Something clicked and suddenly the Pies were as important to me as breathing and it has never changed. I passed on my fanaticism, firstly to my youngest brother, who I used to drag to the footy every weekend during his impressionable years, and then to Nick.

Unfortunately I've helped raise a family of free thinkers and missed out on my two oldest sons, who nominally follow Essendon and Melbourne, but really have no interest in football. Nick was my last chance and he didn't have one. He was going to be Collingwood from the minute he drew breath - and, I'm proud to say, he is. So Nick does have what I missed out on, a family history, even though it only goes back one generation.

Postscript - 5/2006: Come to think of it, that was a fairly significant day. That 11 year old kid dishing out allegiances to his 7 year old brother would one day become Managing Director of Renault Australia and set up a major sponsorship of the greatest club in the world - and his little brother, after waiting 40 years for personal computers and the internet to be invented, would pass on the passion to his son by establishing the first, the biggest (and I think the best) unofficial fan site for the greatest club in the world.

[foxy]

joffa, what a great idea mate.

well, i went to my first footy match when i was really young; it was a hawthorn/melbourne match back in the '80's, and it's really just a blur.

i got home that day and asked my parents who i should barrack for. well, i didn't exactly ask them, but mum told me my grandfather had played for collingwood (which i later found out was bullshit!), so from then on i was hooked. i went to the collinwood/melbourne elimination final in '89 or '88, and it still flickers in my mind as a really strange, overcast, blurry day full of passion and disappointment (i was still very young).

by 1990, while still young, i had a guernsey (with no.22 on the back), and managed to go to the drawn final against the eagles (it's still pretty blurry, not because i was pissed but because of my age). i didn't get to go to the grand final - but i watched and taped it, and i remember when the siren sounded my dad cracked open the Collingwood Premiership Port, which had been sitting in the pantry for nearly 25 years. apparently it tasted like a big horse turd!

by about 1994/5 i was well and truly obsessed. i cried at a game for the first time i think during an upset loss to fitzroy. and i remember bawling my eyes out at a game against west coast at the MCG, which we should've won.

it was about this time that my brother (who used to go to every match but dropped off) noted my tendency to try and kick seats and hit things when we were losing. it was even worse when i was at home watching live games on tv - i think i smashed two remote controls and some other things.

for about 2 years, then, during '99 and 2000, i went to the footy by myself, because, basically, i knew nobody who supported collingwood. NOBODY at my school went for the pies. by 2001 i'd had enough and joined the cheersquad, which is the best decision i've made for years. it means i get to celebrate everything with people i know, and when you're chanting you feel as if you're affecting things on the field.

basically, though, i've matured as a supporter during a very unsuccessful era for the club. so i've got no idea how i'll react when we start winning.

[London Dave]

Don't remember exactly why or when I started following the pies...either my mum made me (and I always do what she says) or its cos my older brother would have beaten the crap out of me (not that it stopped him), or a combination of the two.
It was just expected, had no choice, and never regretted it. I've met a few people in my travels around the place, and its always nice to met an aussie in some place, but even better to meet a pie fan and spent a bit of time discussing the prospects for the season and/or take a trip down memory lane whilst everyone else is discussing some trivial thing like the best place to view the pyramids or how big the grand canyon is up close.
Its kind of like even though you just met the person, you have this shared experience which makes you like family. Never experienced it in any other way to such an extent. Pretty freaky if you really think about it.

PS It was great to have a beer and chat with you Joffa back when, especially talking bout the pies mate...cant beat it!

[Dr Alf Andrews]

As most of you know, I come from S.A. and I grew up there at a time when the S.A.N.F.L. attracted a lot more attention than the V.F.L. I grew up in a family that was half Port, half Torrens. And for a couple of years I fluctuated between those two teams (the Magpies and the Eagles). Torrens had a pretty good team in those days and some great players. Lindsay Head, Bob Shearman, Neil Hawke. And I was drawn to them. But Dad was a wharfie, and a Port barracker (of course) so most of the games he took me to were Port games. There was also the fact that Port was more consistent than Torrens, so gradually the black and white won out. By the time I was 9 I was a committed Port barracker.

Back in those days they used to show V.F.L. replays on T.V. Collingwood was struggling in those days (the early 60s) so they hardly ever got on T.V. I was barely aware of Collingwood's existence. Clubs like Essendon, Carlton, Melbourne and Geelong got most of the exposure. Then Collingwood started to come good again and I started seeing them on T.V. a bit more. But I couldn't really make up my mind who to barrack for. I sort of changed teams every week for a while there.

One day I went to a S.A. v Victoria match at Adelaide Oval, and I remember seeing Bob Skilton kick a goal on the run from the scoreboard pocket and I thought that was pretty cool. So Skilton became a bit of a hero of mine for a couple of years and so I took a bit of an interest in South Melbourne. But they were such a shit club ... and from folllowing Port I was getting used to the idea that a footy team should be successful. And besides that, South Melbourne were hardly ever on the T.V.

Then, when I was 10 or 11 I joined the Port Adelaide Cheer Squad and started to come under a bit of peer group pressure. Most of the P.A.C.S. barracked for Collingwood in the V.F.L. And they were pretty serious about it. It definitely wasn't cool, fab or groovy to say you barracked for South Melbourne, so I started sort of pretending to be a Collingwood barracker. A case of "fake it till you make it".

Then came the 1966 Grand Final. I watched the replay on T.V. already knowing the result. But it was still an incredibly exciting game even when you knew who'd won. And I think it was the sight of all those Collingwood players so utterly devastated when the siren went. One player just fell to the ground totally shattered. I found that profoundly moving. Basically, I was won over by the tragedy of it all. I decided there and then that this was the greatest football club of them all. And I became a committed Collingwood barracker from that moment.

Strangely, it was Collingwood's lack of success that made them all the more compelling a Club to follow. All those near misses. 1970 was in the bag at half-time. I was listening on the radio in Adelaide. Then the disbelief as Carlton whittled the lead away and eventually over-ran us.

The longer the premiership drought went on, the greater the attachment to Collingwood became.

As a Port barracker, I experienced a lot of success. Premierships are almost an annual event at Alberton. The fact is, Port barrackers are spoiled rotten. And the more thoughtful among us know that. Our loyalty has never been put to the test.

That's why, in many ways, I'm grateful to have experienced these last few years as an active Collingwood supporter living in Melbourne. Since I moved to Melbourne we have never played in a finals series, and we've lost a lot more games than we've won.

So, why is this a good thing, you might well ask.

Well ... it's not. It's totally f*cked, actually.

BUT ... I now know ... beyond all doubt ... that my allegiance to Collingwood is genuine. I'm not a front-runner (as I possibly was when I followed Port). I am a genuine supporter of what I still believe to be the greatest Club of them all. That's why I can stand there, as proud as punch, when we're getting our arses kicked, and chant louder and louder the further behind we go. Because I'm celebrating my love of The Club. And that's why, when the opposition hecklers start pointing to the scoreboard and calling us "losers", I can point with pride to the sea of black and white around me and tell the hecklers to get stuffed. Because THEY are the losers ... because they're not Collingwood.

That's what I love about Collingwood ... you can feel like a winner ... even when you lose.

And when you win ... well ... a Collingwood win is the greatest drug known to humanity.





floreat pica
**************
My Ph.D. thesis, "Football: the People's Game?" is now available for viewing and/or downloading at http://alf.magpies.net

[Sly]

I didn't have enough frustration in my life.

Also, just about everybody on my father's side of the family is Collingwood, and with 3 older brothers they issued the direction for the support of myself and all our cousins (bar two, who go for Carlton).

Everybody on my mom's side is Essendon, though, and most of them are so typically arrogant that my dad seems to like nothing better than to sit back and watch Essendon get beaten.


<FONT size="3"><B>S.</FONT s>
<FONT COLOR="blue">The Last Remaining Bad Guy.</FONT c>
<FONT COLOR="red">The Incandescent One.</FONT c>
The Collingwood Rant.
[url=http://]<FONT COLOR="green">The AFL Ranting Board.</FONT c>[/url] </B>

[MAGPIRA]

Don't get enough frustration.....LOL @ SLY......That is too true!

My story is quite plain and simple...My mum is Collingwood and when I was little...instead of paying for a babysitter or palming me off to my grandparents on a Saturday afternoon....she took me to the footy with her....so I guess it just grew from there

[MargOZ]

It's great reading everyone's posts.

I actually can't remember a time I wasn't 'black and white'! My grandfather played a couple of games for Collingwood back in the 20's and my Dad's cousin was Ray Gabelich so all my life I've been surrounded by all things Collingwood. My family moved around a lot when I was younger so I didn't get to my first match until I was 15. It was against the Swans in Sydney and even though we lost I'll never forget running out on the ground and patting Greg Phillips on the back!

When we moved back to Melbourne the cheer squad seemed the next obvious step and that's when I met my best friend and another Collingwood fanatic. Even though we now live in different parts of the State we still meet up nearly every week during the footy season to watch our beloved Pies!

I actually find it extremely hard to put into words what Collingwood means to me. I unashamedly admit that it's an obsession. I love Aussie Rules football and I love the Collingwood F.C. and it was easily one of the things I missed the most when I spent a couple of years working in London. I had family and friends bombarding me with newspaper clippings the whole time I was away so I didn't miss out on a snippet of Magpie happenings!

I have screamed and yelled at the top of my lungs, abused the umpires for crucifying our players, cried tears of joy and also tears of pain. There has been exhilarating high's and heartbreaking lows. Seeing our boys walk off the ground with winning smiles on their faces has me walking on air all week. Seeing them sitting on the ground at the end of a close loss with their heads in their hands literally breaks my heart. In the middle of summer I can still spend hours talking football and Collingwood (to my friends & family's horror!). And any opposition supporter will soon find out how protective I am of 'my Club and my boys'!

I don't think being a Collingwood supporter is easy but it's one thing I wouldn't change for the world. We're part of a huge black and white family and no other club or supporter will ever have what we have. The fact that we've been through one of the toughest periods in the Club's history and we're all still here supporting this fantastic team of ours shows what positive and loyal supporters we are. The rewards are not far off.

GO PIES!

Marg

[ed healey]

Back in the mid 50s,my dad used to take me to the footy with his mates,he used to work on sat morn cleaning a house for a wealthy old couple in monnomeath rd or st in camberwell or therabouts and i would go with him and kick a paper footy up and down the street for a few hours while he worked pretending to be players at collingwood and we never lost an imaginary game.
at 6 years old i knew all the players and had a scrap book of all of them.
Each year as we attended the games,when they drank a can of beer it would go under my feet so i could see a bit better.
We travelled by train to geelong,and that i remember was a long day out for a young kid,but i never missed one game for about 12 years.I saw every game we played in the 60s and a few in the 50s and 70s.
In answer to joffas question,i was born a collingwood person,my brothers all went for other teams,but i stuck with my old man and dont regret it for one minute,also engenderd in me just as much was a hatred of carlton and i still lovingly keep that up as well.
There is collingwood and there are the others.
stand tall, stand proud and stand together.
In fact i heard my first swear words at arden st at 3/4 time as i stood near the huddle and i will never forget no 29 kevin rose swearing his head off every second word started with f.
all the players were so covered in mud they wouldnt recognise themselves in the mirror.
oh those were the days.

[ck_nd]

What makes me a Collingwood person? Good question Joff!

It all started with me on a sat arvo watching soccer on TV. I was about 6 and we only had a black and white TV. Having a european background soccer is what I knew from my father as football, mind you soccer bored the cr@p out of me. So I changed the channel (no remote, had to get up to do it). I flip the TV to another channel which had the NRL on (I live in Sydney) and after about 2 minutes I was bored out of my mind with that too! Third time lucky, I changed the channel ... footy... I was fixed to the TV.

Now living in Sydney in days pre-Sydney Swans I knew nothing about footy. Damn, I enjoyed every second of that Pies v. Roys game -- Pies absolutely kicked ar$e. It left me wondering who on earth these magpies were. Naturally I spent the whole weekend telling my family how I had seen Collingwood on TV, not that I completely understood the sport but I was totally hooked with the passion of it all. I imagine my parents thought that it was just a phase that would pass... after all their daughter probably won't grow up liking football. Would she?

The next saturday I was channel surfing again and found the footy and Collingwood was on again. The pies won again (can't remember who they played though.) It totally made my weekend (I was walking on air after a win). At this point I was absolutely hooked... had no one to talk footy with - (I live in sydney remember and this was pre-swanneees days.) So I have to admit it was a passion I couldn't share with anyone but it continued on regardless.

I remember when the souf come to sydney and seeing the swans players running down the Sydney Opera House stairs amongst a heap of fanfare. I told my Mum that Sydney was going to get its own team and she asked me if that meant that I was now going to be a Sydney Swans supporter? I looked at her with such disgust and said:
"Mum! You don't go changing what team you follow just like that, I am a COLLINGWOOD supporter!" Anyways, my tone and attitude got me sent to my bedroom LOL

Even after the swans came to sydney there was still no one to talk footy with, like I still hear a heap of New South Welshmen call a mark a "catch" it still makes me wanna' puke.

When I was in High School our PE teacher taught us Footy (we actually were taught all codes, touch footy (i.e. rugby league); rugby union, soccer and footy. When we were taught footy our PE teacher asked me what I wanted to call the school footy team? (seeing as I was the only one who had any real interest in footy)

I said: "The Holy Cross Magpies".

He replied with, we can call the school footy team anything BUT the magpies, how about the Holy Cross Swans (our school colours were actually red and white anyways).

I replied with: "Well if you aren't going to let us call our team the 'Holy Cross Magpies' then you can call us the 'Holy Cross White Maggots' for all I care!" That comment scored me a detention!! ROFLMAO

So for the best part of my life I haven't had any other footy loving people to talk footy with unless by chance I met someone here or there to have a natter with and half the time they weren't even a Collingwood supporter. But that's the way of it when you live north of the Barassi line.

One day, my sister brought home her boyfriend, he was visiting her in Sydney - he is a Melbourne boy. I was introduced to him and the first question I asked was not how are you? but

"So, what footy team do you follow?"

He was a bit nervous about answering that question I supposed b/c he was trying to impress his girlfriends family but he replied "Collingwood".... HOORAY! I had finally found someone who I was in contact with fairly often who was a Magpie. I told my sister she had stuck gold with a Collingwood supporter and she should get hitched to him... which she eventually did.

(Now I am absolutely sure the stork delivered me to the wrong address like I was born in a suburb of Sydney called Waverley, and I know that there is a Waverley in Melb (associated with another club though, but footy country still.) Damn that stork -- didn't read the bl**dy map now did he?!)

Today I am still quite content driving ppl mad with my incessant Collingwood talk. At work I will wear a black skirt, black jacket, white shirt and my Collingwood guernsey instead of the matching black vest. This p!sses of the carlscum ppl no end (they own and run the place where I run my practice, and the retail operations manager of the centre is a carlscum supporter too... mind u non-of them could name three current players - but that's the average sydney based supporter for you.)

I remember when I was in the army - I had a buddy clip out newspaper articles about the Pies and send them to me when I was out bush for like six weeks - man it sucked when the army sends you out during footy season. Accompanying the newspaper clippings was a sachet or two of instant hot-chocolate to enjoy when I had a moment to read the Magpie articles. I can't begin to tell you how much of a morale lift it was to hear how our Pies were doing... didn't matter to me where we were on the ladder - mind u I received a heap of sh!t when we were doing poorly but in good Collingwood fashion I was able to dish it back.

What Collingwood means to me... well I went a long way through my life not having anyone to talk Collingwood with, yet I persevered following them - I think it was the passion that I feel as Collingwood supporter - cry when we get robbed, hurl abuse at the maggots when they forget their white stick and guide dog, tears of joy when we win a close one, not forgetting the tears of joy after the 1990 GF win either ... most of it happening in front of a tv and now in the Online outer with the chat room on Nicks BB (thanks guys u do a great job).

To me, Collingwood joins people together who may have nothing else in common save the black and white colours that they follow.

Go Pies!

Carol
(sh!t I just realised how long this is... I feel good being able to share with with fellow magpies though... thanks for the opportunity Joff!)

Don't ask yourself what the club needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that, because what Collingwood needs right now is people who have come alive.