Every match that Collingwood plays feels like it's the most important game in the world.

But the truth is that some games matter more than others. And some have impacts that last for decades, even if that significance isn't always apparent at the time.

So here is a trawl through the history books to come up with the most significant games in Magpie history. These aren't just the biggest wins or the most memorable days, but the games that had a significant influence on the club's history.

We've excluded all finals, simply because otherwise the list would almost be completely taken up with premierships and a few painful Grand Final losses. But the home-and-away games covered in this series have had a huge impact on the club – sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. They've led to club turmoil, coaches being sacked, major changes in the game or sometimes set us on the path to a flag.

Whatever the outcome, these games represent major turning points in our club's story. And they're worth recalling.

Honouring the greater good: Round 19, 2008

It’s one of the oldest adages in football - the team is more important than the individual - and in Collingwood terms, one of the best modern examples came from a moment that threatened to derail the club's 2008 season.

The Magpies had lost three consecutive games leading into the Round 19 clash with St Kilda. With only a month left to the finals, and with their position within the top eight in jeopardy, Mick Malthouse's team seemingly needed everything to go right in the rundown to September.

That all changed the moment an intoxicated Heath Shaw smashed into two parked cars in a street only 500m from his home in Kew, just days after the previous round’s loss to Hawthorn, sparking a media storm the club didn't need.

At first, it seemed like another case of a player caught drink driving, and at least no one was hurt. But it ended up being something even more serious again, threatening the unity and the cohesion within the club, as well as within the team.

Shaw owned up to his indiscretion. However, in trying to protect the man who was sitting beside him in the passenger seat - teammate Alan Didak - the Magpie defender turned a bad situation into something even worse by lying about what happened.

It was only a matter of time before the truth would come out.

When Shaw was quizzed by President Eddie McGuire and Chief Executive Gary Pert on the morning after the incident, he insisted it was a mate - not a teammate - who was his companion in the car. As those discussions were taking place, several witnesses to the accident were coming forward and saying with certainty they had seen Didak at the scene.

The club publicly backed their player until it became clear Shaw had been lying to protect Didak, because his teammate had been recently involved in a few off-field issues, and he didn't want more strife for his friend.

Shaw's lie became bigger than the incident itself, for it came to the question of trust. It got to a point where the young Magpie had no choice but to confess the real story.

At a press conference, Pert's anger could hardly be restrained. He said: “When you have two of your key players looking at the president, the coach and their own teammates in the eye and actually lying to them, it really destroys the essence of the club… it was decided by the leadership group that these two players actually don't deserve to wear the Collingwood Football Club jumper, and… they're not playing for the rest of the season."

Shaw and Didak were banned by the club from playing for the rest of 2008, including a possible finals series.

The club wanted to send a message to the entire playing group that such behaviour would not be tolerated, regardless of what was at stake.

Few gave the Magpies much hope of winning the following week against the Saints; even fewer people believed the club could still play in the finals without two of their key players.

But McGuire and Pert, and coach Mick Malthouse, hoped the harsh penalties would galvanise the group, and unite them in a chase for a finals berth.

With Shaw and Didak out, the Magpies selected two debutants for the game against the Saints - young forward Chris Dawes and utility John McCarthy were selected for their first games.



Chris Dawes and John McCarthy share a moment after their victorious debut against St Kilda in round 19, 2008.

On the day of the game, McGuire spoke of his frustration surrounding the media coverage of the Shaw-Didak incident, drawing a parallel to Collingwood challenging the Beijing Olympics as one of the news stories of the week.

The president said: "In a week when the biggest country in the world, the country with the biggest population, the most secretive, the country with the economic prosperity of Australia firmly in its hands, opens its doors to scrutiny never before seen on the eve of the biggest event in the world, the C-word that dominated the media was not China, it was Collingwood."

But McGuire rallied the players in a rare, emotional pre-game speech.

As he did that, retired Magpie defender James Clement went around the ground in a convertible before the game, getting the farewell he deserved. It prompted one wag in the crowd to suggest: “If Collingwood had a sense of theatre, they should have had Heath Shaw drive the convertible tonight.”

Coach Mick Malthouse urged his team to put aside the controversy of the week and make a statement about what the club meant to them. He would later describe the media attention around Collingwood as “like a shark with a bit of blood in its nostrils.”

But the statement would be a significant one.

As the Sunday Herald Sun detailed a moment only 60 seconds into the game - with Shaw and Didak watching from a statistician's box – “proved that opportunity is seldom lost; someone else just comes along and takes it.”

Dawes kicked the first goal of the game, and McCarthy made a good impression as well.

Collingwood led St Kilda at every change, establishing a narrow lead with four goals in the first quarter and holding on grimly throughout the match, to win by 14 points.

Malthouse was relieved after the game as much as anything else, saying: “Under the circumstances, a torrid week, you learn a lot about people, some good, some bad.”

“We were able to generate enough enthusiasm, enough desire to play a very good football side and win. With three (games) to go, we just need to keep the foot on the accelerator and make sure we approach next week's game with the same intensity we did this one.”

The 'foot on the accelerator' analogy might not have been the best one given what Shaw had done behind the wheel earlier in the week, but everyone knew what he meant.

Collingwood had withstood the pressure to remain in the finals hunt. It was the start of three successive wins that guaranteed a finals spot before a final round loss to Fremantle.

The Magpies finished the home-and-away season in eighth position, leaving them with an away final against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium that no one gave them any hope of winning.



Captain Scott Burns led Collingwood magnificently during its win over St Kilda in round 19, 2008.

Again, Malthouse's team produced a stirring victory, overcoming a two-goal half-time deficit to defeat the Crows by 31 points, with 10 players having played less than 50 games, and with Dawes and McCarthy in their fifth games.

Cheer Squad identity ‘Joffa’ Corfe called it one of the greatest finals wins in the club's history, while Malthouse beamed about the togetherness of his group of players.

There were calls from some former players, including club great Peter Daicos, to reconsider the ban to allow Shaw and Didak to potentially play in the Semi-Final against St Kilda.

“It's a moral thing at the moment, but when you're at that stage of the finals, you couldn't begrudge the players from wanting the best team possible out there,” Daicos said. "These players may not ever get a chance to play in a Preliminary Final or a Grand Final again.”

The Magpies refused to relent, knowing that to preserve the club's culture was more important than one match. As it was, Collingwood was brave against St Kilda the following week, but the season ended in a 34-point loss.

Two years later, in 2010, Collingwood broke a 20-year premiership drought when a team including a chastened Shaw and Didak defeated St Kilda in a Grand Final replay after the two teams played out a thrilling draw the week before.

Shaw produced one of the most memorable Grand Final moments with a rundown smother to stop Nick Riewoldt, and Didak was also a significant contributor, playing through the pain of a torn pectoral muscle.

The down payment on the club's culture taken in 2008 had been paid back in spades.

Turning Points
Written by Glenn McFarlane and Michael Roberts

Turning Points: A game of belief.

Turning Points: The first game.

Turning Points: History's ugly repeat.