At a glance

Club formed: February 12, 1892
Joined AFL: 1897
Home ground: MCG
VFA Premiership (1): 1896
VFL/AFL Premierships (15): 1902, 1903, 1910, 1917, 1919, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1935, 1936, 1953, 1958, 1990, 2010
Record home and away attendance: 99,256 – Round 10, 1958 v Melbourne (MCG)
Brownlow Medallists (9): Syd Coventry Snr (1927), Albert Collier (1929), Harry Collier (1930), Marcus Whelan (1939), Des Fothergill (1940), Len Thompson (1972), Peter Moore (1979), Nathan Buckley (2003), Dane Swan (2011)

Our story

The Collingwood Football Club was born out of the worst slums in Melbourne, yet grew to be arguably the most famous football club in the country. It was founded on a sustained and passionate grass roots campaign in the late 1880s for the suburb of Collingwood to have a senior football club bearing its own name. Local residents, community and business leaders and politicians all hoped that having their own football club could help bring a measure of pride to a downtrodden suburb.

After more than two years of community struggle, the Collingwood Football Club was finally approved for admission to the Victorian Football Association (VFA) in September 1891, and played its first game in May of 1892. The team wore black and white striped guernseys, and were known as the Magpies, from the very beginning. They played at Victoria Park – a ground that Collingwood would call home for more than 100 years.

The Magpies quickly became a powerhouse in the game, largely on the back of a large and fanatical support base and sustained on-field success. The Pies won a Premiership in just their fifth season, and were invited to join the more established clubs in a new breakaway competition called the Victorian Football League (now the AFL).

In the decades that followed, Collingwood grew to become both the most loved and most hated club in the competition, winning 15 VFL/AFL Premierships to go with its sole VFA flag, and playing in a record 44 Grand Finals (the next best is 29). The club has produced nine Brownlow Medallists, and some of the greatest players and teams ever to have graced the football field.