HIS3MHI – Making History Research Project – Victoria Park David De Angelis – 17990254 What is the historical legacy the Collingwood Football Club has at Victoria Park, Melbourne?
The eerie sound of the 2:30pm train arriving at Victoria Park train station echoes and sends vibrations up through the grandstand as I sit on an old wooden seat inside an empty Sherrin stand. Whilst I sit on my wooden seat overlooking the skeleton that was once the R.T Rush stand, I am in amazement, shock and awe of how this current incarnation of Victoria Park is a far-cry from the bustling coliseum of black and white it used to be when I was a child. The eerie sound of that 2:30pm train arriving at Victoria Park station nearly twenty years ago, would have been drowned out with the sounds of rusty turnstiles rotating as droves of supporters make their way through the gates, the sound of magazine vendors’ yelling “RECORDS! GET YOUR FOOTY RECORDS!” as well as the hysteria that is associated with pre-game excitement. In this illustrated essay, I will address the historical legacy the Collingwood Football Club has shared over one hundred years at their undisputed home, Victoria Park. From the club’s humble beginnings of being a football club that represented the working-class people of Collingwood, its invincibility throughout the depression era, the various developments that occurred at the ground to the fateful day Collingwood played its last AFL match at in 1999. Within the four walls of the Collingwood Town Hall, the Collingwood Football Club was formed on Friday February the 12th, 18921. They were then sworn in to play their first then-VFA match some four months later Saturday the 5th of May against a nemesis that still to this day, is the biggest ever rivalry in Australian sporting history, the Carlton Football Club. The build up to this momentous occasion was predicated by the efforts Figure 1 The entrance to Victoria Park before a Collingwood vs South Melbourne match circa 1890-1920 (Courtesy of of the club’s first ever (http://www.collingwoodmagpies.net/victoria_park/victoria_park.html) President W.D. Beasley when he convinced the council “to spend 600 pounds on levelling the ground and erecting a picket fence around the playing arena of Victoria Park to impress the VFA.”2 Another important figure in the ground’s infancy was Melbourne architect William Pitt, who was the architect for the Princess Theatre, St. Kilda Town Hall and Melbourne Stock Exchange.3 Pitt was chosen for the job of Victoria Park’s first every grandstand. “The stand, erected in 1892 at the railway end of the ground in order not to annoy property holders, was not as grandiose as originally anticipated. Generous promises of support evaporated in the enervating economic atmosphere.”4 Nonetheless, the Collingwood Football Club played its first ever Australian Rules Football match at Victoria park, “the game being witnessed by over 10,000 people.”5 Despite losing the game scoring only 2 goals to Carlton’s 3 as well as a flurry of behinds for either team (Collingwood 11 and Carlton 13), the match was a success for the Collingwood Football Club as well as Victoria Park. “But the real winner was Collingwood, the suburb. An influx of football fans showed that new entity had already gained a strong foothold in support.”6 Now that the foundations have been laid out for the club and the ground, a new golden era would be established.
1 Michael Roberts, ‘Vic Park: Football comes to Victoria Park’, Collingwood Forever [website], (2014)
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Collingwood became just the second team to have won back- to-back premierships in 1901-02. This achievement had come just ten years into the club’s existence and membership numbers skyrocketed throughout this time. It was the “blue-collar” appeal that made many of the hard-working Collingwood members flocked through the gates. In addition to this local support for Collingwood, there was also a large demographic of female members which led to further developments at the ground. “The club’s membership figures ostensibly support the contention that Collingwood was a working man’s club and analysis of the 1901 rolls reveals that almost 80 per cent of the identifiable members were working class.”7 The newly formed team had also enjoyed perpetual growth within its first ten years as membership figures were at 421 in 1892, reaching 2000 members by the time the club won its second flag in 1902.8 By 1899, one-third of Figure 3: The Original Grandstand and the Ladies Stand Collingwood’s membership were comprised of before the construction of new grandstands circa 1900. women, to accommodate for the fleeting Courtesy of (http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/copeland- numbers of women attending matches at saves-collingwood) Victoria Park, it prompted the erection of the Ladies Pavilion in 1900. Although the idea of this pavilion was a basic structure costing 80 pounds and was segregating women supporters from the rest it did not detract the female supporters away from Victoria Park. The council was forced to later stabilise the pavilion two years later. In 1909, Thomas Watt who be entrusted for a third grandstand which was known as the Maryborough design. The completion of the stand came just in time for the club’s third premiership. “The 1892 stand was henceforth the public reserve; the old ladies pavilion became a smoker’s pavilion; and the new stand was solely for season ticket holders, male and female.”9 The club would then reach breaking point, in terms of its popularity and for the capacity of Victoria Park.
7 Richard Stremski, Kill for Collingwood, (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1986), 51 8 Ibid, 51 9 Ibid, 54 Not since the construction of the 1909 Maryborough design grandstand, had Victoria Park undergone any developments. The demand for further construction came in the late 1920s when Victoria Park was proving to be Eden, having won four consecutive VFL premierships. However, it was the way the Ryder Stand built, amid the Great Depression that truly exemplified the spirit of the Collingwood suburban community. The onset of the Great Depression of 1929 came at a very hard time for the industrial suburb of Collingwood which had endured the worst of the Depression. “It seems to Figure 4 The Ryder Stand located to the left of the Bob Rose stand today. have come early for the industrialised suburbs, hit them hardest and left them last.”10 In the midst of the Great Depression, the Australian Government had a “Government Unemployed Relief Fund” which was set aside to encourage construction works around Australia. The Collingwood City Council “decided to use £1,200 from the Relief Fund and borrow £8,000 at almost 6 per cent over 15 years to begin construction of a new stand”11 with the help of the local unemployed, the Ryder stand which is situated on the grounds northern wing. The construction of the stand was just Figure 5 An aerial shot of Victoria Park in 1929. The newly in time for the football club’s most successful constructed Ryder Stand is located on the left wing of the ever season. In 1929, Collingwood went on to oval. The Members stand is to its right and the old grandstand is toward the entrance. Courtesy of win every one of their eighteen season games, (http://www.victoriapark.net.au/2.html) their average winning margin was 43 points and the St. Kilda football club was the only team that managed to get within two goals of Collingwood all year. During these years of invincibility, Victoria Park would also play host to one of the most dominant goal- kickers of all time, Gordon “Nuts” Coventry.
Figure 6 Under the Sherrin stand that link to the Ryder Stand and the R.T Rush Stand
10 Michael Roberts, ‘The Ryder Stand’, Collingwood Forever [website], (2014),
Things don’t seem to happen anywhere else but Collingwood!!! This time ‘Nuts’ Coventry, Collingwood’s goal bird, has laid a ‘few’ at Hawthorn’s expense, what a harrowing sight it must have been for the poor Hawthornites to watch that out – 16 of the best!!!”14 This would achievement would be eclipsed a year later by Coventry when on Saturday the 19th of July 1930, 14,000 people at Victoria Park witnessed Coventry kick a record breaking 17 goals against Fitzroy.15 But it was the hilarious wager that was placed on the achievement that many others did not see coming. “I remember going with my uncle to watch a game and he said ‘I’ll give you threepence for every goal Nuts Coventry kicks.’ He kicked 17 goals and I collected what was a fortune in Figure 8 Caricatures of those days for a small boy.”16 He would also become the first Collingwood's Greatest players. player in history to exceed 100 goals when in 1929 he smashed Brothers Gordon and Syd Coventry. 17 Courtesy of Len Reynolds the century mark by kicking 124 goals , he also missed the target 14 times that particular season.18 This would prove to be an accuracy percentage many current-day players would be envious of. “The unselfish teamwork of
12 ‘Gordon Coventry’, AFL Tables [website], (2016)
Figure 9 The Social Club at Victoria Park in 1959. Courtesy of Collingwood Forever In January 1940 after much legal wrangling and (http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/the-social-club) lobbying, the Collingwood Football Club were granted a Social Club, the first of any VFL/AFL club to do so. This was a momentous occasion for the club as it allowed the club to have its own liquor license as well as the construction of its own Social Club rooms for members to enjoy. This ushered in a new age at Victoria Park, many new developments such as buying a tractor to help cut the ground (instead of a horse-drawn mower that took half a day to cut the grass), modern toilet amenities and new grandstand entrances were some of the developments that kept Victoria Park up to standard for that time.20 After a long history of prohibition of alcohol at Victoria Park between 1903 to 1923, the Social Club was officially opened on the 23rd of April 1941.21 Legendary Collingwood coach Jock McHale also toasted the momentous occasion at the inaugural dinner in front of 200 members and friends.22 The Social Club rooms initially were located at the door of the Ryder Stand. “The club rooms were rather like a speak-easy often featured in the movies. At the door at the end of the Ryder Stand, people wishing to enter had to press a door bell. A voice rang out – name and number please! A few minutes elapsed before a steward let a person in.”23 New Social Club rooms were opened at a gala evening on 26th of August 1959. “We had waited so long for such a facility. At that stage we were the only licensed football club in Victoria, the only club to have unrestricted control and full responsibility of being its own ground Figure 10 The newly renovated Social Club rooms in 1959. manager, and the only VFL club which had Courtesy of Victoria Park webpage club rooms built and financed from its own (http://www.victoriapark.net.au/15.html) sources. For the decades of the 20th Century,
19 Michael Roberts, The Barrackers are shouting, (Abbotsford, Victoria: Collingwood Football Club), 65 20 Glenn McFarlane and Michael Roberts, Collingwood at Victoria Park, (Port Melboune, Victoria: Lothian Books, 1999), 103 21 Michael Roberts, ‘The Social Club’, Collingwood Forever [website], (2014),
For 32 years from 1958 to 1990, Collingwood had endured its longest and most torturous premiership drought. During this period, it suffered nine Grand Final losses and was ordained the infamous “Colliwobbles”, a curse that seemingly prevented the Magpies from winning when it matters most. This however had proved to be dead and buried when in 1990, Collingwood broke Figure 11 Collingwood Great Lou Richards turned High-Priest of the their premiership drought unshackling Burial of the Colliwobbles at Victoria Park. Courtesy of Collingwood them from the unwanted tag and holding Footy Tour (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhnSTfn45Lg) an uplifting burial ceremony at Victoria Park. “All you Collingwood supporters, have waited 32 years for this to happen…We don’t want anybody crying or being sad this is a very joyous occasion… This is the death of Colliwobbles!”24 However, with the new-AFL competition extending the competition to a national league, Victorian-suburban tribalism and suburban-ground football was beginning to die away in favour for a national competition. This meant that grounds such as Victoria Park were not being chosen to host AFL matches in favour for bigger grounds. “Victoria Park is the last of the suburban venues and while we respect very much, its history and tradition as Collingwood’s home, the ground simply cannot accommodate all of the people who want to see the club play.”25 This would see the club proclaim that the Melbourne Cricket Ground be used for Collingwood’s home games, a move that would secure the club’s fate into the new millennium. This saw Victoria Park host its last AFL game on Saturday the 28th of August 1999 in front of 24,493 people26, one of those spectators being myself. Figure 12 Collingwood's most esteemed captains Nathan Buckley and Lou Richards carry the Collingwood flag out of Victoria Park and into the new millennium. Courtesy “It has been intimidation to come through the gates of of Luke Mason Victoria Park and play Collingwood here.”27 Tony (http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/2016-03- 15/93-years-of-lou) Shaw’s rousing pre-game address as the club embarks on its final AFL home game at Victoria Park. Through
24 1990 – the Burial of the Colliwobbles @ Victoria Park [video], (Collingwood Footy Tour, 11 Jun. 2014)
Victoria Park has been the spiritual home of the Collingwood Football Club and continues to harness much of the club’s history as well as the essence of the community. Both the development of the club and the various developments the stadium could not exist independently, instead they have certainly enjoyed a bilateral history. The historical legacy of the Collingwood Football Club at Victoria Park has been one of major success, spirit, determination and innovation. Similar to an artist not have a brush nor a canvas, the Collingwood Football Club could not have produced its on-and-off-field masterpieces without Victoria Park.
Figure 14 The R.T Rush Stand today with the support beams that used to hold the roof still standing.
Bibliography Secondary Sources
McFarlane, Glenn, ‘7 May: A date with the Blues’, Collingwood Forever [website], (2014)
McFarlane, Glenn and Roberts, Michael, Collingwood at Victoria Park, (Port Melboune, Victoria: Lothian Books, 1999). Roberts, Michael ‘Vic Park: Football comes to Victoria Park’, Collingwood Forever [website], (2014)
Roberts, Michael, ‘The Ryder Stand’, Collingwood Forever [website], (2014),
Roberts, Michael, ‘The Social Club’, Collingwood Forever [website], (2014),
Roberts, Michael, ‘Vic Park: The beginning of the end’, Collingwood Forever [website], (2014)
Stremski, Richard, Kill for Collingwood (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1986),
Primary Sources
1990 – the Burial of the Colliwobbles @ Victoria Park [video], (Collingwood Footy Tour, 11 Jun. 2014)
Roberts, Michael , The Barrackers are shouting, (Abbotsford, Victoria: Collingwood Football Club, 2006) ‘100 Goals in a season’, AFL Tables [website], (2016),
‘1999 Season Scores and Results’, AFL Tables [website],
1999 Collingwood v Brisbane, r.22. Last Match at Victoria Park [video], (John Carr, 16 Feb. 2015)
Collingwood Football Club, ’27 July 1929 Round 13 Collingwood vs Hawthorn’, Collingwood Forever [website], (2014),
Collingwood Football Club, ’19 July 1930 Round 12 Collingwood vs Fitzroy’, Collingwood Forever [website], (2014), < http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/matches/1930-collingwood-vs-fitzroy- round-12/> accessed 29 Oct. 2016
Collingwood Football Club, ‘Gordon Coventry’, Collingwood Forever [website], (2014),
‘Carlton v. Collingwood’, The Argus, 9 May. 1892, in National Library of Australia [online database], accessed 23 Oct. 2016. ‘Gordon Coventry’, AFL Tables [website], (2016)
‘New Clubrooms at Collingwood’, The Argus, 24 Apr. 1941, in National Library of Australia [online database], accessed 29 Oct. 2016
Images Figure 1 – Hall, Allan. Outside Victoria park – circa 1890- 1920 Collingwood v South Melbourne. [online photograph], http://www.collingwoodmagpies.net/victoria_park/victoria_park.html, (accessed 29 Oct. 2016)
Figure 2 – Victoria park website. Victoria Park Timeline Image (1909 Grandstand Image), http://www.victoriapark.net.au/2.html (accessed 29 Oct. 2016)
Figure 3 – Roberts, Michael. A view of the Abbott Street Wing. [online photograph], http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/copeland-saves-collingwood/ (accessed 29 Oct. 2016)
Figure 5 – Victoria Park website. Victoria Park Timeline Image (1929 Aerial Photograph), http://www.victoriapark.net.au/2.html (accessed 29 Oct. 2016)’
Figure 7 – McFarlane, Glenn. Gordon Coventry Image [online photograph] http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/more-news/no-7-worn-by-paul-couch-gordon-coventry- harry-collier-haydn-bunton-gary-ayres-voted-third-greatest-aflvfl-number/news- story/321f8b8cce7bc53f12ffd161eff25ce5 (accessed 29 Oct. 2016)
Figure 8 – Reynolds, Len. Coventry Brother’s Caricature [online photograph] https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=caricature+of+gordon+coventry&view=detailv2&&id=9B5F DEB353ADABB66C934920D16444634E574E05&selectedIndex=0&ccid=qsf9qkET&simid=6080462393 72021108&thid=OIP.Maac7fdaa4113fe82dd86c8c487a3692eo0&ajaxhist=0 (accessed 29 Oct. 2016)
Figure 9 – Roberts, Michael. Social Club in 1959 [online photograph] http://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/the-social-club/ (accessed 29 Oct. 2016)
Figure 10 – Victoria Park website. Social Club upgrades [online photograph] http://www.victoriapark.net.au/15.html (accessed 29 Oct. 2016)
Figure 11 – Collingwood Footy Tour. Lou Richards burying the Colliwobbles [screenshot from video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhnSTfn45Lg (accessed 29 Oct. 2016)
Figure 12 – Mason, Luke. 90 Years of Lou [online photograph] http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/2013-03-15/90-years-of-lou (accessed 29 Oct. 2016)
Figure 13 – Gastin, Sam. Collingwood’s last game at Victoria Park [online photograph] http://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/2015-11-06/could-vic-park-ride-again (accessed 29 Oct. 2016)
*** All other figures that are not referenced were taken by me.