I have no love for Collingwood. I grimace when I hear their club song, I cringe when I see Eddie McGuire cheering them on and I grin broadly upon learning of their defeats.
Why? It makes no sense. I respect their success as a club, both on and off the field. None of their players particularly grate on me. And unlike many Australians, I don’t detest their president. He is terrific for the game and as an ambassador for his club.
Yet the sight of the black-and-white stripes loping on to the field distorts all these rational views and evokes a primal urge to level abuse at my TV screen.
Clearly, I am not alone. Collingwood is both the most famous and the most despised sporting club in Australia.
Far from being a negative, the tsunami of vitriol which engulfs the Pies each season works in their favour. From a marketing perspective it is a godsend. It allows the club to successfully frame every AFL season as ‘us versus them’.
Every club tries a similar tactic, but it doesn’t have the same authenticity and potency. Collingwood fans live in the knowledge most other AFL barrackers dislike them, which surely solidifies their fervent support.
The Pies had close to 80,000 members in 2013. That is an extraordinary figure.
Yet they are the villains of the AFL. The good versus evil narrative that lies beneath the surface of every Pies match may well be a subconscious reason why so many fans turn out to watch them.
This battle of dark versus light is even played out on their guernsey.
McGuire seems to revel in his position as the Sith Lord in charge of footy’s equivalent of the Death Star. (To be honest, I’m not even a Star Wars fan so I’m clueless as to what prompted that clunky reference.)
He expertly exploits the media, dangling controversial quotes which he knows will hit the back pages and airwaves. A journalist by trade, McGuire is intimately familiar with the industry adage: ‘If it bleeds it leads.’
So when he gets riled up about an issue he makes sure to turn the debate into a bloody crime scene with his slicing commentary. In doing so he sets the agenda, earns the club the media attention it desires and inflames opposition supporters across the country.
When his team takes to the field that weekend, there is a fresh backdrop of drama which makes their match all the more engrossing.
Over their 15 games at the MCG last season, an average of 64,000 people turned out to watch Collingwood play. Any sporting club in the world would be delighted with such figures.
Do Collingwood care that tens of thousands of those people harbour dark, wicked thoughts about them?
They love it, because for Collingwood it’s always about us versus them.
Andrew
Guest
I've been a Collingwood fan since a child. While I grew up in Canberra (League and the Canberra Raiders are my first love), my dad was a Pies fan so I inherited it from him. While I love the team, I don't like the fans. During the premiership fever of 2010, I became more hardcore and added a ton of Pies fans on Facebook. The cliche of Collingwood fans being ferals rings true. The thing I don't like is the hardcore fans are OBSESSED with Collingwood! While I love my Canberra Raiders, I can appreciate rugby league as a whole, not just for my team. The hardcore Collingwood fans are one-eyed to the point of absurdity. During the off-season, there's regular posts of "when is the footy back?" Like seriously? I love league, union and AFL but I also love my cricket during summer. I'll always be a Collingwood fan but the fans give them a bad name sometimes.
Stu
Guest
I found them to be more annoying than entertaining, but that was just me. The collective groan that accompanied it when it arrived in everyone's email was entertaining though.
Travis
Guest
I think we could all agree that Sydney has taken the crown for most hated team this year.
Shmick
Guest
Perhaps you need to understand the difference between a club member and an audience member.
Richmond supporter
Guest
They are sooooo annoying That is awesome post chris
Cat
Roar Guru
Nothing dodgy about it if you take 5 seconds to understand why it was done. If the AFL stripped the Dons of all points and relegated them to wooden spoon position, come the draft they get much better draft selections (those not taken away). Last place gets 1st selection in each round, 9th place gets 8th selection in each round (positions are before compensatory and free agent picks).
Berrlins
Guest
I've gotta agree the AFLs attitude to allow the dons to finish ninth when they should of Been stripped of all premiership points, that reaks of dodge.
Troy
Guest
It's 5 because that's all they should travel. 11 home games plus 10 out of the 18 clubs are in Victoria so that means just over half the remaining games should be in Victoria. Prior when there was 16 clubs then obviously 4 was the right number. Just because they don't sell their games doesn't mean they should travel more.
Ryan Ranger
Guest
As a Bombers supporter, I dislike the Magpies, and I can't stand their (mostly feral) supporters... yet I've never HATED Collingwood. My hatred has been reserved for Carlton. It goes back to when the Blues knocked over the Dons in the '99 Preliminary Final by a point - a game Carlton never deserved to even be playing in. This was strengthened a few years later when my diehard Carlton-supporting boss called me into his office - complete with a signed & framed Craig Bradley jumper mounted behind his desk - and gave me the sack. I've certainly enjoyed their years of mediocrity and irrelevance ever since. Even in recent years where they've made finals, they've NEVER been serious premiership contenders. I'm enjoying their current struggles, and long may it continue. (I'm sure there's many out there who echo similar sentiments towards Essendon!)
Lightning Jim
Guest
After reading your touching story, it seems that Collingwood have been a real source of pleasure and pain in your life. But now that your soulmate has gone over to the dark side...your real pain has just begun. It's a bit of a Greek tragedy really. ;)
Wiggins
Guest
I've said this before, but the hate that Collingwood fans get can be ridiculous - my nephew, aged all of 5 or 6, was at a camping ground where there was a big game of footy taking place among various kids & their parents. He trotted up to join in, wearing his number 8 Collingwood top, and was told - by adults - that he couldn't play wearing a crap top like that & supporting that nasty team. Now, they probably thought it a great laugh, but the poor boy was, and still is, devastated. It seems that abusing Collingwood & fans are thought by so many people to be fair game - seemingly for some fault in the team or supporters themselves - that they dont see that they are abusing a small child. Some of the comments I read here are along the lines of: I hate them for x. I wasn't born when half that stuff happened, I can't see the current players having been, let along a 6 year old. Everyone just likes having someone to kick at, and Collingwood & its supporters seem to be used to fill that role. & if we complain, or point this out (I'm looking at my father here - yes, his grandson copes it from him, too), it's because we can't hack it or are whiners.
Richard
Guest
Hey Chris, You're a very busy man with a very small mind. I'm surprised you found the time to bore the rest of us with your inconsequential opinion.
Gregor
Guest
Perhaps it's because, in a coarse and vulgar age,Collingwood and their supporters are the coarsest and most vulgar and the loathing that all right-minded AFL supporters have for them is because no-one wants to be reminded of their own primitive past. But a few specifics for my own distaste.Over many years of observing public figures, I cannot think of a more pretentious swallower of his own hot air than Eddie.Eddie the would-be emperor has no clothes other than those borrowed from charity. McGuire's internal pumping mechanism keeps him floating just above the ground. Buckley has had my utter loathing since the day, after a collision that left him bleeding, and ordered off the field under the blood rule, he wiped his bleeding face on his opponent's jumper so that he'd have to come off too. Maxwell broke Mc Ginnity's jaw over the boundary line and didn't get a week.He's a sniper and ,yes,the worst premiership captain. The gloating when the Eagles had to travel 4 times for 5 finals in 1991 was led by the Pies Whales are big, too. Does that make them more entitled?The Pies' unjustified feelings of entitlement and the AFL"s acquiescence in that entitlement are shameful and makes hating Collingwood right and the right thing to do
Ingot oodles
Guest
I dislike all big Vic clubs, being a supporter of a club outside of Victoria you sometimes wander if you are apart of the VFL. but of all of them I actually like collingwood the most. The only thing that rubs me the wrong way is that they think they can tell port adelaide what jumper they can wear. Port Maggie's are an older club with a longer history. Go Crows, Port, Freo and Eagles
Jason
Guest
My perspective is that of an outsider. My Filipina-American wife and I watch footy from the U.S. I moved away from Australia when I was 14. Nothing like what is being said in this article comes across from Collingwood when you sit down to watch a game involving them. They look, play and act like any other team. Might it be that the perception of this team, or any other team, is really just based on its marketing? It doesn't seem possible to really kick or catch a football in a manner that is more evil than the way someone else might kick or catch a football. That being said, I love that there are rivalries and black hat/white hat teams in this sport. It's all fictitious nonsense, of course, but fictitious nonsense is often the cause of things that are fun in our lives. It is the escape we are looking for, right? Who doesn't want to allow themselves to get wrapped up in the story lines, however contrived a soap opera it may be, of the greatest sport on earth?
dahawkacup13
Guest
Great post Michael, I agree that it was unnecessary of those in the audience of the footy show to boo Dane. It proved nothing besides the fact that we have imbecile spectators at our games who are willing to jump on the collingwood 'hate' bandwagon. .. I'm a Hawks supporter and I loathe Jeff Kennett's opinions, so even supporters would agree on that one.
Docker&WAFLBulldog@Singapore
Guest
And the prize for best post goes to .... langou. (West Coast supporters - including Channel 7, the West Australian newspaper and those idiots on 94.5 on a Saturday morning - some of the main reasons why I love living in Singapore.)
Silver_Sovereign
Guest
Lions beating Collingwood in the grand fina always brings back good memories of laughing at the shots of Eddie's face
40degreesSouth
Guest
At least we agree on Carlton Ronan. The Dons' recent victory over the Bluebaggers was very tasty... chortle...
40degreesSouth
Guest
They also played a very entertaining open style of football and kicked a lot of goals. These simple realities, as well as their collective hardness, made them one of the best teams ever. However, as Leigh Matthews rightly pointed out, "If it bleeds, you can kill it." and took the second part of his revenge (the first being in the 1990 GF) for the personal affront of Essendon's back-to-back flags in 84/85. Just my (highly opinionated) observation...! The ANZAC day game this year should be 'interesting'.