Collingwood Memorabilia

Collingwood News

Collingwood champion Tony Shaw with his
1990 best-and-fairest, Copeland and Norm Smith medals.

COLLINGWOOD supporters have a rich history of dispensing items to the club free of charge.
That list starts with advice on Travis Cloke’s goalkicking and includes the odd bequeath or returned membership ticket when the proverbial hits the fan.
So when an unknown Collingwood fan called the club last year volunteering a memorabilia collection no one had heard of, the Pies were intrigued.
A year on, what started as a potential wild goose chase has resulted in the Pies being handed the finest private football memorabilia collection ever seen.
In all, the 3000-odd pieces have been valued by Melbourne memorabilia expert Rick Milne at $1.478 million.
The benefactor of this magnificent treasure trove is adamant he will remain private, but the Pies are happy to advertise the results of his largesse.
The roughly $900,000 of non-Collingwood related merchandise will be offered for sale back to clubs including Richmond, the Western Bulldogs and Essendon.

Collingwood historian and collector
Michael Roberts with items from the collection.

That windfall will help grow the club’s Magpie Nest program, a Salvation Army-backed partnership that operates 27 houses and 75 beds for those sleeping rough in our city.
And the collection of Collingwood memorabilia left over?
As official Pies historian Michael Roberts says, “it is phenomenal”.
Among that haul is Len Thompson’s 1972 Brownlow Medal — sold in 1999 for $74,000 — one of his five Copeland trophies, 1910 and 1935 premiership medals and a 1958 premiership trophy.
Rare postcards, pages of uncut football cards dating back a full century and even a 1910 premiership cap in mint condition only scratch the surface of this collection.
All of it has, as Eddie McGuire said this week, “come home”, in the same year the football from the 1990 premiership was donated back to the club by Darren Millane.
With as few as 10 Brownlow Medals ever publicly sold, a collection with Thompson’s medal and Richmond player Stan Judkin’s 1934 Brownlow is off the charts.
“We weren’t aware of him at all,’’ says Pies director of stadia and community David Emerson.
“He is a very private man and when he learnt about the Magpie Nest he wanted to make a contribution and this was how he thought he could do it.

A historic bobblehead doll forms part of the collection.

“He couldn’t make a big cash donation but he had been putting his collection together for many years and had come to a point where this was something positive he could do with it.”
Collingwood author and historian Roberts was soon enlisted to verify and date the collection, unsure of what he was about to find.
“We knew someone was buying a lot of high-quality Collingwood stuff at auction and through private sales,’’ he says.
“I had no idea who he was. When I saw it, I was staggered. The breadth of the collection, what it covered ... To be able to get his cards is exceptional, but this guy also had Brownlows and Copelands which are just incredibly rare.
“When I went into the meeting my eyes were just rolling. I was like one of those cartoon characters. There are very few or no collections of this quality and none which have made it to a footy club.
“We are very privileged to have come across a collection like this.”
Collingwood now has in its possession Thompson’s and Marcus Whelan’s 1939 Brownlow, two of only nine Brownlows awarded to Collingwood players.
If the AFL memorabilia market is a massive industry, a few precious items stand above the crowd.
The first Brownlow Medal — Carji Greeves’ from 1924 — sold for $170,000 in 2011, with Judkins’ medal now valued at $45,000.
But where Channel Nine makes a mint flogging “limited edition” cricket prints, the real stuff is infinitely more valuable.

Len Thompson’s Brownlow.

“I loathe all that manufactured memorabilia. They say it’s limited edition but they print 500 or 1000,’’ says Roberts.
“They are brand new. To me the real memorabilia was never intended to be memorabilia. A premiership medallion from a year long ago — you are talking 18 of them.
“The premiership caps are the same. These post cards — there are only six of them. Now that’s a limited edition.
“It is something that has real provenance, real history.”
The renovation of Collingwood’s Westpac Centre precinct will allow the club more room for a rolling exhibition of its $12 million collection in the room currently housing the Pies cafe.
Back in 1999 when Pies legend Thompson fell on hard times and sold his entire collection of memorabilia, Collingwood was in similar financial strife.
The club’s move from Victoria Park to Westpac Centre even saw some memorabilia damaged when a once-in-generation storm flooded a basement.

The 1910 premiership cap.

Now McGuire has been able to return the club’s prized possessions, with 1990 premiership captain Tony Shaw permanently loaning his Norm Smith Medal, Copeland Trophy and premiership medal from that glorious year.
“To see the joy and tears in the eyes of Len’s sons and daughters and his ex-wife Bronwyn when I told them this would happen, it was one of the great things,’’ McGuire says.
“Len had really found peace with the club before his early passing and we couldn’t afford them when they first came up.
“Phil Carmen recently gave us his 1975 Copeland trophy too.
“These things are treasures. They are wonderful icons. To think we have been able to bring them back for everyone to see.”

1958 VFL premiership trophy.

Says memorabilia expert Milne of the collection: “”It is a phenomenal collection. The really rare stuff like cards is going where stamps and rare coins went.
“It is a fabulous collection with so many uncut sheets of cards.
“Some of the rarest footy cards were made by Jonco who made footy shorts. If you sent enough in you won a Malvern Star but then those cards were just thrown into the bin.
“They are colossally rare. A full set would go for about $50,000.”
Collingwood’s vision is to grow the Magpie Nest to 100 houses which all provide the current services around mental health, job training and drug addiction.
The club’s Magpie Nest cafe in Bourke St, Melbourne, serves 2500 meals a week to homeless people.
Collingwood, once a modest club from a modest suburb, has turned itself into a rich and powerful company that dominates the competition.
Yet McGuire says it is nothing if it forgets where it came from.
“We think thing like (the Magpie Nest) are in our DNA. This is the difference between a footy team and a football club.
“As a big football club we have to look after our sponsors and members, but also those who in our case are the people who formed the Collingwood football club. We have to look after them too.”

 

COLLINGWOOD’S TRUE GEMS - Comments by Pies historian Michael Roberts

Len Thompson’s 1972 Brownlow Medal
"It is the ultimate individual accolade for any footballer. Only nine Pies have won one. We weren’t in a position to buy it either time it came up for sale. Len is no longer here and that makes it even more poignant. He is a five-time Copeland winner and a huge figure in our footy club."

Stan Judkins’ Brownlow.

1910 premiership cap
"The premiership cap is incredibly rare. A relic of a bygone era. These were just after the years when players wore caps on the field as they played. This was only given to the winning players. They stopped it in about 1915. It is rare to find them in such pristine condition. Normally they are tattered and torn and even then they are priceless relics."
1958 premiership trophy
"The 1958 premiership has a huge level of importance at Collingwood because we protected our record of four premiership in a row record. It was also the centenary of football which is why the VFL gave a trophy instead of a medallion. Those two things make it a very special memento for the Collingwood football club."
Stan Judkins’ 1934 Brownlow Medal
"The Judkins Brownlow was Richmond’s first Brownlow Medallist. It’s massive important to them for that reason. It is also one at Collingwood that has a soft spot for us because he won the Brownlow outright initially then (Collingwood’s) Harry Collier tied with him retrospectively."
Collingwood bobble-head doll
"This is late 1950s and it’s very hard to find. It is just one of those curious pieces of memorabilia that no one knows why they came up. Bobble-heads were big in America and it’s probably in the $300-$500 range but it’s just a nice cute piece of ephemera that is so beautiful and of the time."