How Collingwood has changed for the worse

[RudeBoy]

I knew Labor was heading for trouble on election day, when I saw the Collingwood cheersquad banner, which read (something like) "election, schmelection, all that matters is who gets 3, 2, 1 today".

Back when our working class roots meant something and we were based at Victoria Park, I recall our banner on an election day back in the early 70s reading "Labor and Collingwood On To Victory".

We are no longer black and white, but are becoming something more of a blancmange.

[ronrat]

If it was that important why do the citizens of Collingwood , Clifton Hill and Abbotsford vote greens. The industries of Collingwood are gone. There are gay bars all through the suburbs and hipsters.

The fans of Collinwood have been removed 2 generations from those days.

[think positive]

keep politics, and all the other shit out of it! just the footy thanks!!

[David]

I get your point about the disappointing cynicism and ignorance implied by that kind of anti-politics, Rudeboy, but I think it’s also okay to take a tongue-in-cheek approach to these things. Like the old quote (I forget who it’s attributed to): “Football isn’t life or death; it’s much more important than that.” Of course that’s not true, but there is still something absurd and beautiful about the fact that we find something as trivial as which men in which patterned jumpers kick a ball in which certain spot the most times so psychologically and emotionally affecting. I think it’s okay to ironically remark upon that interplay.

Otherwise, yes, the club has changed. But what’s really changed is society as a whole. Football clubs don’t have identities anymore because they are (mostly) no longer linked with physical places, communities or demographics. More to the point, communities themselves no longer exist. There is no longer any kind of unified “working class” for a football club to draw its membership from; just atomised consumer-individuals.

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

[piedys]

\

Did they let the three maggots who "umpired" the 2018GF into the tally rooms to fudge the counting?!

[K]

[Harrysz]

So RudeBoy, how many premierships did we win in the 70s? I forget.

[sherrife]

[tbaker]

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

At least Fraser Anning got the boot

[slangman]

Collingwood is not worse because Labor didn’t win.
Shame on you for even suggesting that, let alone bringing your own political rant onto this forum.

My love for Collingwood has nothing to do with my political leanings, and it never will.

Neither should yours!!!

[RudeBoy]

How dare you tell me what I should think.

My post was simply an expression of my personal feelings. I never intended or expected it to be shared by others.

I come from 5 generations born and bred in Collingwood. Generations of boot makers, textile workers, bar maids and builders labourers. For ME (but obviously not you, which is fair enough), politics, culture and footy are all connected. My family motto is Clan, Class and Collingwood.

For most of the 20th century, the very name 'Collingwood', represented by its footy club, was a symbol of defiance and pride for a working class community, otherwise looked down upon.

I dare say many Collingwood supports nowadays are Liberal supporters, which is their right, and I would never attempt to impose my views on others. However, my post was intended to be a reflection on our changing society and the loss of connection between our footy club and the working class roots it once embodied.

Its a different world today. I recognise that. I'm not judging others. I'm simply expressing MY PERSONAL sense of loss of the essence of what Collingwood once stood for. As the great Nathan Buckley once said "it is what it is".

[Streak]

Changed for the better, is how it sounds to me.

I don’t support Labor, the Greens, or Socialism. I don’t live in Collingwood and my heritage is not Irish. If you cut me, I bleed black and white. Am I less of a Collingwood supporter than someone who checks all those boxes? I doubt you would argue so. So, when I come to enjoy my team’s matches, am I marginally included or marginally excluded if Collingwood decides to hoist an ALP banner?

Politics, the least sacred of all the arts, permeates every corner of life, and improves few of them. Consider me a full-throated supporter of sport as a social institution that repairs and unites. Where, whether we divide ourselves by the Prime Minister we prefer, or the issues that animate us, or the identity we claim, we can come together arm-in-arm and belt out “Good Old Collingwood Forever” when we crush the filthy Saints and notch up 6 wins in a row. Where regardless of your beliefs and opinions, where you live, what kind of car you drive, for one day a week we are family.

That’s precious, and that space is shrinking – not least because the AFL seems to think its mandate is to provide us politics with a side-order of sport. I reject the encroachment of politics into this one day in a week, for half the weeks of the year, wherever I can. And yes, so the sullying of sport with the profanity of politics is something to be resisted.

I don’t wish for my preferred football club to push my preferred brand of politics (or anyone else’s). You dropped an L on Friday, and then you notched up a W on Saturday – and the two are not related, and never should be.

But it’s a club, and it’s driven partly by the passion of its membership base. So the encroachment of politics into my sport is inevitable, probably. So if Collingwood, the club, wants to once again run with politics, so – reluctantly – be it. I only ask this: Perfect your football first.

[Piethagoras' Theorem]

Well done Collingwood banner. **** politics, **** labor, **** 'em all.