Time to get #42 back on the field

[think positive]

I gotta say im glad you posted the first paragraph, because thats exactly the way i have seen it since day 1! I originally wanted it to continue, but its been so long, i think its better left alone. if it was a number between 1 and 20 it would be a more noticable absence, but its only glaring to collingwood fans. Ive never slagged him off in the various threads over the years, but i wont hero worship him either.

a close friend lost a son to a drink driver, and 20 years later i still see the pain in their faces, and ill never forget the kid i saw grow up, only to die just short of his 18th birthday.

i also agree with the 35 sentiments, if Nick wants it let him have it. i guess the thing is as much as Presti should be honoured and remembered, its now become "Nicks dads old jumper!" The daicos name will always be legendary, because Peter was truly one of a kind!

[Born to Pie]

[uncanny]

Fair enough it was a selfish act. He was a good person who acted selfishly in doing what he did.

[Hiss]

Under no circumstances should 42 be used again. It was DM’s jumper and shall always remain so. It would be utterly disrespectful to allow anyone else to use it. And for those that say he was selfish, how dare you! Have some respect for the departed.

[Born to Pie]

[inxs88]

In the words of Ron Burgundy after the media fight scene: "well that escalated quickly"!

[Presti35]

[Presti35]

[David]

Some traditions are worth hanging onto because they bring meaning to a place and its history, and I think this is one of them. I'm glad we ditched the rotation of #35, but there's no burning need to ever use #42 again – indeed, I reckon the only reason you'd bring it back would be if we thought Millane was old news and it was time to move on. You'd have to consciously want to stop honouring him.

This is an increasingly hard thing for people to understand, but stuff like this isn't about ranking people by virtue. Yes, other Collingwood players have died more "nobly" (if we're going to buy into all that war heroism discourse, which is another question entirely), but that's not the point; the point was that Millane was a beloved club champion and that his unexpected death at the peak of his career provoked an outpouring of collective grief. It doesn't mean he was a saint. It was about that time and place and what he meant to people.

Looking back affectionately on someone who dies while drink-driving is in many ways a more natural (and, for whatever it's worth, Christian) response than trying to "cancel" them thirty years later. I do totally understand antipathy towards Millane from those who have lost a friend or family member to someone driving under the influence, but paying respect to someone who died as a result of their own bad decision doesn't mean we're minimising or excusing that act. Everyone knew drink-driving was bad in 1991, too, but that didn't stop Collingwood people from mourning Millane's death – they understood that it was a tragedy, and their feeling of loss as a result was authentic and human. If football clubs can't recognise things like that, then they've lost touch with their own history and reason for existence.

[think positive]

I never mourned him, my first thought was $£$%^%%$ idiot thank god he didn’t take anyone with him. Long before my friends son Darren died at the hands of a drunk driver. I’ve also respectfully kept out of the yearly hero threads, and I think letting the jumper stay retired is the best thing. No one but Collingwood supporters care about it,and some of us just want to forget about it.

I’ll add Banksy, my favourite player at the time was a ^&*^*% for stealing the bus!

“Looking back affectionately on someone who died while drink driving is natural and Christian? No he was not the sum of that day. But it’s always mentioned as tragic and sad. No, It was criminal. Did you ever wonder what the poor truck driver, who would have seen the carnage behind his truck before anyone else, has gone through? Goes through when it’s brought up?

I do. Because the day after my sober mother who’s sight was unknowingly effected by the brain tumour she had removed the year before, drove under the side of a semi and was dragged 50 metres down the road by it, my hubby heard the driver on the radio talking about the horror of what happened, how terrified he was to go and look in the car, the complete passenger side of the little Hyundai completely crushed, all the windows exploded, all panels buckled, and the little old lady sitting in the drivers seat, refusing to get out. He said he didn’t know how he would get back in the truck. I’ll never forget his face afterwards, he was clearly devastated, and it was in no way his fault. My mum didn’t see the truck, she drove in between the fuel tank and frame and got wedged. She was still in the car when I arrived 20 min later, to see 5 cop cars blocking the road and an ambulance with lights flashing. She was lucky, just seat belt burn. Luckily she didn’t have a passenger.

I look back at him and his broken thumb tossing the ball in the air on the best day I have ever lived, and remember it like yesterday. But I’ll never not be pissed (sic) at how he died. And I’ll never understand the outpouring of grief when he died. The number IMO should never have been retired, I always believed that, but as I said, it’s too late now, just forget about it. And especially stop bringing up that day, you want to celebrate him, celebrate the win.

[Cam]

Few under 30 who are not football tragics know who Pants was. His number now is like an abandoned grave that people have forgotten exists. Not sure how that honours his memory, as a player. Leaving it retired for mine honours the memory of his death, not his life as the Raging Bull.

[LaurieHolden]

Next they'll want to play football on ANZAC Day, hang on...

[Presti35]

[PyreneesPie]

[Charlie Oneeye]

Apologies if its been mentioned already in this thread. I may be wrong, but this is what I hear.

Within a year of Darrens passing, his father took his own life. This is a tragic time for his mother who requested the 35 remain retired, because of reasons we can all surmise.

We lost soldiers in war, and we have had a fair share of tragic accidents.

I support retirement of the number, only until his mother passes away.

Then life goes on.