Are we cursed?

[Kappa]

Not cursed, it's just extremely hard to win a premiership nowadays, and we pissed away golden opportunities in 2018 and 19, opportunities that might not come again for a long time.

 

[Redlight]

I've seen it all since 1970 and yes, I think we are cursed but i still get excited at GF time and I still put myself through the pain every year. I just love footy so I keep on watching it.

I've lived through all that but the honest truth is that last year just about burned me out.

At the start of this year I really couldn't face it but got sucked in slowly and rode the roller coaster again. I never dared dream that we would win the flag. I actually thought that GWS would beat us when DeGoey and Greenwood went out, so when GWS got to a five goal lead I was ready for that. Ready, that is, until the unexpected fight back. I guess the club needed to do that so that the loss would really, really f&*^ing hurt.

I'm worried, especially after Treloar's statements during the year about how the loss wounded him, that the history of dramatic failure at key moments may have seeped into the club's 'culture'. These players have had their share of heartache but obviously aren't responsible for the almost unbelievable modern history of lost GF's. However that history is still there and known to them. It's a shadow that's woven through the mythology of the club, carried by the supporters and has seeped into the very walls of the place.

As long as I've followed the club we've always been dangerous when marked as the underdog, however whenever expectations have been high we stumble. In 1990 we drew with West Coast before we flogged them in the replay, in 2010 we drew with the Saints before we flogged them in the replay. Both times we were the far better side but only released from the shackles of favouritism by the shock of near catastrophe. Last year in the GF we jumped a fancied opponent and the game was ours, then, when the game got tight, I think the shadow of all those previous losses fell across the players exactly the same way it fell across the Collingwood supporters watching, 'Oh no, here we go again'.

And there we went.

It's going to take quite a bit to dispel the ghosts. I hope the club can do it.

 

[cliffdrabble]

In relation to the OP , no it's not a curse.

It is our inability to build a great side , that's the problem. The rest, 'the Tuddenham ran into McKenna of 1970' , the Carman cost us in 1977 and Hafey overtrained us', the Harmes was out of bounds' ect, ect are all a part of the great excuse making we have made as an art form for our failure.

This Premierships are difficult to win call is true, but Hawthorn make it look easy. In the last 60 years, great teams have been built by Hawthorn, Geelong, Richmond, West Coast, Adelaide, North Melbourne, Essendon, Carlton. Some of them have done it more than once. So to say it is all too difficult is a cop out. 8 other clubs have done it. Not us.

When we won in 1990, we were not the best team in the comp, Hawthorn were, in 2010 Geelong were. We were lucky that Hawthorn and Geelong both had down years in those respective years.So we were lucky to sneak those 2 Premierships. We are consistently let down but the over rating of our club , from management to playing group. Collingwood has always been let down by poor management and poor recruiting. It was only 2 years ago that Brayden Maynard referred to the club as an absolute mess. Hopefully the review at the end of 2017 may help shape a better future.

Having read a few of the OP's posts over the years, the issue could be unrealistic expectations. Unmet expectations lead to unhappiness. Following Collingwood, I never expect that we will win. If we don't win, you don't get disappointed, and if you do win, it's a pleasant surprise. I find it is the best method for dealing with a situation that you have absolutely no control over. And it is particularly useful when you support a club like ours.

 

[swoop42]

The Collingwood curse or Colliwobbles began in the Grand Final of 1970 under a former champion in Bob Rose.

The Collingwood curse will only be lifted if another former champion in Nathan Buckley can lead us to Premiership success.

 

[Hairydawg]

I was talking about this very thing yesterday with a mate. The week against the Giants proved that we aren’t cursed. Everything bad and weird that happened to them (Greene, Whitfield, Cogs, hard consecutive games) usually happens to us. Everything fell into place for us (good list, rested, confident), and all signs pointed to a 10 goal win by half time to us. Contrary to your post, for the first time, I feel the universe has shown there was no curse. In response we just proved we are culturally a bit like a room full of eager bogans. I feel it’s like one of those corporate challenges where one team builds the rocket ship first, lots of high fiving, but misses a crucial detail and gets beaten by another team who had taken the time to read the rules properly. Lots of finger pointing but you absolutely get what you deserve. For example we couldn’t pay enough to Lynch, missed out by $150k per year, then we tip whatever leverage we have left towards an ageing, quite broken mid-fielder. Pebbles continues to be our ruck coach, yet clearly can’t communicate and strategise at the level needed by the club and Grundy to win clearances. Everyone has their own example of apparent bad luck (Stephenson, Sier, soft tissue comebacks Adams-style) that can be traced back to everyone being a bit dumb. I love my club, but even Forrest Gump knew that stupid is as stupid does. Do we need to stop blaming curses, and instead all take that bit of extra time to focus, plan and breathe, before the haphazard decision-making and sloppy execution that costs us again and again? Clarkson put forward a “you get what you deserve” mantra a few years ago because he must have felt the club needed to reach within, to blame things a bit closer to home, rather than blaming old Lady Luck. Maybe we need to do a similar version of that, take true accountability, and make better choices, more often.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Hairydawg]

Not cursed, it's just extremely hard to win a premiership nowadays, and we pi**ed away golden opportunities in 2018 and 19, opportunities that might not come again for a long time.

That’s the big shame of it. Usually we come up against one, dominant super team, but 18 and 19 it was there for the taking. That what hurts the most - they were/are winnable.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Anzacday]

I could probably use your help with a deck I'm building.

I've cut this piece of wood 3 times & it's still too short.

What am I doing wrong?

Try the other end

 

[jonbe54]

In relation to the OP , no it's not a curse.

It is our inability to build a great side , that's the problem. The rest, 'the Tuddenham ran into McKenna of 1970' , the Carman cost us in 1977 and Hafey overtrained us', the Harmes was out of bounds' ect, ect are all a part of the great excuse making we have made as an art form for our failure.

This Premierships are difficult to win call is true, but Hawthorn make it look easy. In the last 60 years, great teams have been built by Hawthorn, Geelong, Richmond, West Coast, Adelaide, North Melbourne, Essendon, Carlton. Some of them have done it more than once. So to say it is all too difficult is a cop out. 8 other clubs have done it. Not us.

When we won in 1990, we were not the best team in the comp, Hawthorn were, in 2010 Geelong were. We were lucky that Hawthorn and Geelong both had down years in those respective years.So we were lucky to sneak those 2 Premierships. We are consistently let down but the over rating of our club , from management to playing group. Collingwood has always been let down by poor management and poor recruiting. It was only 2 years ago that Brayden Maynard referred to the club as an absolute mess. Hopefully the review at the end of 2017 may help shape a better future.

Having read a few of the OP's posts over the years, the issue could be unrealistic expectations. Unmet expectations lead to unhappiness. Following Collingwood, I never expect that we will win. If we don't win, you don't get disappointed, and if you do win, it's a pleasant surprise. I find it is the best method for dealing with a situation that you have absolutely no control over. And it is particularly useful when you support a club like ours.

Yes and if you keep your expectations low you undersell the players who you are supposed to be 'supporting'.

I've read lots of posts like yours over the years and it screams cowardice to me.

Support the club and the players or understand that you are a piker without the courage to put your heart on the line.

 

[MyManLynch]

We seem to make Grand Finals without dominating a season (not the TOP 2-3 teams), hence we tend to lose more than win.
We definitely seem to have an injury curse (past few years).
This year it all fell into place:
- Hawks beat Eagles to gift us TOP 4
- we get Geelong suffering from their Bye curse
- GWS lose their best players pre game
We simply weren’t good enough...didn’t kick enough goals.
We need a “big dog” KPF to get us through tight tough games (plus need to win more contested footy)

 

[Scodog10]

We aren’t cursed. I tend to believe it’s culture.

Ours is one of pessimism when it comes to the final match of the season which is infectious. Since the turn of the century we’ve reached PF weekend on 9 occasions for a record of 6-8-1 which is frankly normal. You’re up against the best and a 50/50 record (or close to it) is acceptable. It’s the weekend following that which is the challenge. I’m in my early 30’s and grew up with a father now in his 60’s and I had it drummed into me from a young age that Collingwood is amazing at inventing new ways to let you down. Both of us have had our hearts broken on numerous occasions which I will do my darndest to teach my children to be resilient against so they can overcome it.

Hawthorn won 2 premierships in there first 50 years in the competition and 11 in the next 44 so it can be overcome. You need to break the cycle. They did it with Kennedy and it’s up to us to not look at it as a curse because all that does is burden the club, IMO. I think it would be fascinating to have a language analyst review the 2013 Hawthorn and 2018 Collingwood GF pre-match threads. Without hesitation I’m certain the levels of pessimism and hope would have been higher in ours and optimism and confidence higher in theirs.

 

[Go Woods]

This year felt right. It should’ve been 2019, felt like we’d get our redemption.

More fire in the belly now for 2020, big year coming up for everyone at the Pies, tbh I think there’ll be a fair amount of pressure on this group to get their and win it.

 

[Tarkyn_24]

This year felt right. It should’ve been 2019, felt like we’d get our redemption.

Lol. We played a cumulative total of about five quarters of football this year.

What on earth would’ve indicated that any of what we produced was going to end with us covered in glory?

 

[danielnajdek]

Last years GF hurts way more then this years Prelim. We blew that GF.

Also any chance that we can sneak out a win when trailing most the game. Lost the GF when basically leading the whole game then our turn against GWS only to fall short. It just hurts thinking about last year.

 

[TKiL]

I am not even going to watch the Grand Final

I will definitely watch so I can gain maximum pleasure from seeing SOMEONE ELSE LOSE

 

[TKiL]

I could probably use your help with a deck I'm building.
I've cut this piece of wood 3 times & it's still too short.
What am I doing wrong?

Simple - use a shorter saw

 

[jonbe54]

The Buckley curse.

What an astonishing contribution.

Still butthurting.

Goodbye

 

[TKiL]

...........
I still remember watching the ‘02 Grand Final, the ‘07 Prelim and makes you wonder, are we cursed as a club? It took a game against an even more cursed club to win our first premiership in 20 years, and even then, we almost bottled that up in the first GF. Games/Grand Finals like ‘03 I can take/forget because we just weren’t good enough and got slammed, but games like last year’s GF and the Prelim last week bloody burn, they hurt. All the talk of this year’s GF, and I personally DGAF. I really wouldn’t care who wins on Saturday. Just feeling numbness when it comes to footy. Do we have to go through the same thing again in 2020? Is it all worth the heartache?
Answer: "greater love hath no man / woman / child than they lay down their whole life in unrequited love (apart from the odd flag - 20 - 30 yrs apart) for the Collingwood Football Club"

we must be directly in line of the greatest cosmic curse ever to strike the known world
we've won 1/3? of the GFs we've contested. Add a bit of luck to losing GFs 64, 66, 77, 79, 02, 18 - win just half those and we're way on top
win the one we gigantically co**ed up - 1970 and half the therapy counsellors in the southern hemisphere would be out of a job

hope springs eternal but will we ever reach eternity??

 

[TKiL]

I've lived through all that but the honest truth is that last year just about burned me out. At the start of this year I really couldn't face it but got sucked in slowly and rode the roller coaster again. I never dared dream that we would win the flag. I actually thought that GWS would beat us when DeGoey and Greenwood went out, so when GWS got to a five goal lead I was ready for that. Ready, that is, until the unexpected fight back. I guess the club needed to do that so that the loss would really, really f&*^ing hurt. I'm worried, especially after Treloar's statements during the year about how the loss wounded him, that the history of dramatic failure at key moments may have seeped into the club's 'culture'. These players have had their share of heartache but obviously aren't responsible for the almost unbelievable modern history of lost GF's. However that history is still there and known to them. It's a shadow that's woven through the mythology of the club, carried by the supporters and has seeped into the very walls of the place. As long as I've followed the club we've always been dangerous when marked as the underdog, however whenever expectations have been high we stumble. In 1990 we drew with West Coast before we flogged them in the replay, in 2010 we drew with the Saints before we flogged them in the replay. Both times we were the far better side but only released from the shackles of favouritism by the shock of near catastrophe. Last year in the GF we jumped a fancied opponent and the game was ours, then, when the game got tight, I think the shadow of all those previous losses fell across the players exactly the same way it fell across the Collingwood supporters watching, 'Oh no, here we go again'.
And there we went.
It's going to take quite a bit to dispel the ghosts. I hope the club can do it.

totally nailed it!

 

[jimmy35]

Grab the replays of 66, 70, 77, 79, 80 and 81.
This current period is chicken feed compared to those years of misery.

Unfortunately it just adds to it though.

Yeah I’m not sure I believe in curses but we probably are.

 

[Mateyman]

In relation to the OP , no it's not a curse.

It is our inability to build a great side , that's the problem. The rest, 'the Tuddenham ran into McKenna of 1970' , the Carman cost us in 1977 and Hafey overtrained us', the Harmes was out of bounds' ect, ect are all a part of the great excuse making we have made as an art form for our failure.

This Premierships are difficult to win call is true, but Hawthorn make it look easy. In the last 60 years, great teams have been built by Hawthorn, Geelong, Richmond, West Coast, Adelaide, North Melbourne, Essendon, Carlton. Some of them have done it more than once. So to say it is all too difficult is a cop out. 8 other clubs have done it. Not us.

When we won in 1990, we were not the best team in the comp, Hawthorn were, in 2010 Geelong were. We were lucky that Hawthorn and Geelong both had down years in those respective years.So we were lucky to sneak those 2 Premierships. We are consistently let down but the over rating of our club , from management to playing group. Collingwood has always been let down by poor management and poor recruiting. It was only 2 years ago that Brayden Maynard referred to the club as an absolute mess. Hopefully the review at the end of 2017 may help shape a better future.

Having read a few of the OP's posts over the years, the issue could be unrealistic expectations. Unmet expectations lead to unhappiness. Following Collingwood, I never expect that we will win. If we don't win, you don't get disappointed, and if you do win, it's a pleasant surprise. I find it is the best method for dealing with a situation that you have absolutely no control over. And it is particularly useful when you support a club like ours.

I'm sorry, Geelong were the best team... Despite is losing 1 of our last 15 games for the year including beating them twice in this run (including absolutely smashing them in the PF) after finishing top of the ladder?

 

[anshell]

I think we are cursed to some degree.This goes back for more than 50 years,not just what we've seen in the last couple of years.Sometimes we're not just good enough,and get to the grand final with a battling team ala 2003.Sometimes we were the best team and choked in the grand final,1970 and 1977.Sometimes we were robbed at the hands of the umpires,1979,2002 and 2018 for example.When you add it all up,we should have won a LOT more premierships than we did.

 

[TKiL]

We aren’t cursed. I tend to believe it’s culture.

Ours is one of pessimism when it comes to the final match of the season which is infectious. Since the turn of the century we’ve reached PF weekend on 9 occasions for a record of 6-8-1 which is frankly normal. You’re up against the best and a 50/50 record (or close to it) is acceptable. It’s the weekend following that which is the challenge. I’m in my early 30’s and grew up with a father now in his 60’s and I had it drummed into me from a young age that Collingwood is amazing at inventing new ways to let you down. Both of us have had our hearts broken on numerous occasions which I will do my darndest to teach my children to be resilient against so they can overcome it.

Hawthorn won 2 premierships in there first 50 years in the competition and 11 in the next 44 so it can be overcome. You need to break the cycle. They did it with Kennedy and it’s up to us to not look at it as a curse because all that does is burden the club, IMO. I think it would be fascinating to have a language analyst review the 2013 Hawthorn and 2018 Collingwood GF pre-match threads. Without hesitation I’m certain the levels of pessimism and hope would have been higher in ours and optimism and confidence higher in theirs.

I think culture is a big part of it. Bob Rose (so close), Neil Mann, Murray Weideman, Tony Shaw all failed to win a flag - 2 'outsiders' - Matthews and Malthouse won flags - another 'outsider', Tom Hafey got done by Phil Carman and a boundary umpire - if it is our 'culture' that needs to be fixed - $64 question - which bits need to be fixed and how....? hello McKinseys... Ed employed a guy from the army a few years ago - that didn't work and he didn't last...

 

[Stoods]

sounds completely stupid but back in 2011 late in the season when we smashed Port by about 138 points in the wet in Adelaide, i was there with my partner and after the game we were waiting for a cab and there was these ladies and 1 of them claimed to be some sort of witch or some garbage lol and she was drunk clearly but did some weird shit and said i curse the Collingwood football club, i am sure complete garbage but i must admit every time we go and lose finals where we should not of lost (this year and last year) i do think of that night

 

[wicksy]

I could probably use your help with a deck I'm building.

I've cut this piece of wood 3 times & it's still too short.

What am I doing wrong?

Cut it again. You're welcome.

 

[wicksy]

Lol. We played a cumulative total of about five quarters of football this year.

What on earth would’ve indicated that any of what we produced was going to end with us covered in glory?

I'm with you on this... We played terrible football all year and had enough talent to get wins when we needed to.
We fluked our way into top 4 and got Geelong at an opportune time.

If we got our players on the park more often than not and pieced together a minimum of 3 quarters of effort per game, we won't lose a game next year.