Your club's lowest point in history

[PieLebo87]

What happens this year is irrelevant. It's capturing a moment in time, not looking at things with the benefit of hindsight. "Leigh Colbert demanding a trade was a blessing in disguise, Geelong got Mooney and Enright in the trade," "All the losses in 2004 were worth it in 2004 for Hawthorn, because that year's draft yielded Buddy, Roughead and Lewis", that sort of Captain Hindsight analysis isn't the point of this thread I'd argue.

And this is how Collingwood was looking as they headed into the 2021 preseason. Good on them for turning it round. I doubt they'll bring Ned Guy in for the premiership reunions if they continue on to the flag this year.

Ned Guy

Has anyone watched this? The answers are unbelievable and I felt uncomfortable watching the spin and lies. Not sure how any club, let alone one of the biggest in Australia, gets away with this train wreck interview?

www.bigfooty.com

I’m not disagreeing it was a shit situation to be in. That trade period was handled beautifully by Collingwood though.

Don’t do those trades and get stung for exceeding the salary cap. You have to look at the result of the action to understand if that action was a ‘shitstorm’ or a mistake. It wasn’t. The result of that trade period by Collingwood speaks for itself.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Merger in 1996 and right now. How this saga has been handled has actually made me fall out of love of the sport. I'll probably come back but I've watched two games this year

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

I’m not disagreeing it was a s**t situation to be in. That trade period was handled beautifully by Collingwood though.

Don’t do those trades and get stung for exceeding the salary cap. You have to look at the result of the action to understand if that action was a ‘shitstorm’ or a mistake. It wasn’t. The result of that trade period by Collingwood speaks for itself.

But that's why it's the lowest point, rock bottom (worth noting that the Do Better report was also released during the 2020-21 offseason): because that's as bad as it gets and the signs of life start from there.

 

[PieLebo87]

But that's why it's the lowest point, rock bottom (worth noting that the Do Better report was also released during the 2020-21 offseason): because that's as bad as it gets and the signs of life start from there.

I’d say the low point then would be trading out 2 first rounders for Beams and paying more than they had in the kitty. I getcha though.

 

[The 747]

When we finished 12th

 

[Woolly Mammoth]

Yeah I'd say that period: 1999-2001: our 24 year old freshly minted club captain wanting out, the deep financial poop we were in during the late 90s, culminated with the famous Round 22, 2001 game against Carlton, where we farewelled Buddha Hocking by scoring 0.7 in the final three quarters and Darren Milburn almost caused a riot.

I also remember Sam Newman and his weekly histrionics on the footy show around that time, declaring that 'Geelong might fold by years end'. Always interesting to see who joins in the mass pile on when a club is down

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

I’d say the low point then would be trading out 2 first rounders for Beams and paying more than they had in the kitty. I getcha though.

Not sure you do, with all due respect.

Again, with Beams, in the years to follow it became a bit of a mess. But at the time, I would have thought the feeling was "We missed out on a premiership by a kick and we've just added another AA calibre midfielder, good luck stopping us now" rather than "our lowest ebb".

 

[windyhill]

Drug scandal says hi.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

I also remember Sam Newman and his weekly histrionics on the footy show around that time, declaring that 'Geelong might fold by years end'. Always interesting to see who joins in the mass pile on when a club is down

I remember being absolutely certain Geelong would win the 1995 grand final as a kid because Sam Newman guaranteed it on The Footy Show. Those were the days...

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

no CEO (Dunstall was only interim)

This is striking to me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but to me it seemed like Dunstall went straight into the media after his playing career. What were his qualifications to be the CEO (even on an interim basis) of an organisation the size of Hawthorn?

Like I said, happy to be corrected, but that seems to me like a prime example of how far the league's come in 20 years.

 

[Stottzy]

This is striking to me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but to me it seemed like Dunstall went straight into the media after his playing career. What were his qualifications to be the CEO (even on an interim basis) of an organisation the size of Hawthorn?

Like I said, happy to be corrected, but that seems to me like a prime example of how far the league's come in 20 years.

Well you're basically spot on. From my knowledge, he was only working in the
media, but was asked in our moment of
need to take on the CEO role until a ideal replacement could be found. He was put on to improve the football department side of things, as although off-field we were thriving, we were struggling badly on-field. He did a pretty good job considering and did successfully lead the transition between Schwab to Clarko.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Well you're basically spot on. From my knowledge, he was only working in the
media, but was asked in our moment of
need to take on the CEO role until a ideal replacement could be found. He was put on to improve the football department side of things, as although off-field we were thriving, we were struggling badly on-field. He did a pretty good job considering and did successfully lead the transition between Schwab to Clarko.

Oh yeah, I like Dunstall and history will show that the club had a sharp upward trajectory from that point: 5 wins in 2005, 9 in 2006, 13 and a finals win in 2007, premiership in 2008. Hard to argue with that.

Maybe an unquestioned loyalty to the club and a strong reputation for objective analysis (a 'GM of common sense') were the key criteria at the time and turns out it was the right approach.

Just hard to imagine if Greg Swann had to hastily depart as Lions CEO that they'd say "No wuckers, we'll just stick Browny in as interim" in this day and age.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

On-field, we are pretty much there now. Off-field, nowhere near our lowest.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Every. ****ing. Week.

 

[r_boy]

2007

 

[Greater Gattsby]

How much time have you got?

 

[Fizzler]

There's two very very obvious answers for Port, but do you go the 07 GF or do you go the 2011-2012 patch?
The 07 GF still involves being going down in history as the 2nd best team that season (even if Collingwood maybe deserved it more but that's the luck of the draw) but it still gets meme'd pretty heavily. That being said we were never favourites for that game and you could almost say the gap between expected result and actual result is rivalled by 2017 as an example. Hence why I lean towards 2011-12 as the worse period, even if 2007 was the first domino to fall on the way there.

I wanna get on record though and say it's vastly overstated how bad we were in 2012 (as in the season directly before Hinkley became coach). 2011 was bad but we dodged the wooden spoon which makes us the only club without one, plus that was the year that marked the match vs Melbourne that ultimately made the AO move possible. 2012 however saw us finish 14th which isn't the most awful place to finish, 5 clubs this season will do worse or match it, and it certainly wasn't a position we wouldn't have been able to dig ourselves out of. 2 clubs below us (Melbourne and the Bulldogs) have won a flag and 1 (GWS) made a grand final. The other being Gold Coast who are a little bit of an anomaly.

 

[Simon_Says]

186 probably.

I'd Also argue Mark Neeld set us back 10 years as a club, along with abhorrent drafting
He's was an Incipide "school teacher" coaching a sporting organisation.

 

[RUNVS]

Sydney lost to Melbourne by something like 90 points in 2009.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

The 07 GF still involves being going down in history as the 2nd best team that season (even if Collingwood maybe deserved it more but that's the luck of the draw)

I strongly disagree with this. One strong performance by Collingwood and one poor performance by Port doesn't change the fact that Port was - by far - the second best team overall in 2007.

Collingwood finished sixth, they had a percentage of 101, Port beat them comfortably in their only meeting of the season - at the MCG no less. Port beat the other two top four teams on their way to the grand final, Collingwood got over a Kerr/Judd/Cousins-less West Coast in Perth in extra time. Port was the only team to beat Geelong that season after April and they did it in Geelong.

Teams have dirty days in grand finals, see Sydney last year or in 2014. But I don't hear people saying Port was really the second best team in 2014, even though it's practically the same thing as Collingwood in 2007. If anything, 2014 Port was quite a bit better overall across that season than Collingwood was in 2007.

 

[mr bagcroft]

"port Memes" ...lol
What a fish bowl they live in over there.
I have never seen a Port meme, nor know why anyone would even bother.

 

[Fizzler]

I strongly disagree with this. One strong performance by Collingwood and one poor performance by Port doesn't change the fact that Port was - by far - the second best team overall in 2007.

Collingwood finished sixth, they had a percentage of 101, Port beat them comfortably in their only meeting of the season - at the MCG no less. Port beat the other two top four teams on their way to the grand final, Collingwood got over a Kerr/Judd/Cousins-less West Coast in Perth in extra time. Port was the only team to beat Geelong that season after April and they did it in Geelong.

Teams have dirty days in grand finals, see Sydney last year or in 2014. But I don't hear people saying Port was really the second best team in 2014, even though it's practically the same thing as Collingwood in 2007. If anything, 2014 Port was quite a bit better overall across that season than Collingwood was in 2007.

Touche, granted I was only 4 in 2007 so I'm mainly going off memory in terms of what I've read about the time

 

[Fizzler]

"port Memes" ...lol
What a fish bowl they live in over there.
I have never seen a Port meme, nor know why anyone would even bother.

Lol I live in Melbourne so good try, I've seen more memes about my mob than I have about yours. Part probably to do with the fact I'm involved in Port circles online rather than St Kilda ones, and the other part is probably because there's 7-9 more relevant teams in Vic than St Kilda.

You're tripping if you think they don't exist though, there's a lot of vitriolic Crows fans that are more proud of us losing in 2007 than they are about their club's own two flags. But if I must cite an example I will, here's a shirt that was somewhat widely purchased. I'm struggling to find the punchline in the Crows coloured bars but I won't ever fully understand the workings of some people's heads.

Or perhaps this article that beggars belief that someone was presumably paid to write. I'll put in an exceprt as well.

Touch Of The Fumbles: The Power of 119 - InDaily

indaily.com.au

I know it's obviously gonna read like I'm cut up about this but that's very far from the case. I'm just confused at the longevity of it. Again, I live in Victoria so it's not so widespread here but it still exists.

You have to bear in mind that the rivalry between Port and the Crows is almost exactly like if there was only two Victorian teams, Collingwood and the rest. Even as is, people love to shitcan the Pies for whatever they can find so you can imagine the delight the Crows fans find when the biggest rival of their SANFL club's representative successor slips up in any way they can. Just like North's fans being exceptionally into ripping on Essendon, Eagles fans being the most vocal about Freo's lack of success or Geelong and Hawthorn fans finding the most joy in the other teams' misfortunes, Adelaide and Port is a proper rivalry and memes like 119 stick hard.

 

[Fadge]

But that's why it's the lowest point, rock bottom (worth noting that the Do Better report was also released during the 2020-21 offseason): because that's as bad as it gets and the signs of life start from there.

If that was the lowest point in Collingwood's near 130 year history, which resulted in the Grand total of one season outside the top 8, we're not doing too bad as a footy club.

In my time watching Collingwood, and also in referencing the history books, it had to be 1999 - our 6th consecutive year outside of finals, with the Footy Show doing a weekly count of how many consecutive games Collingwood had lost to start the season.

Then again, our round 9ish win against Fremantle was when I first got together with my now wife, so that game/season has fond memories for me.

Suspect Collingwood supporters are in a pretty good position in comparison to supporters of most other clubs when trying to ascertain when the lowest point in their history was...

 

[TheEscapeClub]

1937, the last time we lost to Footscray / Western Bulldogs.