Tom Hafey - The Collingwood Years

The Collingwood Years

Consumed by coaching, Hafey's initial thought was to seek a job in West Australia. Destiny decreed another path when Hafey had a chance meeting with the new Collingwood president, John Hickey. The Magpies had just endured their worst ever season, rent by in-fighting the team had finished last for the first time. After nineteen years without a premiership, Collingwood was moribund by its tradition, part of which decreed that no "outsider" could coach the club. Hickey wasted no time in securing the most successful mentor in the game, and Hafey was appointed as the first non-Collingwood man to coach the club for the 1977 season.

In a Cinderella-like performance, Hafey took essentially the same list of players from the bottom to the top of the ladder in one season, the first time this had been achieved in the VFL. Hafey's next challenge was to overcome the "Colliwobbles", the so-called disease that afflicted the club and caused many heart-breaking finals losses. Collingwood had lost eleven of their last thirteen finals matches, many by slender margins. The tide seemed to have turned when the team beat the favoured Hawthorn by just two points in the semi final. A fortnight later, in an historic Grand Final, the first to be telecast live, Collingwood sat on the brink of history at three quarter time, leading North Melbourne by 27 points. Moving in to address the team's huddle, Hafey was horrified to see trainers and committeemen congratulating the players on their Premiership. Worse was to come when North fought back dramatically, but the game ended in a draw. The dream slipped away in the replay the following week and Collingwood lost a high-scoring contest.

Another loss to North Melbourne in the 1978 Preliminary Final caused Hafey to clean out a number of the Collingwood veterans, and later the following season the team emerged as the only challenger to the hot favourite, Carlton. In another dramatic Grand Final, Collingwood held a good lead in the second quarter, but were overtaken by half time. The game ultimately hinged on a freakish piece of play by Wayne Harmes, who somehow chased down his own kick and knocked the ball on for a goal, which had added significance when Collingwood lost by five points. More irony surfaced in the 1980 Grand Final when Hafey took on his old team Richmond. Kevin Bartlett won the Norm Smith medal as the Tigers won by a record margin, yet earlier in the year Hafey had dissuaded a disgruntled Bartlett from leaving Richmond. Somehow, Hafey got the Magpies up for another tilt at the premiership in 1981, and they led by 21 points late in the third term of the Grand Final against Carlton. Two late goals by the Blues caused a number of arguments in the Collingwood three quarter time huddle, and Carlton, spurred on by the disharmony, ran all over Collingwood in the last term to win handsomely.

The continual disappointment around Victoria Park now focussed attention on Hafey's methods. Several leading players at the club criticised Hafey for over-training the team, particularly in the lead-up to big finals matches. It was also felt that Hafey was too slow to respond when the team was going under. Hafey survived into the next season, but a record losing streak of nine games sealed his fate and he was sacked mid-season.