The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). Formed in 1892, the club traditionally represented the inner-Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, and was based at Victoria Park in Abbotsford; the club is now based in the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct in Melbourne, playing its home games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and with its training and administrative base in Gosch's Paddock and the Westpac Centre.
Collingwood is the most supported club in the AFL and the most supported club in any sport in Australia. It has consistently attracted much higher than average crowds to its home games than other clubs in the league, and had a league record of 71,516 members in the 2011 season. This spike in membership registration can mainly be attributed to the winning of the 2010 AFL Premiership.
Collingwood's home guernsey consists of black and white stripes, matching the colours of an Australian magpie. Throughout its history, the club has developed a number of rivalries with cross-town and interstate clubs, including Essendon, Richmond, Carlton Port Adelaide and Brisbane.
Historically one of the most successful clubs in the league, Collingwood has won fifteen VFL/AFL premierships, the third-most of any team. Collingwood has played in a record 43 grand finals (including replays), winning 15, drawing two and losing 26 (also a record).
The club also currently fields a seconds team in the Victorian Football League.
Read more about Collingwood Football Club: Club Honours, Match Records, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words football and/or club:
“In this dream that dogs me I am part
Of a silent crowd walking under a wall,
Leaving a football match, perhaps, or a pit,
All moving the same way.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“He loved to sit silent in a corner of his club and listen to the loud chattering of politicians, and to think how they all were in his power—how he could smite the loudest of them, were it worth his while to raise his pen for such a purpose.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)