Hatred of Collingwood - What is the rational reason?

[BustedWing]

**** Sumich!

Heard an interesting rumour/story about Peter Sumich and that famous point that stuffed Essendon up royally that year.

Back then they measured the distance between the goal post from the inside of each post, however at VFL park that month they did some minor renovations/repairs to the ground, and had to re-install the posts. When putting them back in the groundskeeper measured the required distance from the OUTSIDE of each post, meaning the space in between them was narrower than its supposed to be.

Sumich only just missed, and if the posts were where they should have been, it would have been a goal, and most likely an Essendon flag that year.

No idea if its true, but a story I love nonetheless!

 

[J_Moore]

The second most powerful force throughout most of Australia's history after racism - anti-Catholic sectarianism.

This is why the Pies are my second team. GTFO protestant scum.

 

[PrideOf]

People don't understand hatred in regards to football.

Hatred of Collingwood is jovial...

...In South Australia the hatred of Port Adelaide, especially from the late 1980's, has been systematic and toxic, especially from the incompetant SANFL.

Anyway, back on topic. Hatred of Collingwood is a throwback to VFL days. To the national competition, you're just another Victorian club.

Teams in non-Victorian states don't hate Collingwood, which is why it was so bleedingly obvious Eddie had to work so hard to manufacture something with Brisbane and Sydney to build up a little bit of hate.

 

[Rob]

Did you only jump on board in the last 4 years? Because we were very relevant and did a lot of winning for 8 years straight prior. Which is a lot longer than every other side in the AFL in recent years.

You won 1 flag, barely at that, and it was on the back of a pretty long drought. I don't particularly begrudge your club that.

U still seem mad.

 

[PieLebo87]

You won 1 flag, barely at that, and it was on the back of a pretty long drought. I don't particularly begrudge your club that.

U still seem mad.

You keep trying to troll, but its unsuccessful. Can you please elaborate on how you 'barely' win a Premiership please? How have Fremantle gone in that endeavour?

 

[mcgarnacle]

The second most powerful force throughout most of Australia's history after racism - anti-Catholic sectarianism.

This is why the Pies are my second team. GTFO protestant scum.

19th century and early 20th century sectarianism evident in victorian football.

Proddies:
Essendon
Hawthorn
Melbourne

Micks:
Collingwood
North Melbourne
Richmond

not aligned but considered working class:
Carlton
Fitzroy
St Kilda
South Melbourne

not aligned but considered elitist:
Geelong
Footscray

 

[Prestigerrycomo]

No its other supporters wishing stuff like horrible injuries on Nathan Freeman for example as soon as they want to leave. Its a shocking look.

Oh get off your high horse, I read as many comments by Saints fans wishing the same on Luke Ball in 2010

 

[Blues_Man]

Being the biggest and best, tbh.

The best usually win Grand finals when they make it ...not that i'm complaining about the 5 you have gifted us

 

[Roylion]

Fitzroy people have always seen Collingwood as their arch-enemy. Locality being the main reason. The first traditional rivalry in VFL football.

 

[Mr Mediocracy]

Cause it's Collingwood. Jumped on the hatred bandwagon but also because my brother supports them.

But it's hard not to like Bucks this year.

Probably also as well that no matter how crap they might be the supporters never find a negative towards the pies and the supporters are all toothless crooks

 

[SpudsLoveChild]

Because their fans are so damn ugly.

 

[Back One Out]

Can anyone explain to me the logical reason for all the Collingwood hatred? My question harks back to the 2010 season when they won the flag and some people I know said that they wanted anyone but Collingwood to win. I thought (despite being an ardent Bombers fan) that they had been the best team that season and deserved to win the flag. Why the hatred, is it based on any logic or just the fact that they are Collingwood?

The hype

When Collingwood are flying, it's as though no other teams exist in Melbourne.

Every other team is ignored. The papers and radio are full of endless bullshit about Alan Didak's sore hamstring or Peter Daicos's dicky knee.
Spuds like Nick Maxwell and Harry O'Brien and built up to be superheroes and named in the All-Australian team.
A handy player such Dale Thomas is talked up as one of the premier players in the competition.

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.

The massive bandwagon support for Collingwood comes out of the woodwork and the media panders to it relentlessly. Many of their fans buy into it and have no self-awareness. They don't realise how annoying and blinkered they are and they don't even care.

Freo fans think they've got it bad in Perth with the West Coast hype, but at least they're the "other team".
Can they imagine what it's like to be "one of the other nine teams" ?

I don't mind the Pies… when they are mid-table. When they're on top, they are unbearable.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

This question is like asking "why do people hate anal warts?"

Some shit just doesn't warrant questioning

 

[mcgarnacle]

Fitzroy people have always seen Collingwood as their arch-enemy. Locality being the main reason. The first traditional rivalry in VFL football.

The rotten stench in the air when folks did their shopping on Smith St always came wafting over from the Collingwood side.

Fitzroy side always was better. Still has the footy memorabilia shop too. Collingwood have gone full poncy.

 

[Whatname]

Always had a soft spot for the pies, but I think the whole us against them is what drives their club.

Have a lot more dislike for teams such as Geelong and Hawthorn who think they all that is good and right with the game.
As well as the Kangas who carry on as though they are one of the most important teams in the AFL, reality is they would be another Fitzroy if it wasnt the AFL's handouts.

 

[TaylorMade]

Eddie Maguire constantly crying foul when something doesn't go Collingwoods way. Best funded and resourced club in the country, awesome draw every year yet feels the need to complain any time another club gets a perceived perk.

Pretends he is interested in Equalization but tries to cut down the little guy at any chance he gets.

Supporters regurgitate everything he says.

 

[Bostonian]

I think it was because they were seen as the bogan, working class violent element of society. However with the emergence of Richmond fans in large numbers people now realise Collingwood fans aren't so bad.

 

[Sloth]

It's mere jealousy, nothing more nothing less

 

[simba_]

for me it was the way they used to talk about how big they were without really being big, like the "manchester united of australia" just made me lol. everything about them is talk but no walk, it's like they've built up such a reputation they have no idea how to match it, which would be difficult in fairness after building the club up so much. plus with my club personally we had a fat dumb irrational victorian president to deal with who has shown how strangely bitter he is towards us for a man who has never lived in SA. no class at collingwood, no respect

genuinely nothing to be jealous of

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

I don't hate Collingwood.

 

[Sharker18]

It really makes the premierships all the more sweeter. Imagine being a team that's liked and winning a flag, it just wouldn't have the same omph about it.

All 2 of them in the last 50 odd years?? You would want them to be sweet, don't taste them very much!

 

[Chuckie357]

Can anyone explain to me the logical reason for all the Collingwood hatred? My question harks back to the 2010 season when they won the flag and some people I know said that they wanted anyone but Collingwood to win. I thought (despite being an ardent Bombers fan) that they had been the best team that season and deserved to win the flag. Why the hatred, is it based on any logic or just the fact that they are Collingwood?

Can't be serious? You actually have to ask?? Very very poor form

 

[kneecapper]

Shit club culture with an endless stream of dickhead players.

Shit bogan racist entitled supporters.

Shit fame-whore president whose head has the same dimensions as a cathode ray television.

 

[4#Didak#4]

There is a number of mainly historical reasons that Collingwood are hated. Collingwood was born out of working class people who pretty much had nothing else going for them added to this was some religious undertones, but this was more to do with Micks (catholics) being poor and prodos being rich. The working class was generally oppressed by the upper class.

Through football this majority of lower class found the joy of winning and beating up on those who lived up the hill in the big house that paid them peanuts to work all day. And win they did, over & over again as it meant a lot more to them...the monster was created. They played it very hard and mirrored the way their supporters wanted them to play - with heart, soul and a good dose of spilt blood. The supporters felt the losses hard but celebrated the wins even harder, they found their vocie as a result.

The club attracted a lot of supporters - although they were not very financial members - because they were one of the few things at the time that represented the working class Melbourne geezer and it gave them some hope & joy. The success combined with a lot of people who wanted to talk about that success (as there was not much else to boast about) soon created resentment. As there were so many supporters it was hard to avoid the original Collingwood social media - basically lots off people talking Collingwood, much like modern day Bigfooty!

This has set the tone for the modern day club. Although there has been very little in the way of modern day (ultimate) success, that initial broad supporter base naturally multiplied exponentially to what it is today. The working class element has diminished somewhat as those working class people ended up building this country and thrived. That supporter base has driven the club to financial prosperity and demands success. That supporter base also gives the club the loudest voice which in turn relates back to the original reason for the resentment in the first place so it becomes self perpetuating. That hate is actually feedback that the club is on track and serving the need that drove it in the first place.

Collingwood is a lesson in social history and a demonstration of what unity in numbers and purpose can do over time. Football clubs are great social unifiers and success is linked to how well a club can unify in purpose and represent those that follow it. Some clubs simply lack this purpose and fail to represent their supporters and as a result won't succeed as no one will back them.

This is a reasonable explanation from an article in the Age a few years ago, there was another better one that looked more at the history of the suburb but I can't find it:

www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/everybody-hates-collingwood--but-why-20100921-15l4l.html


How did the phenomenon of despising everything that is Collingwood begin?

Curtin University cultural studies expert, Professor Jon Stratton, said the success of the predominantly working-class Collingwood through the 1920s and 1930s had their rival teams up the road loudly jeering the Magpie name.

This piggy-backed onto the natural suburban warfare between the Melbourne suburbs and has carried through to this day on a national level.

"I think it's the tradition," he said. "They've been hated for a very long time, especially in Melbourne."

"(The hatred) is something very strong that has continued from generation to generation.

"It hasn't happened in the last few years, it goes back (decades)."

Over the 1920s and 1930s, Collingwood captured six of its 14 premierships, while managing a few unsuccessful grand final appearances.

In total, the 'Pies have been the bridesmaid 25 times in their proud history.

"(That) kind of continual success breeds a lot of antipathy," Professor Stratton said of Collingwood's glory days.

Prior to the 1920s, Collingwood and Carlton both had five flags in their trophy cabinets, but the Magpies' success in the ensuing decades would have enraged Blues fans.

"That amount of success breeds resentment," Professor Stratton said. "It breeds antagonism."

"Combine that with the tall-poppy syndrome: 'Why should a working-class club like Collingwood be so bloody successful'.

"'They shouldn't be successful, they have no right to continue that success'.

"That produces the kind of hatred (that exists today), and it goes along with the fact that they were very successful during that period."

Jumping forward to this decade, Professor Stratton says although Collingwood has not won a premiership since 1990 - a stat that has provided many a fan with anti-Magpie ammunition - it has still figured in finals reckoning.

From 2002 to today, the Pies have only missed out on finals twice, and they were two miserable seasons after losing successive grand finals to Brisbane.

"They have constantly finished in the top half of the ladder," he said, while acknowledging the club missed out on finals football from 1995 to 2001 inclusive, a horrid stretch which featured the wooden spoon in 1999.

"There hasn't been obvious success in winning grand finals, but they have been successful in a sense of being continually higher on the ladder on a consistent basis."

Although he was reluctant to draw on the religious aspect, Professor Stratton believed another possible reason behind the sheer disdain for the 'Pies was their Catholic following.

Before multiculturalism, religious rivalries played a part in Australian sport, mainly pitting Protestants against Catholics.

"Most Collingwood fans were Catholic and Irish, and pretty much working class, so they've had a history of exclusion," Professor Stratton said.

He believed the "residue" of that religious rivalry has contributed to the general dislike for the Pies today.

So what about in Western Australia, considering West Coast only entered the competition in 1987 and then Fremantle in 1995?

Professor Stratton said there were two reasons, one being the high number of Victorians who have moved to WA during the mining boom, bringing along those traditional AFL rivalries with them.

Another explanation was the Anti-Collingwood "tradition" that gradually immersed itself in local football circles post-1987.

"The antagonism to Collingwood was reproduced here after WA fans discovered what was happening in Melbourne," Professor Stratton said.

He added there were some Eagles fans who still "feel deserted" by the departure of dual premiership-winning coach Mick Malthouse to the Magpies.

The role of Eddie "everywhere" McGuire does not help the 'Pies cause either, Professor Stratton says.

"It opens up another front," he said. "This is a man who is highly visible, a celebrity and is everywhere on TV, and he is the president of Collingwood.

"(It's prompted rival fans to say 'Give us a break. You're now doing the whole celebrity thing. What kind of team are you?'.

"It reinforces the kind of dislike that has been there for generations."

But Professor Stratton says the sheer number of Collingwood fans has been the last straw for some.

"Collingwood, legendarily, has the largest supporter base of any club in the country," he said, highlighting the envy of rival Victorian teams, particularly those that are struggling to maintain - and improve - their fan bases.

One thing's for certain, proud and passionate as they are, Collingwood fans know it will be a case of "us against everyone else".

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...od--but-why-20100921-15l4l.html#ixzz3mcZWInXy

 

[Snag Breac]

So many fair, informed and respectful posts on the subject of us ugly, toothless bogans; I'm disturbed.