The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport’s elite competition. Founded in 1892 in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, the club played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) before joining seven other teams in 1896 to form the breakaway Victorian Football League (VFL), known today as the Australian Football League (AFL). Originally based at Victoria Park, Collingwood now plays home games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and has its headquarters and training facilities at Olympic Park Oval and the AIA Centre.
Collingwood has played in a record 45 VFL/AFL Grand Finals (including rematches), winning 16 (tied with Carlton and Essendon), drawing two and losing 27 (also a record). Regarded as one of Australia’s most popular sports teams, Collingwood, as of 2013, attracted the highest attendance figures and television ratings of any professional football club in the nation, across all codes. In 2023, it topped the AFL membership ladder with 106,470 members.
The club’s song, “Good Old Collingwood Forever”, dates back to 1906, making it the oldest team song currently used in the AFL. Its home guernsey consists of black and white stripes, based on the colours of the Australian magpie. Historically, the club’s biggest rivals have been cross-town clubs Carlton and Richmond. Collingwood has also enjoyed a healthy Anzac Day rivalry with Essendon since 1995.
Collingwood fields a reserves team in the Victorian Football League (formerly the VFA) and women’s teams in the AFL Women’s and VFL Women’s competitions. It also owned and operated a netball team in the National Netball League from 2017 to 2023.
