Collingwood: The Complete History of the Magpies

The most supported — and most fiercely followed — club in Australian sport. This is the complete, fact-checked story of the Collingwood Magpies.From the hard streets of a working-class Melbourne suburb in 1892 to a sixteenth premiership in 2023, the story of Collingwood is the story of Australian football itself — the greatest dynasty the game has seen, its most famous heartbreak, and a support base without equal in the land.

In vivid, easy-reading prose, narrative historian Alex Ishikawa traces more than 130 years of the black and white, complete to the end of the 2026 season.

Inside, you'll relive:

The founding of the club in 1892 and the rise of a working-class icon Jock McHale and "the Machine" — the only side in VFL/AFL history to win four premierships in a row (1927–1930) The 1958 flag that stopped Melbourne's dynasty The Colliwobbles — the agonising 32-year drought and the most famous run of Grand Final heartbreak in the game The breakthrough of 1990, the drawn Grand Final and replay of 2010, and Craig McRae's four-point triumph of 2023 The modern greats — Nathan Buckley, Scott Pendlebury and Brownlow medallist Nick Daicos Victoria Park and the MCG, the Anzac Day blockbuster, the great rivalries, and the Magpie Army

With a firm promise no other club history keeps: facts and rumours are never mixed. Every premiership, record and date is drawn from the public record; every piece of folklore — the "curse" of the Colliwobbles, the legend of John Wren — is clearly flagged as exactly that.

Over 100 pages. Every fact checked. The complete story of the black and white.

Perfect for Magpies of every generation, students of Australian football, and anyone who loves the game's richest, most dramatic history.