Collingwood is No Fairy Tale

I wrote this poem in about 1999 and my memory was jogged by my fairytale reference in the Buckley article below. Hope you enjoy:

Collingwood is No Fairytale

It is hard to put into words
That which sprung up from the suburbs
Giving rise to the legend that
Was born upon the river flats
In now fabled days of yore
When townships weekly went to war

So how do you sum up Collingwood?
I don't know if I could or should,
But much that seems great and good,
Is incarnate in Collingwood.

In 1892 spawned of Britannia,
In four short years we were the champions,
Founding members of the V.F.L.
Of the Pannams and Lee we still hear tell,
And now though he's passed,
Gone beyond and breathed his last,
His memory will never grow stale,
Collingwood still honours Jock McHale.
The league ignores the great McHale*,
For Collingwood is no fairytale,
Of his great deeds we all should know,
His greatest the four flags in a row.
The Coventrys and Colliers,
Still on the lips of all our followers,
And as war simmered down in the Rhine,
Enter his successor: Phonse Kine.

McHale was still alive to see,
The glory of 1953,
But in that year we mourned his passing,
His memory lives on - everlasting.

Now all Pies fans will hate,
Looking beyond 1958,
From then it all went off the rails,
Collingwood is no fairytale,
Through the 1960's we watched appalled,
Thinking 1970 was the worst of all,
Then in '79 we thought I hearts would fail,
Collingwood is no fairytale,
Carlton cheated with no qualms,
Oh for the treachery of Wayne Harmes.
Nine winless Grand Finals we endured,
And though great names came to the fore,
Tuddenham, Thompson, Peter Moore,
Picken, Dunne and of course the Shaws,
And those these greats did give their all,
Only one made the Honour wall.

For after 32 years of blame and doubt,
In 1990 we broke the drought,
'Twas a flag the team refused to yield,
With Tony Shaw the best afield,
Captain Courageous led the team,
Down the road to the impossible dream.

In a year and a day things would turn sour,
As the club then reached its darkest hour.
Collingwood is no fairytale,
And the next two lines do turn me pale:
Pants Millane left in his prime,
To take his place by McHale and Kine.

Since then the years they have been bleak,
We've seen a record losing streak,
The club defeated upon its centennary,
Our legends ignored in the 'Team of the Century'.
But doubt not that we will be back,
They'll again learn to fear the white and black,
We'll soldier on through the years of pain,
And though every supporter is going insane,
We know we'll soon be back again,
To honour the ghosts of Darren Millane,
Of Jock McHale and of Phonse Kine,
It won't be long, we'll just bide our time,
Our army ensures we'll never fail,
We'll do it without luck or fairytales.

*This poem was written before the AFL began to award the McHale Medal to the premiership coach each year. It was also written not long after Jock McHale was inexplicably overlooked as the coach of the AFL's Team of the Century in 1996.