Be it ever so humble... 

I respectfully acknowledge the past and present
traditional owners of this land upon
which we gather, the Wurundjeri people.
It is a privilege for us to be standing
on Wurundjeri country.

We are honoured to be able to use this site
with the approval of the traditional owners
for the purpose of playing football.

Interviewed by Jonathon Bernard for CTV
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Nathan Buckley: I loved the gritty, old-fashioned,  working class feel to Victoria Park.   There was no glitz or glamour and the facilities were primitive,  but I ate that up.   The place looked and smelled like it had absorbed a lot of  blood, sweat and tears over the past hundred years -  and I was ready to spill the same to win a premiership there;  to add to the proud tradition.

LOU RICHARDS: It's more intimate for these people here now at Victoria Park than it'll ever be anywhere else, because this was their ground, this was their home, and they're going to miss that.

The walk up Lulie Street...

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For the Magpie army it was like coming home to a hot cuppa and steaming fresh baked pie.  For visiting fans it was like Christians visiting the old Roman Coloseum and it all started when you first caught a glimpse of those famous black and white stripes of the mighty Sherrin Stand looming over the horizon.

Fans would gather early to get a good vantage point and watch the reserves game before the big one.  No matter how the team was travelling or where they were on the ladder you knew you had a good chance of winning at Victoria Park.  The statistics said a close to 7/10 chance of winning.

Many a Collingwood player has spoken of the energy within the ground during a game and how it lifts and drives you onward and many an opposition player have spoken of how nightmarish the ground is for anyone not from the Collingwood family.

Bob Rose: "I walked into the ground at about 11 o'clock, to watch the reserves play. (By this time I was in the seniors.) And I just saw all these Collingwood supporters. It was a cold, middle-of-the-winter, rainy day, and they had taken up every seat available in the ground, and it was mainly standing room in those days. And I thought then, it really hit me, that these people are there to support people like me, all the players, so it was a real lesson that I would, and I swore to myself, that I would never let the people down, that I would give 100% all the time. And it was really an inspiration to me..."

"Whenever I have a nightmare it isn't in colour.  It's always black and white, the colours of the meanest, toughest  club ever to run on to a football field." Jack 'Captain Blood' Dyer

Bobby Davis once said "Until you are the best man on the ground against Collingwood at Victoria Park on a Saturday afternoon in mid-July, then you are not really a footballer"

Peter McKenna in action at Victoria Park...

Training before the 2002 Grand Final...