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 in the Kulin Nation.
We are honoured to be able to use this site
with the approval of the traditional owners
for the purpose of playing football.
Historic footage of Victoria Park
The beginning aerial shot is from 1929
(There are several errors in their facts, but the footage is nice to look at)
A new era begins for Collingwood
Welcome home coach
Nathan Buckley and father Ray
Welcome home Gavin 'Rowdy' Brown
Gavin Brown coached Collingwood's stand alone VFL side from 2008
o our return to Victoria Park in 2010
Interviewed by Jonathon Bernard for CTV CLICK HERE to find more great Collingwood videos on CTV
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.
Hon John Cain MLC:
To lose Victoria Park as a regular venue would be another sad step along the way to football
losing touch with its base.
If the Melbourne Cricket Ground is the Coliseum, then Victoria Park is St Peter's (Basilica)
The walk up Lulie Street...
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
"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" Bobby Davis