In the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL), the "Colliwobbles" refers to the period between Collingwood's

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

and

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

premierships, where the Magpies reached nine AFL/VFL Grand Finals for eight losses and a draw in 1977. This era was dubbed as the Colliwobbles partly because Collingwood sometimes lost by small margins; in this way, "Colliwobbles" is a specific term for

choking Choking, also known as foreign body airway obstruction (FBAO), is a phenomenon that occurs when breathing is impeded by a blockage inside of the respiratory tract. An obstruction that prevents oxygen from entering the lungs results in oxygen de ...

when it is done by Collingwood. The term was coined by

Lou Richards Lewis Thomas Charles "Lou" Richards, (15 March 1923 – 8 May 2017) was an Australian rules footballer who played 250 games for the Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) between 1941 and 1955. He captained the team ...

, and it is a play on the words "Collingwood" and "

collywobbles Gastroenteritis, also known as infectious diarrhea and gastro, is an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract including the stomach and intestine. Symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Fever, lack of energy, and dehydr ...

" (a state of intestinal disorder, usually accompanied by a rumbling stomach). The main period of the Colliwobbles ended in the 1990 AFL Grand Final, when Collingwood defeated to win their first premiership since 1958. Lou Richards ceremoniously announced the end of the Colliwobbles, and the club marked the occasion with the burial of a memoir of the hitherto trying times in front of a large crowd at

Victoria Park Victoria Park may refer to: Places Australia * Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a protected area in Northern Rivers region, New South Wales * Victoria Park, Adelaide, a park and racecourse * Victoria Park, Brisbane, a public park and former golf ...

. After losing the 2018 grand final after leading most of the day, there was talk in the media that the Colliwobbles had returned. Despite the supposed death of the Colliwobbles, 1958 remains Collingwood's last September premiership as of the end of the

2022 AFL season The 2022 AFL season is the 126th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season features ...

; the 1990 and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

premierships were won in October due to drawn finals (both involving Collingwood)—which, incidentally, are no longer possible, as extra time is invoked in case of a tied game for the grand final—and Collingwood have won only two (and drawn two) of the sixteen Grand Finals they have appeared in since their 1958 premiership, while losing eight.

Grand Final appearances during the main "Colliwobbles" period

Grand Final appearances since the main "Colliwobbles" period

Trivia and statistics since 1958

*Five Collingwood Grand Finals have been lost by single-figure margins, and four by less than a goal, including a four-point loss in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

to and a one-point loss in

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

to , which remains the Saints' only premiership as of 2021, and a five-point loss in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

to . *Collingwood suffered its worst Grand Final loss in history in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

, losing to by 81 points, which, at the time, was also the worst in VFL history, and also lost by 50 points to Brisbane in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. *The highest Collingwood grand final attendance was 121,696 in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

against (which also remains a league record for any VFL/AFL game). The lowest Collingwood grand final attendance since 1958 was 79,451 in 2003 against Brisbane due to renovation works at the MCG. *Collingwood's highest grand final score was 19.10 (124) in the 1977 replay against . Its lowest was 2.2 (14) against in

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

. *The lowest score conceded by Collingwood was 5.11 (41) in

against Essendon. The highest score conceded was 23.21 (159) in

against Richmond.

References

{{Collingwood Football Club Australian Football League Australian rules football terminology Collingwood Football Club Australian folklore Australian rules football culture

Grand Final appearances during the main "Colliwobbles" period

Grand Final appearances since the main "Colliwobbles" period

Trivia and statistics since 1958

See also

References