Victoria Park - Your Stories?

[MickyD]

I posted this on a Pies subReddit and someone suggested I post it here.

I just thought I'd tell this story on the off chance that one or two of you might have been involved.

On grand final day 1990 we set our TV up on our front footpath outside our house at 7 Raphael St, Abbotsford next door to the Carringbush Hotel. We put our couch on the road and moved it back as the shadow of our house crept forward. You all know the result. For Collingwood supporters of the day, it was huge. It broke the drought. The Colliwobbles were buried. It was pure joy.

Post game we had our stereo speakers facing out our front windows with Good Old Collingwood Forever playing on repeat. After the post-game wrap up on 7, we rewound the VHS tape and started playing the game again.

A couple of blokes from the Carringbush had a look at our set-up & went back into the pub and within minutes 20 or 30 Carringbush patrons had gathered around our TV & started singing the song and cheering as if they were watching the game live for the first time.

At the same time the Magpie army was on the march along Punt Rd from the G to Vic Park. We took a quick look and it was amazing. I had a laugh at a few blokes carrying a couch along Punt Rd, then sitting down to have a beer before continuing on.

Needless to say that a chunk of these migrating Magpies went via the Carringbush which means most of them stopped outside our place to sing the song and watch a bit of the game.

By the time we got towards the end of each Good Old Collingwood Forever, people would start to drop out, then the cassette would take a couple of minutes to auto rewind and then when the song started again EVERYONE would join in at full voice. There were so many croaky voices 😄

Our house was full of people I didn't know and all with smiles on their faces. I'd always loved the Pies, but this took it to another level. I chatted to so many Pies supporters that night that I would never have got to meet if we didn't decide to watch the game in the sunshine. I remember one elderly lady saying that I'd put on a great night (the place was decked out in black & white) and I replied "well I wasn't really expecting hundreds of people" but I wouldn't have changed a thing.

I finally made the short walk to Vic Park wrapped in a doona with no voice left. I walked into the lit up ground just as a supporter fell from the goal post. It was like a Magpie fairyland lit up like daylight with thousands of people in black & white celebrating the end of the drought.

The next day I walked into the Carringbush with a row of beer glasses running up each arm. The barman Hans said, "I was wondering where all my glasses went". I told him that I'd be back in a minute with a couple more arm fulls.

Fast forward 25 years and I was at work and ABC radio was doing talk-back where the topic was "great unexpected parties that people had been to" & someone rang up and told the story of our grand final post events. He was saying how it was such special thing for him.
I was very proud.

Sorry if I went on a bit long. I don't get to tell the story very often.

Mick

[The Black and White Lion]

ummm the Carringbush Hotel has closed

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/other-industries/135yearold-pub-falls-into-liquidation/news-story/d9ca4b35e90a4dd52e1326bcf0506074

[npalm]

^^^ A great story, Micky D. Thanks for sharing.

[Rd10.1998_11.1#36]

[dale_mighty_pies]

My Dad took me to Collingwood vs Adelaide Round 6 in 1997. I was 8 years old, still remember we got to the ground and when we went to go through the turnstyles we had to pay for the tickets Dad thought he had already paid for, so we were holding up the line while Dad was trying to work out what to do. |
I disctincvily remember Gavin Brown taking a mark to save the game just before the siren sounded, still remember how amazing the atmosphere was!

[The Black and White Lion]

[piedys]