Sunday Shout: Brian Taylor relives the success of his book about the 1990 premiers Collingwood

Perfect timing and smart thinking led to Brian Taylor becoming one of the biggest authors in Australia after the Pies’ 1990 flag. He reveals to Jon Anderson if he’ll ever write another book.

A combination of perfect timing and smart thinking led to the unlikely scenario of a plumber named Brian Taylor becoming one of Australia’s biggest selling authors in 1990.

Taylor, 63, kept a diary of Collingwood’s historic season titled “BLACK and WHITE” diaries, one that burst on the scene shortly after the Magpies won their first premiership in 32 years.

JON ANDERSON: Do you recall why you did it?

BRIAN TAYLOR: The late and great writer Trevor Grant suggested a diary after I said we could win the flag that year. I was really taken with recruits Scott Russell and Tony Francis, plus developing players like Graham Wright, Gavin Brown and Darren Millane were becoming stars.

JA: Do you remember how long after the grand final it came out?

BT: Four days, on Wednesday, October 10, 1990. We were paid $16,000 by the Herald Sun editor Piers Akerman for the serialisation rights, which appeared on the Monday. That was the first edition of the Herald Sun, after The Sun and The Herald merged, and I think it might remain the highest-selling Herald Sun ever with around 690,000 copies, helped by Collingwood winning the flag.

Taylor didn’t play in the Pies’ historic 1990 draft.

JA: Take yourself back. Would you do it again?

BT: Probably not due to the disruptive nature of it for both my teammates and my own preparation. But I wouldn’t take anything out of it because if you want to sell books, you have to give your audience something.

JA: How many did it sell and who published it?

BT: From memory 44,000, which is a handy number these days, and we published it ourselves and it qualified as a magazine because it sold at $9.95. That figure would still be up there in terms of best-selling sports books.

JA: Did it affect long-term friendships?

BT: Not that I know of. I still see “Banksy” (Denis Banks), “Tuddy” (Paul Tuddenham), “Shawry” (Tony Shaw), blokes like that.

JA: What about your coach of the time, Leigh Matthews?

BT: Leigh is such a strong-minded person that he dealt with it at the time and moved on. We have had a very good relationship ever since. What people should remember is none of it was released until after the grand final was won.

JA: Do you look back with some pride in it?

Brian Taylor’s book.

BT: Yes, because other than John Power’s The Coach in 1977 (Ron Barassi and North Melbourne), no other book has ever taken readers behind the scenes. There are too many football books written by players who were far better than me that say nothing.

JA: Did it help your “wannabe” media career?

BT: Absolutely, because it led to a lot of interviews and people realised I could actually speak and had something to say.

JA: How would you have gone in the 1990 grand final had you been selected?

BT: The way the game was played, I might have done OK because there was a lot of ball coming down and not too many marks being taken. And I don’t reckon Gavin Brown would have been knocked out.

JA: When your career winds down, is there another book in you?

BT: Maybe. I can assure you that if I do it, it will be done properly.

TIGERS-PIES CLASH HAS AN EXTRA EDGE FOR YOUNG GUN

Richmond young gun Taj Hotton can’t wait to come face-to-face with Collingwood in Sunday’s Alannah and Madeline Foundation match at the MCG thanks to a personal connection with one of the Pies’ greatest.

Scott Pendlebury is an assistant coach at Haileybury College, where Hotton attended before being drafted to Punt Rd last November.

Unfortunately, Pendlebury was a late withdrawal from the clash.

The pair have enjoyed some friendly banter in the last few weeks, with Hotton joking that he might have tried to lay a run-down tackle on the former Magpies skipper.

“I should be able to get him,” Hotton laughed when asked if he might try a rundown tackle.

“He’s been texting me pretty much every week in the lead-up to the game. We are both pretty excited to go up against each other.

“Pendles is a great guy and he has helped me a lot through my junior years. He was so invested in us.”

Jonty Faull, Luke Trainor and Taj Hotton don the Alannah & Madeline Foundation jumpers.

Just moments after Hotton kicked his first goal in his debut game against Essendon in round 18, Pendlebury immediately tweeted his first name.

The Magpies midfielder said last year that Hotton was one of the most exciting young players he had seen coming through Haileybury, where he coaches with Matthew Lloyd.

Hotton, who will play his third AFL game on Sunday, couldn’t be more grateful for the support Pendlebury has given him.

He joined forces with teammates Luke Trainor and Jonty Faull to help promote Richmond’s close connection to the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, a link that goes back to 2012.

Richmond and the Tiger Army have raised over $2.1 million for the children’s charity.

With the theme “Be Their Buddy” the club and its players promote the support of the Buddy Bag program, helping children in crisis through their first few days in emergency care and on their journey to healing.

The Tigers offer special Alannah & Madeline Foundation memberships, with 100% of profits directly supporting the Foundation’s programs to keep children safe from violence.

Richmond also proudly donates 5 per cent of all Roar Store proceeds to the Foundation annually.

Taj

— Scott Pendlebury (@SP_10) July 12, 2025

Hotton is looking forward to going up against the Magpies, one of the two clubs his father Trent played with in his AFL career.

“When you think about playing AFL, you often imagine it against the best teams,” Hotton said. “There is no better (team) at the moment than Collingwood so they have got a few good players and it will be a good test for all of us.”

Faull added: “We’re always looking forward to huge games with huge crowds and it will be awesome to represent a great foundation, for a good cause.”

Trainer said the young Tigers were eager to keep up the momentum after back to back wins against Essendon and West Coast

“We all sort of played footy together before we got drafted, so we are such a tight group,” he said of the first-year Tigers.

“(I played) Coates league with Taj, so to go from playing with him on a crappy local oval to the MCG in front of a packed house on Sunday, it does not get much better than that.”

TO DONATE:https://support.alannahandmadeline.org.au/richmond

MOVING THE GOAL POSTS

There is never any delay to move on to the next thing at the MCG.

Within 20 minutes of the final siren ending Hawthorn’s comfortable win over Carlton on Thursday, the goal and behind posts at the Punt Rd end of the famous ground were gone.

Even retired Blue Sam Docherty got a surprise when he snuck back onto the turf for one final farewell photo, watching as the posts were ripped out at the City end.

Guess we won’t be needing these on Saturday 🤷

No sleep for our arenas team, who got stuck straight into prep for @lionsofficial after last night’s final siren! pic.twitter.com/9UWy1x4YMa

— Melbourne Cricket Ground (@MCG) July 24, 2025

The rugby uprights were quickly wheeled out, to be planted ahead of the Wallabies clash with the British and Irish Lions less than 48 hours later.

Ground staff were quick to wash off the Telstra logo on the 50m arc, before moving on to the rest of the painted signage.

No doubt it was another late night at the MCG on Saturday night – the turnaround from the Wallabies game to the start time of today’s Richmond-Collingwood clash was closer to 16 hours.

Hopefully that is some well-deserved overtime pay for those that make the ‘G tick.

Originally published as Sunday Shout: Brian Taylor relives the success of his book about the 1990 premiers Collingwood