Senior Sports reporter and Collingwood guru Glenn McFarlane caught up with Collingwood premiership captain and former coach Tony Shaw.

At what stage in 1990 did you think you could win the flag?

“We had the draw against West Coast, we were playing OK but we still had (to possibly play) Hawthorn and you need a bit of luck. Hawthorn was sort of our bogey team but they got knocked out by Melbourne and I thought that was great for us.

“After we played the final against West Coast and drew it, then we played the next week and we belted them, I think Leigh Matthews has to take a lot of credit because we did a lot of skill work but also pressure work without getting hurt (at training).

CLICK THE PODCAST TO HEAR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH TONY SHAW

“I don’t think there would be many finals series that were as good as what we had in 1990.

“Winning the next three games by eight to 10 goals was as good as you’ll get.

“There’s not many times you go out trusting everybody every time you go over the white line. (Sometimes) you know some blokes might not do it but we never had that problem in 1990.”

Shaw speaks about his involvement in the famous brawl of the 1990 Grand Final and reveals the quarter-time address delivered by coach Leigh Matthews that sparked Collingwood’s drought-breaking premiership win.

“Leigh Matthews was brilliant at quarter time. (He didn’t speak) a lot about tactics but he said put your head over the ball, the first 10 minutes is going to be a really testing time for the umpires,” he said.

“I couldn’t believe how he could see what was going to happen. He said put your head over the ball, see what the umpires will do, they’ll try and take control and it looked like Essendon were undisciplined.

“We got about two or three 50m penalties and ended up kicking eight goals in the quarter and the game was nearly gone.

“But with our history everybody was probably thinking it wasn’t but I felt pretty confident after (playing) the second semi against Essendon that we could (go on and) beat them.”

TO CELEBRATE Collingwood’s 125th anniversary we’re chatting to some of the club’s greatest players about why they love the Pies and what the club means to them.

Senior Sports reporter and Collingwood guru Glenn McFarlane caught up with Collingwood premiership coach Mick Malthouse.

It’s been an amazing 125 years for Collingwood. Tell us about your earliest links to Collingwood as a supporter.

Malthouse: “I grew up in Ballarat and my father played football for North Ballarat, so I grew up as a Northie, who are black and white. And at an age that I can’t quite remember, but young enough and old enough to know there was football played in Melbourne, I said “What’s the team that has black and white?” and it was Collingwood so that was my team.

CLICK THE PODCAST TO HEAR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH MICK MALTHOUSE

My mother’s side of the family are all Fitzroy and my father’s side, which was typical of country Victoria, particularly Ballarat, you gravitated towards Geelong. So I was the odd man out for a little while there but that’s how I started barracking for the Pies.”

NEXT PODCAST: COLLINGWOOD GREAT TONY SHAW TALK ABOUT THE 1990 PREMIERSHIP, WINNING THE NORM SMITH MEDAL AND PLAYING WITH DARREN MILLANE

Senior Sports reporter and Collingwood guru Glenn McFarlane caught up with former Magpies goalkicker Anthony Rocca.

CLICK THE PODCAST TO HEAR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH ANTHONY ROCCA

Rocca, who played in the Collingwood’s 2002 Grand Final loss to Brisbane, speaks about the heartbreak of missing the 2003 decider after getting suspended for an errant elbow in the preliminary final.

“2003, I just got goosebumps. I still feel bad for what I did (get suspended) to my team,” he said.

“The incident that happened was a soft incident, to tell you the truth. You probably look at it now and you’d get a fine for it and you’d be able to play the next week.

“But at the time that’s what the rules were and I cost the team and I cost myself playing in another Grand Final.”

When discussing Collingwood historian Michael Roberts’ list of the top 25 Magpies players of all-time, Rocca had a different view.

“Gavin Brown for me, he’s my number one (of all-time),” he said.

“I grew up, not as a Collingwood supporter but … Gavin Brown was my number one in all competition. (He was) hard at it, fierce and never shirked an issue.”

NEXT PODCAST: COLLINGWOOD COACH MICK MALTHOUSE ON WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO COACH THE TEAM HE GREW UP SUPPORTING

Senior Sports reporter and Collingwood guru Glenn McFarlane caught up with former Collingwood premiership captain Nick Maxwell.

CLICK THE PODCAST TO HEAR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH NICK MAXWELL

You came along at a time when the club was really on the rise in a lot of ways — how exciting was that and could you feel you were building towards something?

Maxwell: “My first year was 2003 as a rookie and obviously the team played off in a grand final, and ‘04 and ‘05 were leaner years and that’s probably why I got an opportunity to be honest, because Mick had to play the kids and see what we had there for the future and then ‘06 we were back in the finals.

PIES GREATEST PLAYERS: TOP 25 MAGPIES OF THE PAST 125 YEARS

“So I guess, you never really knew what we were building towards but for me personally after the disappointment of missing out in 2007 when the Cats got us by under a kick and seeing some of my friends there go on to win a Premiership, and then the next year see a couple of my mates at Hawthorn win a premiership, that just lit a fire in me that I have to have that, basically.

“The hardest thing about winning a premiership is there’s 22 of you that get to celebrate it. But there’s so many people who contribute to that and so many players who don’t get a medal and I wish so much that the whole list got a medal or everyone who played got a medal. It’s the hardest thing for me and the situation that I was apart of, that year guys who had been stalwarts and we wouldn’t have got to the grand final without them, just from that year, and that was (Josh) Fraser and (Shane) O’Bree and Presti (Simon Prestigiacomo) and (Tarkyn) Lockyer and (Paul) Medhurst. So all those guys who were champions of the club, who had invested as much as anyone else did and they didn’t get one so that’s disappointing.

“And the obviously before that we wouldn’t have got there without Bucks and Jimmy Clement and Burnsey (Scott Burns), Paul Licuria, who helped us through and I guess set us up for what was to come.”

You had a fair bit of pressure on you, you took on Nathan Buckley’s number and then you took on the captaincy, how did you handle that pressure?

Maxwell: “I didn’t really know what leadership was all about but I guess that was a good thing because obviously they saw something in me, that (I was) I guess a bit of a natural, I didn’t really realise what was going on or what that was all about, but my opinion was just whatever felt right was the direction we should go.

“In the end you start looking around and look for help and I had some great mentors who helped me through that period as well.”

NEXT PODCAST: FORMER COLLINGWOOD GREAT ANTHONY ROCCA AND CLUB HISTORIAN MICHAEL ROBERTS DISCUSS THE TOP 25 PIES PLAYERS FROM THE PAST 125 YEARS