There are many reasons Collingwood is massive, here are just five:
1. an original club
2. Working class
3. Highly successful prior to WW2
4. Metropolitan zoning
5. Working class families that moved to cheaper suburbs and bred like rabbits
Collingwood and Souths are the two most similar clubs between AFL and NRL.
In 1915 VFL “zoned” local metropolitan areas, carving out portions around the city - not just a local district - for each team.
So Collingwood’s recruitment zone was a whole heap of suburbs to the north and north east of Collingwood. Many of which had no affiliation with Collingwood previous to 1915.
Collingwood: Cities of Collingwood, Coburg (part), Preston (part), Northcote, Heidelberg, Shires of Diamond Valley, Eltham.
It’s 23km from Collingwood to Diamond Valley and Eltham. Those suburbs have no link to Collingwood before 1915. It would be like giving Canterbury access to talent in seven hills and Blacktown (23kms away).
As those northern and north eastern suburbs grew with new working class families, and immigrants, so to did Collingwood’s supporters base.
From 1915 to 1960 Collingwood played in 23 grand finals, winning 10. First and only team to win 4 in a row 1927-30. From 1925-1939 they were in 11 GFs and won 6.
So basically like South’s, Collingwood cashed in early from the very start of their league and had two generations of supporters all over the city before WW2.
Canterbury formed in 1935 didn’t they? South’s and others already had their supporter basis’ solidified and past on to the next generation and the next and the next after that.
The bulldogs may well have increased popularity outside of their LGA when they dominated in the 80s. But what they needed to do to maximise this, and be like Hawthorn (formed in 1925) and have another extremely dominant decade post 1990.
Canterbury decided not to stretch out to another region like Hawthorn did with Tasmania. They’ve stagnated as a result - south’s and wests have moved in on their territory. They are actually now surrounded by wests, Parramatta, St George and south’s with little Avenue to grow outside of their district in Sydney.
They ain’t been a powerhouse for almost 20 years. Gould will obviously change that - but they’ll never compete with South’s or the other Sydney clubs for supporters across Australia. No one outside NSW even knows where Canterbury is ffs - hence why they changed their name to Sydney Bulldogs in the 90s.
Now you have over 100 years of league and Canterbury’s fan base is primarily trapped in a few south western suburbs. It’s not gonna grow outside of that region as every other Sydney team is set in stone with their own districts. That’s why they should, at very least, have followed the Hawthorn model and adopted perth or Adelaide as a partner.
Better yet, relocate to Perth full time and make shit loads more money and dominate the comp. WA government would bank roll all infrastructure and you could retain the Canterbury district talent and build the next Storm/Broncos etc. The dogs could have had 2m plus people in perth that actually have money (not like south west Sydney) to sell ur team too. Plus cashed in on WA corporates.
Only someone high and ripping cones all day would think Perth wouldn’t be the best option for theclub going fwd.
Anyways I could go on about the overwhelming benefits of relocating two Sydney clubs to Adelaide and Perth forever.
But then the old adage comes to mind:
“Bee’s don’t waste their time explaining to flies that honey is better than shit”
So I hope you, as well as all the loudmouth abusive pro Sydney club posters on here, continue to enjoy mediocrity and the taste of shit for generations to come
