Twins separated at birth – the uncanny relationship between Collingwood FC and Newcastle United

When I first arrived in Australia, a year ago, it wasn’t long before the local sporting pressure started. ‘What teams will you follow?’ was the almost daily question.

Clearly the Sydney bias was for NRL whilst the constant ask in Melbourne was which AFL team to champion.

So I realized that I needed to pick a team. The obvious route as someone who lives in Sydney would have been to pick the Swans and if I fancied the underdogs, I could have opted for the Giants.

But, I always prefer the right answer rather than the easy one. As a serious soccer (& it so hurts to use the word ‘soccer’ but I know I have to conform to local culture) fan I’ve always despised the fans who just pick the best teams. I’m done with those folly fans of Man Utd or Real Madrid. Next season, we’ll see a few more Leicester City shirts.

For me, soccer has religious connotations, so I needed purpose and meaning to my AFL team choice. There’s a firm and grounded reason for choice of team.

My UK soccer team for the last 25 years are a very average & very occasionally inspirational premier league (EPL) team from the North East of England called Newcastle United.

If you don’t know who they are then let me explain. They play in black & white striped shirts and their nickname is the Magpies. Sound familiar to AFL fans?

Whilst that got me thinking about team choice I wanted to go further so off to Wikipedia, I ran. I started to scan any interesting data points. Having scanned through the pages of many teams, I noticed the year the Magpies of Melbourne were founded; February 1892.

So here’s the crazy thing. Newcastle United were also founded in the same year although later in 1892.

The thing is that in 1892, only 1 AFL team were founded and 1 pure premier league team were founded. Liverpool might contest otherwise but they are a breakaway club.

That was it for me. I had chosen Collingwood. With pride, I shared my choice with colleagues at work via email.

Within 2 minutes, I got an email back that basically said, ‘Noooo! Everyone hates Collingwood and more importantly, you have more teeth than the average Collingwood fan.’

Several similar emails followed. The thing is I suspect that all of the folk who shunned me have never been to St James Park in Newcastle upon Tyne. A town with a strong history in both mining and ship-building. Really hard-core working class, in the main, but a warm, funny and soccer loving folk.

I once took a nephew to a Newcastle United match , where they had the pleasure of meeting Jimmy “five bellies’ Gardner and then sitting in front of 3 Geordie (Newcastle) fans with tops off and the word ‘Toon Army’ & ‘Geordie’ tattooed just above their bum cracks.

Over the coming months, the grief and pressure of selecting Collingwood was upon me almost daily.

The more grief the more determined I was in my choice. My wife even bought me a Magpies t-shirt.

I needed to vindicate my choice and so I got deep again into Google and Wikipedia. As I explored Collingwood I was amazed with what I discovered. I was looking at the songs of various teams and noticed that the anthem for Newcastle United (called the ‘Blaydon Races’) included a reference to ‘Collingwood Street’.

Who was Collingwood?

Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood was a legend in the North East of England in the 18th century. He was Admiral Nelson’s right hand man (pun intended) and a key player at the battle of Trafalgar. Now Baron Collingwood has a statue erected in his honour in Tynemouth near Newcastle upon Tyne.

In the 19th century, Collingwood was the name given to new towns across the world including Ontario, Canada; New Zealand; Vancouver and, of course, Melbourne.

My theory is that some Geordies left Newcastle for Australia and got to Melbourne. They felt that the legend of the local ‘rockstar’ Baron Collingwood needed to live on the other side of the world. So the suburb of Collingwood was born and then of course the club. Someone at Collingwood and Newcastle need to look up the archives. The strip and the name cannot simply be coincidence, can it?

Somewhere the DNA of both clubs must be linked. There has to be a Geordie link to explain the Magpies of Melbourne and Newcastle. I’m convinced they are footy twins separated at birth.