An idea from supporter to President
born on Collingwood fansite
Nicks Bulletin Board mid 2001

Joffa Corfe Eddie McGuire!

The Prince Of Coaches!

Has there ever been a more historic influence on the Collingwood Football Club, Our Spiritual Grand father James (Jock) Francis McHale Born 12 Decenber 1882.

• Recruited from Coburg Juniours
• First Played V Carlton round 1 1903 
• Last Played V Essendon round 1 1920
• Total Games Played  261 day 3 Interstate.
• Total goals kicked  18 day 0 interstate.
• Club Honours Captain 1912, 13, 17 part.
• Senior Coach 1912 - 1950 38 seasons
• Committeeman 1921 - 38
• Vice President 1939-53
• Life Member.
• Other Honours Interstate Representative 1911 carnival
• VFL representitive 1912 v Ballarat 1913 v Bendigo
• Guernsey Numbers 13 1911 Grand Final
• 16 1912-1918
• 20 1913
• 19 1914
• 17 1915-1917
• Premierships as Player 1910  1917 
• Premierships as Coach 1917 1919 1927 1928 1929 1930 1935 1936
• Collingwood Team Of The Century (Interchange)
• Australin Football Hall Of Fame (Legend)
• AFL Team Of The Century (Coach)

Coaching Stats:

• 714 Matches
• 8 Premierships
• 467 Wins 237 Losses 10 Draws
  Statistics to end of the 1949 season.

Since 2001 The Winning Premiership Coach has recieved the Jock McHale Medallion in Honour of Jocks contribution to the game. The idea for the Jock McHale Medallion was born on Collingwood fansite Nicks Bulletin board by Yours Truly Joffa Corfe and Eddie McGuire who took the idea to the powers of the AFL.

At the time Eddie was wanting the premiership cup to be called the McHale Barrassi cup

Jock McHale sadly passed away a day after our 1953 finals campaign which netted the club a premiership after a 17 year drought, Jock was overwhelmed with emotion and suffered a heart attack. Interesting to note club Stalwart John Wren suffered a heart attack during the match and died 26th October 1953.

To dismiss McHales influence on modern day Collingwood would be folly. Could Mick Malthouse be the modern day version of Jock McHale? Sadly certain chapters of our history have been questionable with the likes of Ern Clarke (who for all good purposes was probably a good Collingwood brother) who decided to ignore and even try to erase our beautiful rich history. During Clarkes Presidency in the mid seventies truck loads of Collingwood memorabillia was found dumped at a suburban tip. The Clarke led administration believed our guardianship of our history was not bringing the club success, They even had Mike Brady record a modern day 'evil' version of our club song Good Old Collingwood Forever. As a young teenager at the time it was a dark period in my life for the people in control of my club did not love the club as I did, I can tell ya many tears were shed when the bastards discarded our original club song.

We must at all times embrace what people like McHale have done for our club, we are rich in characters, without those characters we would be nothing, we would have no chapters, we would be void of culture, we in a sense would have no soul.

This page is very much dedicated to Jock McHale and his lifetime love affair with the Collingwood Football Club for whom we owe so much!