In the 1950’s and 1960’s, there was no bigger rivalry in football than that between Melbourne and Collingwood.
Between 1955 and 1964 the two clubs faced off in nine finals and five Grand Finals with Melbourne winning four of those season deciders (1955, 1956, 1960 and 1964) while the Magpies famous 1958 triumph prevented their arch rivals from equalling their record of four consecutive premierships.Importantly, more than 120 years ago, these two clubs began a tradition of the Queen’s Birthday clash.
While the Queen’s Birthday clash has been an annual fixture of the AFL season since 2001, Melbourne and Collingwood first met on this date at the MCG back in 1898, when the Demons defeated the Pies by 10 points.
Their next clash on Queen’s Birthday didn’t come until 1950 when Melbourne scored a comfortable 46-point win in front of 55,002 at the MCG.
Since then, the two clubs have met 28 times on the second Monday in June which celebrates the Queen’s Birthday.
It took until 1977 for Collingwood to topple its arch rivals on Queen’s Birthday when 63,966 at the MCG saw the Pies claim a 33-point win.
The 1958 Queen’s Birthday clash is arguably the most famous of the games on this date between Melbourne and Collingwood.
That match attracted the VFL/AFL’s highest ever home-and-away crowd when 99,256 saw the Demons beat Collingwood by 11 points.
Ian Ridley, who later served as coach and President of Melbourne, booted five goals for the winners while Ian Brewer kicked six for the Pies.
The two clubs then met ad hoc on the Queen’s Birthday up until it became an annual fixture in 2001.
Collingwood has won 11 of the clashes since 2001, including five in a row between 2011 and 2015, while the Demons took the points in four consecutive seasons between 2004 and 2007.
The 2010 contest ended in a draw – the first between the two clubs since 1957. Ironically, the other clash earlier that season resulted in a one-point win to Collingwood.
Last year’s match, won by Collingwood, attracted the biggest crowd of 83,518 while the Pies’ 88-point win in 2011 is the biggest winning margin.
Overall, Collingwood and Melbourne have met 236 times with the Pies winning 148 times, the Demons 83 with five draws.
From 2014 the Queen’s Birthday fixture has also proudly hosted the Big Freeze at the ‘G, a key event to raise funds to fight Motor Neurone Disease (MND), a concept developed by former Melbourne coach Neale Daniher who is diagnosed with MND.
Since 2015 the player judged best-on-ground is awarded the Neale Daniher Trophy with the winners so far being Travis Cloke (2015), Max Gawn (2016), Christian Petracca (2017) and Mason Cox (2018).
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