The colours of the Collingwood Football Club are black and white
in the design
of vertical stripes. When the club was formed for entry into the Victorian Football
Association(VFA) they were unable to use the colours that had represented the
Britannia Football Club given Footscray (now known as Western Bulldogs) already
wore, and had registered the royal colours
of red, white and blue in the VFA.
Therefore for entry into the VFA the colours needed to change.
McFarlane & Roberts (2005) suggest that William Samuel Crawley is credited with
promoting the colours and design after sighting this on the inter-colonial team of
South Australia whilst watching them take on Victoria at Adelaide Oval on Saturday
13th June, 1891. The design of the South Australia inter-colonial team was reported
within 'The Advertiser' newspaper (June 15, 1891) as Our men were dressed in
black and white striped guernseys, white knickers, and black stockings...
. It is these
colours, and style that is synonymous with the Collingwood Football Club, and are
arguably the most recognisable within the Australian sporting arena.
It would however be remiss not to point out that
the original design is slightly ajar for debate
as The Argus
newspaper reported from the
inaugural game against Carlton that their
colours are black and white in diagonal stripes
(May 9, 1892). However, no other
information available to date supports this claim.
It is also possible that given the guernseys were
inconsistent in design, noticeable when closely examining
the 1894 team picture, that some stripes may have given the
illusion of being diagonal even if that was not
the intended look.
The Mercury and Weekly Courier (May 5, 1892) reported that a team photo was to be taken before the inaugural match against Carlton on behalf of a Mr Bremner, now if only a copy could be located.