First Captains First Captains: Watt and Delahuntly
Image from: McFarlane, G., & Roberts, M. (2005). Collingwood at Victoria Park. Revised and Updated Edition. Media Giants.
First Game Preview Preview of Collingwoods first game - Mercury and Weekly Courier (5th May 1892).
Source: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59754558
First Game last quarter Last quarter review - Mercury and Weekly Courier (12th May 1892).
Source: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59754582

The first game that Collingwood played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) was against Carlton on Saturday 7th May 1892. An advertisement ran by The Argus newspaper (Advert, 1892) stated that the gates were to open at 2pm, and for 6 pennies you could watch the game which commenced at 3pm (The Argus, 1892). An estimated crowd of 16,000 people attended the match (Mercury and Weekly Courier, 1892).

The Mercury and Weekly Courier (1892) reported that on Wednesday evening, 4th May 1892 the players elected Mr Delahuntly as Captain for the season, and Mr J Watt as Vice Captain. Unfortunately, Delahuntly was injured and therefore unable to take to the field for the inaugural match.

Players of the first Collingwood team were
(Collingwood v Carlton, 1892):

Backs - Jones, Hegarty, Costello
Half Backs - Barkett, Markham, Waldron
Centre - Brown, Watt, Ryan
Half Forward - O'Loughlin, Proudfoot, Purcell
Forward - Connell, Toll, Smith
Followers - Murphy, Allan, M'Inerney, Lambly
Rover - Langford
Central Umpire - W. Hayes
Goal Umpires - Heron and Kennedy

Final Score. Carlton defeated Collingwood 3 goals to 2. Points were not calculated for scoring. The Barrier Miner (1892) however reported that The new club (Collingwood) showed splendid form against Carlton, who are very strong this season and the contest was very close.