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
.