why we hate the Collingwood football team

Having attended the Hawthorn Collingwood football game I was inspired to ask why people so hate the Collingwood football team?

Is this hatred the product of snobbery?

Are our attitudes to the Collingwood football teams still affected by the nineteenth and early twentieth century character of the suburb of Collingwood and its residents?

Do we hate the Collingwood football team because of the large number of catholic supporters? Did the conscription debates that occurred during the First World War and the Irish origins of many of its supporters effect people perceptions of the team?


I suspect the reason we hate the Collingwood football team is because of the involvement of the entrepreneur John Wren (1871-1953) . Wren developed a large business empire based on the running illegal bookmaking activities.
“That Wren became a local hero, generous to the needy—and the Catholic Church—enraged wowsers like William Judkins and Henry Worrall. The Lone Hand denounced this 'pestilent citizen' who drained the wages of 'infatuated workers', while Judkins condemned a 'Vesuvius of carnality … greed … animalism'. Undoubtedly Wren employed ex-criminals as henchmen, punished 'narks' and, under the lax police commissioner Thomas O'Callaghan, 'fixed' witnesses in gaming cases, though no one ever 'shelfed' him.”

Why do we continue to hate the Collingwood football team after so many years the answer seems to be that unlike other crooks who have managed football teams in Victoria wren managed to out manoeuvre and outwit the Melbourne establishment.