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As football second comings go, the tale of the Craig Kelly-Graham Wright double act at Collingwood, together again 33 years after one of the club\u2019s most famous premierships, deserves a starring storyline should the Magpies win the 2023 flag.<\/p>\n
The team of 1990 never came seriously close again but the influence coach Leigh Matthews and so many of his key players who thrashed Essendon on that October grand final day have continued to impose upon the game for three decades speaks not only to their character but also to the powerful connections of the Collingwood Football Club.<\/p>\n
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Graham Wright and Craig Kelly this year.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Penny Stephens<\/cite><\/p>\n Wright finished second in the Brownlow Medal count of 1990 while Kelly was one of captain Tony Shaw\u2019s strongest on-field lieutenants, remaining a key powerbroker at Collingwood decades before he returned as club chief executive over the pre-season.<\/p>\n The Magpies struggled with succession over the Eddie McGuire era but president Jeff Browne clearly sees Kelly \u2013 who considered but chose not to run for the presidency more than a decade ago due to his management conflicts \u2013 as the perfect candidate to replace him when the time comes.<\/p>\n Tony Shaw and Leigh Matthews with the 1990 cup.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Mark Wilson<\/cite><\/p>\n Football boss Wright, the caretaker chief executive last year before Kelly came on board, is in turn one key candidate to replace Kelly.<\/p>\n Two sources close to the board confirmed the Kelly succession plan but would not talk publicly because of the lack of certainty over the timing of any future hand-over.<\/p>\n Their journey to Victoria Park in the late 1980s was more complicated. Back then, as now, Wright\u2019s arrival preceded Kelly. The prodigiously talented wingman from East Devonport and 1987 No.3 national draft pick showed some reluctance late in the piece to cross to Collingwood, forcing president Allan McAlister and football boss Graeme Allan to fly to Tasmania and visit him during a football game at Burnie where a more lucrative deal was achieved before the final siren.<\/p>\n South Australian Kelly had been drafted the previous year but stayed loyal to Norwood for two more seasons, crossing to the Magpies in late 1988. The club flew him straight to Toronto, replacing Damian Monkhorst in the highly successful international series that year, where Kelly quickly made a name for himself with a head-high hit on Dermott Brereton.<\/p>\n Defender Craig Kelly (back) in action during the 1990 premiership over Essendon.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Mark Wilson<\/cite><\/p>\n Back in Melbourne Darren Millane and Denis Banks were chosen to look out for their new teammate in an assignment that ended badly on at least one occasion for Kelly. Wright and Kelly lived together, too, for a time at Kelly\u2019s first house in Abbotsford.<\/p>\n But when their playing careers ended, their paths post football showed no signs of colliding early on.<\/p>\n Kelly\u2019s journey to becoming one of the AFL\u2019s most influential powerbrokers is well known, although it\u2019s worth remembering that Browne gave him his start. Browne and Allan were close friends and Allan had organised a personal assistant for Kelly during his final season of 1996. He assumed the title of marketing manager and started guiding the off-field fortunes of some Magpie teammates.<\/p>\n As Nathan Buckley commented on SEN at the start of the 2023 season: \u201c\u2018Ned promotions\u2019 started as a two-by-three room behind the Daicos Bar behind the Bob Rose Stand. That\u2019s where he started taking calls from people who wanted players to turn up for promo gigs.\u201d<\/p>\n Browne, the AFL\u2019s lawyer from 1985 through until 2005, mentioned to Allan after Kelly retired that the AFL was looking at bringing player management in-house. Allan convinced him to meet Kelly. What followed was the AFL-funded ProSquad with headline acts including his old teammate Buckley.<\/p>\n Kelly\u2019s then fledgling Elite Sports Properties later took over the September Club, the AFL\u2019s licensing of memorabilia, and later the national under-18 competition.<\/p>\n Injury and illness had an impact on Wright\u2019s career, and he retired after 201 games in 1998. After a brief period running a sports store, Wright seemed at the career crossroads before his old Collingwood football boss Allan employed him as a junior recruiter with the Brisbane Lions.<\/p>\n That move, followed by the decision to study for an MBA in sports management, set him on a path to Hawthorn where Wright initially worked under Chris Pelchen and went on to become one of the competition\u2019s most admired list managers, and a key player in that club\u2019s premiership three-peat. His return to Collingwood in early 2021 marked McGuire\u2019s last key appointment after a revolving door of football bosses.<\/p>\n Browne\u2019s Collingwood connections ran deep but the board stoush, which began with McGuire\u2019s swift departure soon after Wright\u2019s appointment and the fall-out from the Do Better <\/em>report, took a season to resolve before he assumed the presidency in his first official role at Collingwood.<\/p>\n Wright during that season convinced Buckley that for the club to continue to change for the better, the coach needed to change as well. With former CEO Mark Anderson, influential past player and director Paul Licuria \u2013 who initially resisted the Browne ticket \u2013 along with the now-departed director Peter Murphy, Wright selected Craig McRae.<\/p>\n But it was Browne who transformed the club\u2019s commercial division with former Nine executive Ian Paterson and its media operation poaching Nadine Rabah from the AFL, and luring Kelly from his thicket of management roles and lucrative AFL partnerships to run Collingwood.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like getting the band back together,\u201d said Browne with a laugh this week.<\/p>\n The class of 1990 never did get the band back together for another premiership after that famous drought breaker. They partied too long and too hard to make any impact the following year, and in the post-season of 1991, Millane died after a horrific car accident.<\/p>\n In football terms the loss of the brilliant wingman at the peak of his powers, followed by Kelly\u2019s season-ending knee injury during 1992, cost that Collingwood side a genuine opportunity of a second premiership under Matthews and Shaw that year.<\/p>\n Collingwood\u2019s1990 premiership team at their 20-year reunion in 2010.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Pat Scala<\/cite><\/p>\n Matthews\u2019 so-called \u201cjob for life\u201d at Collingwood, as promised by then president Allan McAlister, ended in 1995. Three years later, with Allan at his side, he took over at Brisbane. After placing that club at the forefront of the AFL map with three premierships and the creation of a coaching dynasty \u2013 including McRae \u2013 of his own, Matthews remains a director of the Lions and that is where his loyalties firmly remain.<\/p>\n Every premiership is unique and comes with its various nuggets of folklore but those who were involved with Collingwood\u2019s first premiership in 32 years after so many heartbreaking losses believe it took a special group of on-field leaders to achieve it.<\/p>\n Paul Tuddenham only played 10 senior games in 1990 but still marvels at the determined roles played by Shaw, Kelly and Wright in their refusal to accept defeat along with Millane, Banks, Gavin Brown and his now next-door neighbour and past players\u2019 convenor Mick Gayfer.<\/p>\n As president of the past players and a friend of Browne\u2019s brother Murray \u2013 another Magpie past players\u2019 head \u2013 Tuddenham was one of the power brokers who helped deliver the presidency to Browne as well as joining his ticket. Tuddenham said the support of 1990 Norm Smith medallist Shaw should not be underestimated in Browne\u2019s leadership coup.<\/p>\n \u201cTony Shaw was and is an absolute legend,\u201d said Tuddenham, \u201cand his influence is perhaps underestimated in how he motivated that team and still motivates Collingwood. I talk to him a lot and we all felt that Jeff Browne was the right person.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Buckley, who tried several times during his decade as coach to lure his close friend and manager Kelly back to run Collingwood, Tuddenham recalls his biggest push for Kelly, which came over a round of golf at Barnbougle in Tasmania\u2019s north. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m so happy that 10 years after that conversation that he\u2019s finally come back,\u201d said Tuddenham, whose best personal memory of 1990 was playing alongside the brilliant Peter Daicos.<\/p>\n \u201cFor more than a handful of games I had the privilege of a front-row seat to one of the greatest-ever seasons by a small half-forward. And to think we are going to watch his two sons run out on Saturday …\u201d <\/p>\n Daicos, too, backed the Browne ticket, which, along with the support of Shaw and Darcy Moore\u2019s champion father Peter Moore, rendered Browne\u2019s presidential ambitions unbeatable in the eyes of the Collingwood members.<\/p>\n Match review officer Michael Christian has been repeatedly told over the years that the 1990 premiership team he played in was not a team of stand-out players. \u201cPeople say it wasn\u2019t a great team, and it\u2019s true that, apart from Peter Daicos, there was no real brilliance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut that\u2019s what made it such a special group. We were so even. Daics was a great player, and he is a great friend and now to think he is back watching Josh and Nick. I just love the way he celebrates his kids. You don\u2019t see many football fathers like him with such unbridled joy in what they achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n Of his premiership teammates Kelly and Wright, he said with a laugh: \u201cIt\u2019s scary for me to see those two in charge. But seriously there has been a lot of nostalgia around this week.<\/p>\n \u201cI love the romance of the fact that two of those players who gave so much to the club as players and played such a big role in ending the premiership drought are now steering the ship.\u201d<\/p>\n Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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