Collingwood

Every year as Collingwood prepares to play Essendon at the AFL's annual Anzac Day match, Collingwood president Eddie McGuire carries an old horseshoe into the team's changing rooms and passes it around. The players look at it as he tells the great footy club story behind it.

It's the turn of the 20th century, and one player, Doc Seddon, introduces his childhood sweetheart, Louie, to his dashing teammate, Paddy Rowan. Paddy sweeps Louie off her feet and they marry, but war intervenes. Doc and Paddy go off to fight, leaving Louie in Collingwood to raise Paddy's baby. Before Paddy is killed, Doc promises that he will always look after his wife and child. Just before the 1917 Grand Final, he sends a horseshoe back from the Somme, where he continues to serve. It brings the Magpies luck-they win.

It is a lovely story. Except, of course, that the truth is much more gritty. Fairytales didn't happen in the biggest slum of Melbourne.

In this glimpse into compelling real story of Doc and Louie and Paddy, Paul Daley writes about the role that the Collingwood Football club played in the struggling community that gave rise to it and introduces an array of characters, including John Wren and Archbishop Daniel Mannix, in a multi-generational saga of football, love, war and, most critically, identity.

About the Author

Paul Daley is a Canberra author, columnist and multi-award winning journalist. He has worked extensively overseas, including in trouble spots and conflict zones across Asia, the South Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. He is the author, most recently, of the bestselling Beersheba. He is married to political journalist Lenore Taylor. They have three children.