Collingwood Magpies, Aussie Rules Football

The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or even less formally the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Formed in 1892 in the then-working class Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, the club played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) before joining seven other teams in 1896 to found the breakaway Victorian Football League (now the national AFL). Originally based at Victoria Park, Collingwood now plays its home games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground with its training and administrative headquarters located at Olympic Park Oval and the Holden Centre. Collingwood has played in a record 44 VFL/AFL Grand Finals (including rematches), winning 15, drawing two and losing 27 (also a record). Collingwood also won a record-breaking four premierships in a row between 1927 and 1930. Collingwood is regarded as one of Australia's most popular sports clubs, attracting the highest attendance figures and television ratings of any professional team in the nation.[2] In 2013, it became the first AFL club to reach 80,000 members. Collingwood's iconic home guernsey consists of black and white stripes, matching the colours of an Australian magpie. Throughout its history, the club has developed rivalries with cross-town Melbourne based clubs Carlton, Richmond and Essendon. More recently, the club developed a rivalry with the Brisbane Lions, based in Queensland.[citation needed] Collingwood fields a reserves team in the Victorian Football League (formerly the VFA) and a women's side in the AFL Women's competition. It also owns and operates a netball team in the National Netball League.