Harry Collier (1 October 1907 – 16 August 1994) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

Playing career

Originally from

Ivanhoe, Victoria Ivanhoe is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, central business district, located within the City of Banyule Local Government Areas of Victoria, local gove ...

, Collier played for the

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. ...

, debuting in 1926. Collier was a player in Collingwood's legendary premiership sides from 1927–1930, the only side to have won four premierships in a row in the entire history of the

VFL/AFL The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

. He was appointed captain in 1935, a position which he held until 1939. During this period, his team won two premierships (in 1935 and 1936), and finished runners-up in the other three years he was captain. He was said to be Collingwood's best player during the era, taking out the club best and fairest award in 1928 and 1930. Collier retired in 1940 after only one game for the season, his career record standing at 253 games and 299 goals with the Magpies.

Honours

Collier was retrospectively rewarded a

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

after originally tying for the 1930 award where Collier, Stan Judkins and Allan Hopkins all finished with an equal number of votes. The Umpires Board (which administered the award) recommended that no medal be awarded as there were inconsistent provisions within the rules for the event of a tie. Significantly, among three informal votes cast during the year, one vote from a Collingwood game was simply labelled "Collier", but as there were two Collier brothers playing in the game, the vote was not counted. The VFL board ultimately overruled the umpires board, and used the criterion that stated the medal be awarded to the player who polled the highest percentage of votes against games played to award the medal to Judkins. To avoid situations like this in the future, the rules were altered to a 3-2-1 system in 1931. In 1989, the VFL retrospectively eliminated the countbacks from all tied Brownlow Medal results, and Hopkins and Collier, while both still living, were awarded joint 1930 Brownlow Medals. Other honours include Collier's posthumous induction into Collingwood's Team of the Century and, in 1996, induction into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the 1996 AFL season, centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media pe ...

Post-playing career

Following his playing career, Collier coached the Essendon reserves to a premiership in 1941. He later became a committeeman for Collingwood. Collier was also a noted television personality during the time of Australia's first year of broadcasting in 1956 and subsequent years.

Personal life

Collier was the older brother of former champion Collingwood player (and 1929

winner)

Albert Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert Computers, Inc., a computer manufacturer in the 1980s * Albert Czech Republic, a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street mar ...

Death

Collier died in 1994.

Notes

References

*
Australian Football Hall of Fame

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Collier, Harry 1907 births 1994 deaths Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents Ivanhoe Amateurs Football Club players Collingwood Football Club players Collingwood Football Club premiership players Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Brownlow Medal winners Copeland Trophy winners Camberwell Football Club players Australian television personalities VFL/AFL premiership players People from Collingwood, Victoria 20th-century Australian sportsmen