It has been exactly 20 years since the passing of Collingwood legend Darren "Pants" Millane.
It is fitting that tonight the club will acknowledge Darren and his family when it hands out the Darren Millane Trophy for the best clubman. Skipper Nick Maxwell won the prestigious honour in 2010.
On October 7, 1991 a tragedy descended upon the Collingwood Football Club when premiership hero Darren Millane died in a drink-driving car accident sending the AFL world into shock and grief. The 26-year-old had just completed his eighth season with the club and was on his way to catch up with his 1990 premiership teammates.
A player who went into every contest as hard as he could, Millane always put the team and the black and white guernsey first. The former Dandenong captain played 147 games for Collingwood and was relied upon to grab the strong mark when his teammates kicked out of defense. Originally sought after by St Kilda and Hawthorn, Millane signed with Collingwood in 1984.
His biggest contribution to the club was arguably his role in the Magpies’ 1990 drought-breaking premiership season. In the lead up to the 1990 finals, Millane fractured his right thumb and it was widely thought he would miss the entire series. From the outset however, an injured thumb was not going to deter him from playing and he relied on taking strong doses of painkiller injections to survive the finals campaign.
After beating West Coast by 59 points in the qualifying final replay, Collingwood made it to the Grand Final with relative ease. In front of 98,944 at the MCG, Millane played a sterling role on the left wing collecting 26 possessions and was named in the side’s best in the 48-point triumph. The final siren sounded with the ball fittingly in Millane’s hands, a moment that will forever be etched in the minds of Collingwood supporters.
During the season, Millane was simply outstanding winning the AFL Players Association MVP award (since renamed the Leigh Matthews Trophy), was selected in the AFL Team of the Year and finished second in the club’s best and fairest.
Millane, the only player to have his number (42) retired by the club, averaged 22 touches in his final year at the club. Exactly one year and one day after Collingwood’s 14th VFL-AFL premiership, Millane’s life ended tearing a hole through the heart of the club.
Information used to compile this article was sourced from “The Official Collingwood Illustrated Encyclopaedia” which can be purchased at the Collingwood Superstore.
