World-class crowds: Magpie Army flocks to Fly's Pies in record numbers

COLLINGWOOD is the Dallas Cowboys and Manchester United of the AFL with the club stacking up attendance figures just like the NFL and EPL powerhouses under Craig McRae’s watch. 

With the win-loss record under McRae starting to leap off the page – 77.78 per cent in home and away (H&A) games, 74.36 per cent overall – the Magpies are attracting fans to games at a rate that has rarely been seen in the history of the game.

The 65,930 who attended Sunday’s thriller against Adelaide made up only the 15th-biggest Collingwood crowd since McRae took the reins. It was the third time this season the Magpies have played in a game that has broken the record H&A attendance between the two sides involved. 

When 86,595 turned up on the first Friday night of the season – just under 2000 shy of the H&A record between Collingwood and Geelong – the tone was set for what was to come. 

More than 60,000 turned up the following week for a Saturday afternoon game against Port Adelaide, eclipsing the previous best between the Pies and the Power and setting a new record for a Port H&A fixture. 

95,179 crammed in on Anzac Day a month later to break the 1995 record for that fixture and register the biggest crowd between these two sides – not including finals – across 228 meetings.

A fortnight later 71,463 turned up to see Collingwood take on Sydney, falling just short of the biggest crowd between the clubs.

McRae has won 21 of the 25 MCG games he has coached, including last year’s semi-final over Fremantle in front of 90,612. 

The Magpies have reached the 90,000 mark three times since McRae took over from Nathan Buckley. 

Collingwood has also eclipsed 80,000 on seven other occasions, alongside four crowds in the 70,000s and three in the 60,000s. 

When the Magpies sank arch rival Carlton on the final day of last year’s H&A season, the crowd of 88,287 was a record H&A figure between the two traditional rivals. 

McRae’s men head to Queensland this weekend to face Gold Coast at Heritage Bank Stadium, where the record attendance set in round 16, 2014 – the day Gary Ablett did his shoulder – of 24,032 still stands. The top two figures at the venue involved the Magpies. The Suns are hopeful of breaking the record on Saturday night and getting close to the 27,500 capacity at Carrara.

To highlight just how big the pull is for the Magpies right now, there are currently only standing room tickets available for next Friday night’s game against the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium, with some confidence the crowd will reach 50,000 at Docklands for the first time since 2011 and only the 20th time in the venue’s history. 51,382 turned up in 2009 for a game between these two sides when Mick Malthouse and Rodney Eade where still perched in the coaches box, barking orders down the phone. 

The Dallas Cowboys enjoyed a home attendance record of 93,465 at AT&T Stadium during last season, well ahead of the next best New York Jets, who attracted 78,009 to Metlife Stadium in the Meadowlands. 

Manchester United averaged 73,798 people at Old Trafford during the 2022/23 English Premier League season, ahead of West Ham United who had 62,462 on average at the London Stadium, just ahead of Tottenham Hotspur (61,576) and Arsenal (60,191). 

Collingwood is averaging a VFL/AFL record 62,098 per game in 2023 for an average attendance of 55,941 across McRae’s first 39 games in charge. 

The crowd on Sunday didn’t include McRae’s daughter. He cheekily admitted in his post-game press conference that she didn’t scan into the ground when he drove into the basement of the MCG.

The Magpies are the kings of the close finish. And the Collingwood faithful is proving to be a key reason why.