By sports editor Russell Bennett
Michael Collins has always let his actions on the footy field do his talking.
And it’s those actions that have forged his reputation as one of the genuine legends in south east community footy history.
The Narre Warren icon retired on the highest of highs – immediately following his seventh senior premiership, the Magpies’ 2019 AFL Outer East Premier division flag win over their famous rivals from Berwick.
But ‘Collo’ is making a stunning return to the field for 2021 in new colours and a different league – Bunyip in the hyper-competitive West Gippsland Football Netball Competition.
The WGFNC has captured plenty of attention throughout the south east and Gippsland since its inception, given the strength of its upper echelon of sides, and the calibre of their recruits.
Long one of Gippsland’s proudest clubs, with a storied history already featuring some of its biggest footballing names, Bunyip is about to have another giant of the sport don the famous red, white, and blue.
Collins has played just shy of 300 senior games at Narre, and in that time has forged a resume that can still hardly be believed.
He’s an eight-time best and fairest winner at the Magpies, a former premiership captain, a 10-time interleague representative (including a stint as captain), a Vic Country representative, and an 11-time Gazette Team of the Year member.
He also happens to be an imposing midfield bull in a key position player’s body.
To many, it’s unfathomable picturing him in any other footy colours than Narre’s famous black and white strip.
But Collins’ reasons for beginning a fresh chapter in the twilight of his playing career – in his mid-30s – are simple, according to new Bunyip coach Tim McGibney.
“Dyl (new Bunyip recruit Dylan Quirk) and I had a conversation about four weeks ago about being still on the hunt for that ‘missing link’ – someone who had real flexibility around where they could play, and from a list management perspective we’d identified we still needed to find another 20 or so goals,” he said.
“We tried to find someone who could bring more leadership to the club, could play a role in the midfield, and could be that 20 goal forward as well.
“Those players are like diamonds, and Collo is absolutely one of a kind there.”
McGibney said when he took the Bunyip coaching job in the first place, some of the existing core playing group who had played in a senior premiership at the club nearly a decade ago identified that they needed to add more, recent premiership experience.
“What we wanted to do was put more people around these guys who knew what success looked like,” McGibney said simply.
“From the outset, I had a strong focus on bringing in more on-field leaders – as a non-playing coach, I can’t lead by example out there.”
He knows just how cut-throat the upper echelon of the WGFNC really is.
When Collins walked off the field for the final time in Narre colours at the end of 2019, it was widely expected he’d played his last game of senior footy.
But the lure of playing alongside two of his former Magpies premiership team mates – Dylan and Ryan Quirk – and at the same club as two other Narre legends in Ricky Clark and newly-appointed Bunyip president Aussie Jones proved too strong to ignore.
“When Dyl and I spoke about getting that final piece, he’d mentioned he’d bumped into Collo and he’d told him he had unfinished business from a playing point of view – that he wasn’t where he wanted to be, physically, at the end of 2019,” McGibney said.
“Once Collo’s name came up as someone who may be interested in pulling on the boots again, I just said to Dyl – what are the chances?”
Collins’ connections at Bunyip stem far and wide – even beyond the Quirks, Clark, and Jones, to a former on-field nemesis but good mate in former Beaconsfield star ruckman Chris Kelf.
“He asked Kelfy what Bunyip was like as a country club, and Kelfy was just honest with him,” McGibney said.
“That he just feels at home there.”
McGibney knows the inevitable questions will come from the outside – how can Bunyip even afford its bolstered 2021 senior crop of players, from both a salary cap ($90,000) and player points (44) perspective?
And, again, he has a simple answer for both.
“With the salary cap tightening in the wake of Covid, it’s made everything that bit harder but we’re fortunate in the sense that what we offer to people who come to the club isn’t necessarily a monetary incentive,” he said.
“There are so many people who’ve joined the club in recent years who’ll back that up.
“Anyone who wants to cross-check that, in any phone call they’ve made, they’ve found out only positives about what the club is really about.
“Collo has come across absolutely for unders – we know he had far larger offers, financially, from other clubs that we were competing against. This isn’t about money.”
Make no mistake – those at Bunyip know their moves over the off-season have put the club squarely in the spotlight for an added amount of external attention. But they’re not shying away from it, and they’re not interested in making up the numbers.
They want premiership success, and sustained success in the upper rungs of the WGFNC ladder.
McGibney emphasised the club’s focus on developing not only a junior academy, but also its coaching ranks from within – and said playing assistants Nathan ‘Wiz’ Allen, Jackson Dalton, and Dylan Quirk all had senior coaching aspirations of their own.
“When I took the job and found Nathan Allen was already on-board, I was thrilled because I know from his Casey days how smart a footy operator he really is,” he said.
“Wiz has an amazing footy IQ, which I’ll absolutely be tapping into.
“I like to have a real mix of on-field leaders, and with the three we’ve got there, I know they’re all high-character people who have a hell of a lot of success between them.
“Dalts is a bit more extroverted and more of a showman, but we embrace that and we need someone like that in our group.
“Wiz is quieter – he’s not the loudest voice in the group – but he’s exceptional with his communication one-on-one.
“And Dyl is a combination of them both. He’s really balanced, and just has so much time and poise on-field.”
Ultimately, McGibney said he’s not scared of the premiership aspirations of the club, and added he’s “rapt” with how his first Bunyip senior list is shaping up – both from the perspective of experienced, and younger players who’ll be key in shaping the club’s direction for the future.
“You can put star players into clubs they have pre-existing connections with, but if that club isn’t sound, you’re seriously fighting an uphill battle.
“I’ve experienced both sides of this, and it’s a completely different ballgame when you’re at a club that has the respect of the outside world.
“When people walk in the door they don’t want to leave, and when they step aside from a role there, they want to find another one.”
So, it’s little wonder that premiership skipper and former playing-coach Brad Walker stepped into the playing presidency, and remains on the list as a player; and former coach Jones (the St Kilda 226-gamer) has taken over from him as the club’s new president.
