The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club was formed in 1892 in the suburb of Collingwood and played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) before joining seven other teams in 1896 to found the breakaway Victorian Football League, today known as the AFL. Originally based at Victoria Park, Collingwood now plays home games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and has its training and administrative headquarters at Olympic Park Oval and the AIA Centre. Collingwood has played in a record 44 VFL/AFL Grand Finals (including rematches), winning 15, drawing two and losing 27 (also a record). Regarded as one of Australia's most popular sports clubs, Collingwood has attracted the second-highest attendance figures and television ratings of any professional football team in the nation. The club's song, "Good Old Collingwood Forever", dates back to 1906, making it the oldest song currently used in the AFL. Its home guernsey consists of black and white stripes, matching the colours of the Australian magpie. Historically, the club's biggest rivals have been cross-town clubs Carlton, Melbourne and Richmond. Collingwood has also enjoyed a healthy Anzac Day rivalry with Essendon since 1995 and smaller rivalries with West Coast and Brisbane since the turn of the millennium. Collingwood fields a reserves team in the Victorian Football League (formerly the VFA) and women's teams in the AFL Women's and VFL Women's competitions. It also owns and operates a netball team in the National Netball League.
