Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has promised Collingwood fans that their side will run out to the classic club theme song recording in Round 1 against Hawthorn and not the newly recorded version.
The AFL today have confirmed that 15 of the League’s 18 clubs have had their song re-recorded, with the new digital recordings including slight musical and lyrical changes, including the Magpies' famous ‘Good Old Collingwood Forever’.
However McGuire says that they will ignore the AFL’s instruction and continue to play the older recording for as long as they can.
“We’re going to keep the original song by The Fable Singers,” he told SEN’s Time On with Sam McClure.
“In the end it is a pretty straight-forward decision for us. We listened to them and the original is the best. It’s been sung more times in triumph than any other song in sports history in Australia and we’ll stick with it.
“We’ll stick with the old version for as long as we possibly can…it will be playing (against Hawthorn in Round 1), you better believe it, otherwise you will see me jump out of the stands with a big red face!”
McGuire says that while he empathises with the supporters of other clubs that dislike their new songs, any outrage over the changes isn’t necessary.
“There’s no need for anyone to die in a ditch over this,” he said.
“The AFL have done a pretty good job. I reckon in the re-recording and the digitalisation of it, they have tried their best to keep as authentic a feel to the original songs as they possibly could, but we thought just listening to them side by side that the original one had a far better resonance.
“The AFL then offered to re-record our song with its original lyrics, so they have done everything they possibly can to try and get this right and I understand where they’re coming from to digitise the songs for the new stadiums, it makes sense.”
Listen to Eddie McGuire's chat with Sam McClure on SEN's Time On below: