Mark Knight turns fortune teller in this week’s Collingwood cartoon

Political cartoonists such as myself often draw the ire* of readers who disagree with the comment in a given cartoon. At the same time, people whose politics agree with the concept of the cartoon will heap praise on it.

With politics being an adversarial* contest, the blowback on a political cartoon can sometimes be harsh and therefore the cartoonist has to be ready for it.

However, there is a topic that is far more incendiary*, and any cartoonist brave enough to delve into making a comment about this subject better be prepared for a huge wave of response.

That subject is the Collingwood Football Club. Any criticism of it will be met by a fusillade* of fire from the Black and White Army defending their beloved ‘Pies.

So last week I foolishly dived into the topic of Collingwood’s fall from the top of the AFL premiership ladder having lost four of its last five games – which became five of six last night, when the Magpies went down to the Adelaide Crows in an epic battle of the birds.

Collingwood were premiership favourites, with stars like the Daicos brothers and 421 game veteran Scott Pendlebury guiding the team to certain success.

But in a long season, it was always going to be hard for the Magpies to maintain that early level of success. The ‘Pies started losing games and when they suffered a 64 point drubbing to a young Hawks side on August 5, the alarm bells started ringing.

It also saw the re-emergence of a word that incites* Collingwood supporters to the point of fear and fury. That word is “Colliwobbles”. It is a term that describes the Collingwood football team when things aren’t going so well, in particular the long, long period between the 1958 and 1990 premierships, during which the Magpies reached nine VFL/AFL Grand Finals for eight losses.

When they won the 1990 flag, the Colliwobbles were officially buried “forever” in a small wooden casket in the middle of Victoria Park. But in 2025, it seemed they were back. So with no regard for my own personal wellbeing, I decided to draw a cartoon on the subject.

The cartoon had to illustrate just how shaky the Magpies’ premiership campaign had become. And with last week being National Science Week, which ends today, there was only one way to measure movement in the Earth’s crust and that is with a seismograph*.

Why wouldn’t the Colliwobbles show up on the graph paper of a seismograph’s rotating barrel? So I started to sketch a seismograph machine with two clichéd* scientist types standing there with their pens and folders recording seismic activity.

As we know, earthquakes, tremors and other movements in the Earth’s surface are recorded as jagged lines on the seismograph’s rotating barrel. The bigger the earthquake, the bigger the lines on the paper. So I thought I could have some fun with recording the Colliwobbles on the graph. Rather than just drawing a jagged line, I thought it would be funnier if the machine was actually sketching out a jagged looking magpie on the graph paper.

The scientists both stare at the chart with one making the clueless assumption, “Earthquake?”. Fortunately his co-worker knows what’s going on. Confidently she announces, “Colliwobbles!”

After yesterday’s defeat, I now await further blowback from the Collingwood army. It will be of seismic proportions.

POLL

GLOSSARY

• ire: intense and usually open or obvious anger
• adversarial: a situation involving people opposing or disagreeing with each other
• incendiary: likely to start a real or figurative fire, something inflaming and likely to spark anger
• fusillade: rapid and continuous fire, like bullets being discharged from weapons
• incites: provokes, generates, encourages, stirs up
• seismograph: piece of equipment that measures and records the strength of an earthquake
• cliche: a stereotype, in this case a typical characterisation of the “scientist nerd” figure used to visually locate and explain the scene

EXTRA READING

Garner and Marinoff top AFLW list

Pies stuck teetering on the edge

Tourette’s teen makes AFL history

QUICK QUIZ

1. Which team defeated the Collingwood Magpies on Saturday 16 August?
2. But another side named for which bird of prey inspired Mark Knight’s cartoon?
3. What does a seismograph do?
4. How did Collingwood FC and fans symbolically mark the end of the Colliwobbles in 1990?
5. How many times have the ‘Pies now lost from their last six games?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Humour analysis
After reading and analysing the Mark Knight cartoon in the Kids News explainer, complete the following analysis questions to help you get the full humour out of his drawing.

Mark Knight cartoon analysis:

• What is the main issue Mark Knight is highlighting:
• Who is portrayed in the cartoon?
• How are they portrayed?
• What is the humour in the drawing?
• Who might agree with his viewpoint?
• Who might disagree or possibly be offended by this viewpoint?
• Do you think he makes a good point? Explain your answer.

Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
Write a response to this cartoon from the viewpoint of one of the people or objects portrayed in the cartoon. Think, what would be their response to the speech bubble and satire from the cartoon.

Write or draw your response below.

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
What happens next?
Imagine this story is part of an animated series made up of three cartoons. The three cartoons tell the complete story and this article is only Part One. Think about what the rest of the story could be and draw the next two cartoons that tell the story.

Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts, Visual Communication Design, Critical and Creative Thinking