One Grand Week

This book is the captain's story of the 2010 Collingwood premiership. From the moment of his ascendancy to captain, Maxwell has maintained a day-in, day-out diary of life with the Magpies. It is this that lies at the core of this compelling drive to an unlikely flag.No team has more national support, exposure, history and allure than Collingwood.

With the AFL's largest membership base (approaching 60,000 in 2010) the Magpies are the most attended, watched and corporately supported organisation in Australian sport. They average 60,000 supporters at every home and away game, and dominate the television ratings. For all of that, contemporary success has eluded them - until now. The 2010 AFL premiership is just the club's second ultimate success in half a century, and replaces in club legend the deeds of the revered 1990 unit. And no man can tell its story better than the captain, Nick Maxwell.

Maxwell is the very best of success stories. Rejected and undrafted as a junior, he fought his way onto the rookie list and eventually managed to secure what many believed would elude him: an AFL senior game. In the seasons since his Round 9, 2004, debut, he has come to epitomise leadership, riding his heartfelt, honest playing style and determination to the captaincy at the beginning of season 2009. Rather than rest, he secured All-Australian defender status that season, and just a year later finds himself holding aloft the game's ultimate prize: a premiership cup.