Stuart Atkin is a former Australian rules football

Australian rules football

Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

er who played with Collingwood

Collingwood Football Club

The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

 in the Victorian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 (VFL) during the early 1980s.

After arriving from Beaufort

Beaufort Football Club

The Beaufort Football Club are an Australian rules football club from which competes in the Central Highlands Football League. They previously played in the Ballarat Football League and Lexton Plains Football League.-Premierships:...

, Atkin played a lot of reserves football before finally breaking into the Collingwood seniors in 1980. The second of his two appearances that season was in an Elimination Final win over North Melbourne

North Melbourne Football Club

The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...

. An understudy to ruckman Peter Moore, Atkin played 12 games in 1981 and was on the interchange bench in Collingwood's losing 1981 VFL Grand Final

1981 VFL Grand Final

The 1981 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Carlton Football Club and Collingwood Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 26 September 1981. It was the 85th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to...

 side.

He joined Preston

Northern Bullants

Northern Blues Football Club is a long-established Australian rules football club based in Preston and currently playing in the Victorian Football League representing the central and outer areas of Melbourne...

 in 1984, as a replacement for the retired Geoff Austen

Geoff Austen

Geoff Austen is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Fitzroy and Collingwood in the Victorian Football League .Austen, who was the son of league footballer Cecil, spent most of the 1970s in a struggling Fitzroy team...

.