Massive changes loom ahead for the Pies after a wasteful 2013 campaign at the Westpac Centre. Change is upon the Collingwood Football Club, there’s no ifs, buts or maybes about it.
A team that was destined to do great things in 2013 instead will look back on the year just gone in embarrassment.
The Magpies were the model of inconsistency in 2013, turning it on some weeks and having the football world believe they were serious flag threats, to looking as vulnerable as any team in the competition other weeks.
Head coach Nathan Buckley has had enough.
The man in charge of the black and white has wasted very little time in laying down the law and reshaping this list into what he envisions.
Following the Magpies’ shock season-ending loss to Port Adelaide, Buckley had some stern words for the media.
Although he refused to comment on possible list changes and management, he did hint that there would be a harsh approach as to who may stay and who may go.
“The club has to ask itself questions. You’ve got to ask if we’re making the right decisions in regards to culture and in regards to environment, personnel, game plan and coaching staff,” he said.
He also leant towards saying the loss to the Power would suggest that Collingwood’s 2010 Premiership is a thing of the past.
“If we have any person or anyone who have any thoughts at all that we need to cling onto what we’ve had, well then this is the final blow that lets that go and you need to keep evolving.”
Buckley and Collingwood definitely have been true to their word thus far.
Not even a week since their season ended, the Magpies have already made a major shake up to its list, having de-listed six players, including a couple of Premiership stalwarts in Darren Jolly and favourite son Alan Didak.
They’ve also decided not to bring back crowd favourite Andrew Krakouer and have shown Jordan Russell the door after just one season at Magpie land.
Rookies Ben Richmond and Michael Hartley round out the group that have been let go.
It is also becoming more and more likely that Dale Thomas will be wearing different colours next year.
Carlton loom as the main suitors, reportedly offering Thomas approximately $3.5 million over five seasons, money Collingwood are believed to prefer spending on young talent.
The Pies are experiencing major off field personnel changes, with long time fitness guru, David Buttifant, the club’s Director of Sports Science, quitting the club to pursue “new career challenges”.
Although everyone in the football community is pretty much certain Buttifant will re-join long-time friend Mick Malthouse at the Blues.
Geoff Walsh, the Magpies Director of Football, is no longer at the Westpac Centre after resigning, with Rodney Eade filling the role.
Just another little change that is piling onto the list of the Pies restructuring. There is no doubt that Collingwood are serious about re-tooling their football club.
Not exactly everyone is agreeing with what the Pies are in the process of doing though, with many supporters and experts saying this is just an overreaction and it’s just being dramatised because ‘it’s Collingwood’, but change was definitely needed.
You hear AFL coaches saying all the time, in order to be successful in this competition you need to keep evolving and improving, for Collingwood this has not been the case.
Since Collingwood held the Premiership Cup aloft in 2010, the Magpies have continued to slip subtly down the ladder.
They have gone from Premiers in 2010 to Grand Finalists in 2011 (after winning a club record 20 home and away games), bowing out in the preliminary final in 2012, to being the first team eliminated in the 2013 finals series.
So the Pies’ success guide from season to season over the past four years looks like this: first, second, fourth, eighth.
Not exactly setting the world on fire in terms of improving and evolving from year to year.
Yes, you could say that the bar was set fairly high from the start (winning the flag) and it’s extremely hard to continually be the king of the hill and win Premierships each year.
But Collingwood had the list, had the resources and had the facilities to be serious threats for years to come, not a team that bows out on their home turf in the first week of finals.
In fact, Collingwood, who have made eight consecutive finals appearances, haven’t been eliminated in the first week of September since their streak started back in 2006.
The Magpies also haven’t lost eight games in a home and away season since 2008 (lost 10), a mark they secured in 2013 (14 wins, 8 losses).
The harsh reality for Collingwood is they are, at the present time, a mid-table football side. Scott Pendlebury is also very aware of that and knows something has to give.
“We finished eighth on the ladder and we just have got to change and find a way to get better,” he said.
“I am not sure what the magic formula is. It is usually hard work and no doubt when pre-season rolls around again we have to dig deep.”
Nathan Buckley is also very aware that gone are the days of Collingwood dominating the competition, and a changing of the guard, in some sense, was needed if he intends to bring the mighty black and white army back to football’s Holy Grail, sooner rather than later.
The Pies are now primed to be major players in both free agency and the draft this upcoming off-season.
They now have many vacant spots on the Pies list after their recent de-listings, not to mention a bit more coin in their salary cap, especially if the Magpies lose Dale Thomas and his sizeable contract.
Do not expect Collingwood to sit quietly.
Collingwood should, and most very likely will, go all out this off-season, whether that be trading for players or draft picks, or acquiring experienced players to help mould Collingwood’s list into that again of a Premiership team.
At the time, Collingwood’s loss to Port Adelaide would have seemed like the worst thing that could possibly have happened to the Magpie army.
Even still now, I’m sure there are plenty of Pies fans that want to snap their membership card or set their scarves on fire, but keep the faith.
That loss has become the catalyst for what looks like a new dawn at Collingwood.
Over the next few years a new model of the Magpie will have taken shape, fresh new talent running around in the old Black and White stripes.
This has definitely been needed, and now we are here, the beginning of a new era for the biggest club in Australia.
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